Saturday, September 24, 2011

Slow Spaghetti

If you have never made your own spaghetti sauce, now is the time to learn!  If you have a parent or grandparent with the classic family recipe, call them and get it NOW.  Or better yet, schedule a day to spend time with that person in their kitchen and learn first-hand how to pass the recipe down to your children.

If you are looking for a basic, nutritious sauce, try this one.  This is a mix of my mother's sauce with a few of my own twists.

Start with a medium to large pot heated with some canola or olive oil.  Throw in some chopped onions, green/red peppers, zucchini, and Italian spices.  If you want a meaty sauce, brown off some ground beef with your veggies and drain the fat if you like.  To your veggies and meat, add 3-4 small cans of tomato sauce and 1 larger can of diced tomatoes (skip the diced tomatoes if you don't like chunky tomatoes in your sauce).  I always use the "no salt added" variety...I prefer to be in charge of how much sodium my dishes have!

Put this mixture in the crockpot or let it simmer on the stove for an hour or so, so all the flavors can slowly mesh into each other.  Play around with spices and add more garlic if you like.

Mr. PT and I piled this warm, soupy sauce on top of whole wheat pasta with mozzarella cheese and dipped it with bread toasted with margarine and garlic powder. 


See how easy that is?  No more pre-made spaghetti sauces for you!

Since it was Friday, Mr. PT and I splurged on an espresso brownie from our natural foods co-op store here in Roanoke.  It was oh so worth the splurge.



Combine with...stop making excuses!  If there is a chance of rain, chance it and get out on that bike.  Mr. PT and I got caught in a torrential downpour yesterday and after the initial shock of being completely soaked, we felt surprisingly refreshed and were rewarded with a beautiful rainbow!  (Ok, if there is a chance of lightning, maybe put it off for an hour).

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