Spaghetti Meat Sauce

No witty title tonight, actually I've decided to drop the witty titles all together.  (At least, I thought they were witty.  I realized that keeping track of the recipes I've blogged about could get tricky and time consuming, unless I just titled the blog the recipe.  Boring I know but it will save a small amount of my remaining sanity.

I stumbled across tonight's recipe when I went to make spaghetti and meatballs one night for dinner, only to discover I had no spaghetti sauce.  You'll find a ton of spaghetti sauce recipes online, this one fit my criteria that night.  Quick and I had all the ingredients on hand.

Yes, I had all of these on hand that day.  Don't let the number of ingredients scare you.  This recipe goes together very quickly and is super easy to make.  (Please note: there is a missing member of the cast, mushrooms.  I had them in the fridge, I just forgot them for the picture.)
Here's the link to the original recipe and below is how I make it.

Quick Spaghetti Meat Sauce
Prep: 15 mins
Cook time: 45 mins
Serves 6

1 teaspoon dried basil leaves 
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 bay leaf 
2 pounds lean ground beef
1 teaspoon salt 
2 tablespoons granulated garlic or to taste
1 medium onion, chopped
1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
2 (16-ounce) cans diced tomatoes
2 cups beef broth
8 Ounces sliced mushrooms
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon soy sauce  
1 package spaghetti, cooked according to package directions
Parmesan cheese

1.  In small bowl, combine the basil, oregano, parsley and bay leaf, set aside.
2. In a large saucepan, brown the ground beef over medium-high heat.  After the meat is browned, season with salt and garlic.
3.  Add the onion to the saucepan and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add the mushrooms and cook an additional 5 minutes.
4.  Stir in the reserved spice mixture and cooking for 1 minutes.
5.  Add the remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 15 to 30 minutes.
6.  Mix the spaghetti and sauce in a large bowl to evenly coat the spaghetti.  Top with Parmesan cheese and serve.

Sorry for the lame picture.  I was in such a hurry to get dinner to the table, I forgot to take a picture.  So I made Jon's lunch for tomorrow look pretty and took a picture of it.

Now I'm sure there are other delicious from scratch spaghetti sauce recipes out there, but they take hours, days, weeks even.  This recipe is quick and yummy.  WAY better than any out of the jar sauce I've had.

Tomorrow is another pasta night.  Ravioli (store bought) with homemade Alfredo sauce.

Leftovers

This isn't really the best way to start out, things will get better and more exciting, I promise!

We had leftover enchiladas tonight. Eli (my youngest son) had swim class until 6:30, so by the time we got home there was no time to cook. I made a big batch of enchiladas last night so we'd have leftovers for today.

I intend to take pictures of my dinners, but there's no picture tonight. Leftovers don't take good pictures. I'm sure I'll post about my enchilada method in the future, tonight it's all about the sauce.

I've always used enchilada sauce packets. You know the kind you just add tomato sauce to? Recently I decided to try making my own. After a few Google searches, one try at a recipe that I wasn't happy with, and more Google searches, I finally found a great recipe. It came from the website www.home-ec101.com This was my first visit to this site but now that I've found it I'm excited to keep up to date with it. It looks fun and helpful. Here's a link to the originial recipe.

Here's how I made the recipe. I doubled it, plus added more garlic powder and added onion powder. (We like garlic and onions in the Cantrell house.)


Simple Homemade Enchilada Sauce Recipe
(adapted from www.home-ec101.com)

4 TBSP Vegetable oil
4 TBSP all purpose flour
4 TBSP chili powder
2 rounded tsp cumin
4 cups chicken broth (1 carton)
15 oz tomato sauce (1 can)
2 tsp salt
1 TBSP garlic powder
1 TBSP onion powder

Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan over medium low heat. When the oil is hot, whisk in flour and chili powder. Cook for one – two minutes just long enough to get rid of the raw flour taste. Whisk in the remaining ingredients, bring to a boil and immediately reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes.

Super easy, super quick and super yummy-- my kind of recipe-- enjoy!