Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

So I made spaghetti sauce from scratch the other day. Nothing from a jar or can (well the whole tomatoes were canned). It brought back memories of my childhood because my mom and dad always made spaghetti sauce from scratch--oh it' s so yummy!!! If you haven't guessed already I throw things together--I usually never follow a recipe exactly. That is why you'll see a range of how much of certain ingredients I put in--I promise I will try to keep better track! I inherited this quality from my amazing mom--she is a fabulous cook--of course also where I learned to love cooking and so many great tips and hints and recipes!

Recipe:

1-2 lbs. Ground Turkey Breast (I actually used 1/2 turkey breast 1/2 extra lean ground beef)

1 sweet onion diced

2 green bell peppers diced

1-2 cups grated zucchini

1 cup finely chopped mushrooms (I used baby bellas this time)

1-2 tsp. garlic powder

1 Tbl. dried basil (you could use fresh but I would add it later in the recipe or for garnish)

Pepper to taste

Sea Salt to taste

1 large can of tomato paste--or 2-3 smaller ones

1 102 oz. can of whole tomatoes. (yes this is huge about 6 lbs.--I bought it for around $2.5o at Sam's club--the whole tomatoes are better than already diced or tomato sauce. I opened the can and then used my bay mix (long skinny appliance with a blade at the end--you could use a blender or food processor) I blended the tomatoes in the juice to my desired consistency. I would have used it all but my pan wasn't big enough so I froze about a quart jar size of tomato sauce for later).

1. Saute onion until translucent. Add chopped pepper, mushrooms, and grated zucchini and Turkey burger. I had the veggies on the sides of the pan and put the meat in the middle--once it started to brown I mixed it all together and cooked until done. I use about 1 Tbl. of oil.

2. Once the burger is mostly browned I added my seasonings--basil, garlic, salt and pepper.

3. Add tomato paste and sauce. Bring to a boil then turn heat down and simmer for a couple hours. You really need to let it simmer because then all the flavors mix and the sauce thickens up nicely. I get leftovers for lunch today--I'm so excited!

4. I serve it with a whole wheat or whole grain pasta. Brown rice pasta is really nice if you've never tried that. It's lighter than the wheat--very yummy.

This will freeze very well--so it makes a large batch you can freeze it. We gave 1/2 away to another family otherwise I would have had to freeze some. Serve it with a little freshly grated Parmesan and it's perfect bliss!

Enjoy!