This meal is a favorite at our house. Pretty simple to prepare, and great for me (vegetarian) and my husband (who eats meat). It is a simple, yet delicious spaghetti dinner, with homemade spaghetti sauce.
Menu
Spaghetti with homemade sauce
Balsamic Veggies
Baby Lima Beans
Lima beans were a last minute addition to this meal. I had some leftover from something else I made and decided to add them.
You will need to make the sauce in the morning (or night before) and let it cook all day, in the crock pot. This sauce is great because you can make it ahead, it will keep in the fridge and can be frozen. Everything else for the meal can be made right before you want to eat.
Spaghetti Sauce
This sauce is a family recipe, and mixes up quickly, but it needs to cook in the crock pot all day. You can try it on the stove (if you dare), but know that it will burn and stick to the bottom of the pan if it isn’t constantly stirred, and who really has time for that?
Also know that some of the ingredient amounts are totally up to you and what you like.
What you need
1/2 or 1 onion (I use the whole onion)
1 or more cloves garlic (I use 3-4)
2 cans tomatoes (or one large can) can be whole or diced
1 small can tomato paste
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp basil (I used freeze dried basil, but any kind, dried or fresh, is fine.)
*A note on canned tomatoes. I buy them in bulk at Costco, both diced tomatoes and tomato paste. I do a lot of cooking with tomatoes, they store for a long time, and I have found this is the cheapest way to buy them.
What to do
Peel and cut the onion (doesn’t need to be cut too small, I cut it into about 4th) and garlic. Put both in the blender or food processor. Add the tomatoes. Blend until smooth.
Pour into the crock pot. Add tomato paste, salt, sugar, and basil. (You can also add some water at this point if you want your sauce to but a little thinner, but I like the thicker texture). Stir, put the lid on, and cook on low for at least 6-8 hours (crock pots are forgiving, so let it cook all day while you are at work or doing other things, it will be fine).
Everything else
What you need (amounts are up to you, how many people you are cooking for and how much left overs you want).
spaghetti
ground beef (I usually use about 1/2-3/4 lb)
onion
zucchini
baby lima beans
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
What to do
You will want to start cooking about 30 to 40 minutes before you plan to eat.
Put the lima beans in a pot and cover with water, bring to a boil. Once boiling, cover, turn heat to low and leave them to cook.
Pour olive oil into two skillets, enough to cover the bottom. Heat both skillets on medium heat.
Begin slicing your onion (big or small chunks, whatever you like). When the skillets are hot add the onion to one and the ground beef to the other (note, when cooking for a vegetarian you will want to be careful to use different utensils for the meat and the veggies).
Bring water to boil in a large pot for the spaghetti. Once it is boiling add the pasta and allow to cook for about 10 minutes, until soft. (You may want to salt your pasta water. I prefer not to, it’s up to you).
Add some balsamic vinegar to the onion, stir and allow to cook (you can put a lid on the skillet if you want, which will speed up the cooking and get the onion softer without browning it as much).
Let the meat cook, stirring occasionally.
Slice the zucchini. Once the onions start to get soft you can add the zucchini. Let them cook together, stirring occasionally, until they are as soft as you want. (I like my veggies to be a little firm.)
Once the meat is browned, scoop some sauce out of the crock pot and pour it over the meat. Turn the heat down to low (now you have some sauce with meat and some without).
Hopefully everything will start to be done at about the same time. Once the pasta and lima beans are done (I taste test both to make sure they are cooked to the softness I want). Drain the water from both, and you should be ready to dish up and eat.
Variety
Sometimes when I make spaghetti I add different sides to the meal. I might add garlic bread (made on whole wheat bread). Or a favorite at our house is butternut squash bread (which is a wonderful recipe I found on another blog, so I can’t take credit for it). It does take some time to make, mostly because it has to rise, so it doesn’t always make it onto the menu, but if you are interested you can find the recipe here.
http://younginthekitchen.blogspot.com/2011/01/baked-potato-soup-butternut-squash.html
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