Best Spaghetti Sauce Ever

Now that fall is approaching and the mornings and evenings are cooler it's time for hearty home cooked meals. One that I made over the weekend was a huge batch of spaghetti sauce that I can freeze and heat up for quick dinners later. I have tried many different recipes but this one is so far my favorite! It combines different meats, veggies and best of all wine!

Meat Sauce (adapted eat.live.run) 

1.5 lbs ground grass fed beef 

.5 lbs Italian chicken sausage

.5lbs of pork sausage

20 oz sliced mushrooms

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 yellow onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1.5 tbsp olive oil

1 28-oz can tomato puree

1 12-oz can tomato paste

24 oz tomato sauce

BIG splash red wine (anywhere from 1/2 cup to 2 cups)

6 oz freshly grated Romano cheese

1 tbsp dried oregano

1 tbsp dried basil

1 bay leaf

1-2 tbsp sugar

garlic salt + pepper as needed

spaghetti noodles + additional grated cheese for serving

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Once hot, add the onion, bell peppers and sliced mushrooms. Saute for about six – eight minutes, until mushrooms are soft. Add ground beef and sausage meat. Cook until meat browns, stirring frequently with a large rubber spatula.

Add tomato puree, tomato sauce and tomato paste to the pot. Stir well. Then, add the bay leaf, wine, spices, sugar and cheese. Stir well and bring sauce to a simmer.

Simmer sauce for an hour and a half over low heat, stirring occasionally. Taste it as you cook, adding more wine, spices or garlic salt to suite your taste buds. The longer the sauce cooks, the better it will taste!

John cooks dinner

Thursday night I went to a crossfit class and John was home before me so he offered to make dinner. I was not going to turn down this opportunity so I let him have at it!

On them menu: hamburgers from Whole Foods and Ann's organic mac&cheese.

I had mine topped with cheese, ketchup and pickles, no bun. The hamburgers were pretty good they were crusted with this spice rub on the outside which you can see in the picture above.

Taco lettuce wraps-Take 1

Granite I have not been doing a ton of cooking lately but what I have done is cooked 2 great meals of taco lettuce wraps.  The 1st one being of the beef variety. 

I started with these ingredients:

• 2 (1-pound) flank steaks, trimmed 
• 3 cups thinly vertically sliced red onion
• 2 cups red bell pepper strips (about 2 peppers) 
• 2 cups green bell pepper strips (about 2 peppers) 
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 6 tablespoons thinly sliced pitted green olives
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 6 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• 3 cups fat-free, less-sodium beef broth
• 1 tablespoon no-salt-added tomato paste
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add 1 steak to pan; cook 2 1/2 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove steak from pan. Repeat procedure with cooking spray and remaining steak.
2. Reduce heat to medium. Add onion, bell peppers, and garlic to pan; cook 7 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Stir in olives and next 5 ingredients (through black pepper); cook 30 seconds or until fragrant. Stir in vinegar, scraping pan to loosen browned bits; cook for 2 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates. Stir in broth, tomato paste, and bay leaves. Add steaks; bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat, and cook 1 1/2 hours or until steaks are very tender. Discard bay leaves.
3. Remove steaks from pan; shred with two forks. Stir shredded beef and cilantro into pan.

The finished product I used butter lettuce to eat as wraps, with a little guacamole of course. 

Stuffed cabbage casserole

Polish people love our stuffed cabbage other wise known as golumkies, but they can be a little bit of a pain in the rear to make. So as I as perusing through recipes for dinner this week I came across one for deconstructed cabbage rolls. Huh why didn't I think of this!
I found the recipe off of skinnytaste.com, I really love her website it is all based off of taking everyday meals and making them weight watcher friendly. I do not do weight watchers myself but know a lot of people that do and think that it's a terrific system. What I get out of it is taking high calorie meals and learning how to make them a bit healthier.
Here is the recipe:

• 2 tsp olive oil, divided
• 1 lb. 95% lean ground beef
• 1 large onion, chopped fine
• 1 tbsp finely minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp sweet Hungarian Paprika
• salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste 
• 1 1/2 heads green cabbage, coarsely chopped
• 1 can (14.5 oz.) petite dice tomatoes with juice
• 1 can (15 oz.) tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 cups cooked brown rice 
• 2 cups low-fat mozzarella cheese (Sargento)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a large glass casserole dish with non-stick spray. (My dish was 13" x 10")
2. Heat a large frying pan on medium heat; add ground beef and cook until it's browned and cooked through, breaking it apart as it cooks. Remove ground beef and set aside.
3. In the same pan, add 1 tsp olive oil, chopped onion and cook over medium heat until the onion is translucent and starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the minced garlic, dried thyme, and paprika and cook about 2 minutes more. Then add the diced tomatoes with juice, tomato sauce, and ground beef. Add water to the pan. Simmer until it's hot and slightly thickened, about 15-20 minutes.
4. While it simmers, cut cabbage in half, cut out the core, and remove any wilted outer leaves; chop the cabbage coarsely into 1 inch pieces.
5. Heat remaining olive oil in a large frying pan or dutch oven; add the cabbage and cook over medium-high heat until the cabbage is wilted and about half cooked, turning it over several times so it all wilts and cooks. Season with salt and fresh-ground black pepper.
   When the meat and tomato sauce mixture has cooked and thickened a bit, stir in the 2 cups of cooked rice and gently combine.
6. Spray casserole dish with non-stick spray and the layer half the cabbage, half the meat mixture, remaining cabbage, and remaining meat mixture. Cover tightly with foil and bake 40 minutes, or until the mixture is just starting to bubble on the edges.
7. Remove foil and sprinkle on cheese (if using.) Bake uncovered an additional 20 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and starting to slightly brown. Serve hot.

It turned out pretty well and I have been eating the left overs for lunch everyday, I think it even taste better as leftovers.

Salsa meatloaf

As I mentioned in my previous post I went home to PA this weekend to visit family. My grandmother was having a rough last couple of weeks so I decided to take the weekend off from blogging and just focus on visiting with family.

Back to it.
Tonight I made salsa meatloaf. I haven't made meatloaf in a while and for some reason or another it came up in conversation last week so I made a mental note to make it this week. This recipe is ridiculously easy and can be made with either ground turkey or beef. Here is what you need:

• 1 pound ground beef sirloin
• 1/2 cup salsa
• 1/2 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• dried parsley to taste
• salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together and form into a loaf in a pan.

Cook at 350 until the internal temp is 160, it takes about 40-45 mins. I always forget how long it takes to cook so I didn't start it until John got home which was a BAD idea. So we had to eat dinner in 2 parts because I was starving and couldn't wait.

Part 1- side salad

Part 2- meatloaf and baked fries (which was about an hour later)
I made regular fries for John and sweet potato for me. 

Curried hamburgers

On the menu for tonight is curried hamburgers, I try and not buy red meat to make at home to much because John gets plenty of it when we eat out.

here
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but surprisingly not here!

ok back to the hamburgers, my mom had gotten me a subscription to the Food Network magazine for Christmas and even though I look at all the yummy food in it I have yet to make something from it. I finally picked 2 for this week one being the hamburgers.

Or instead of trying to read the small print from my picture you can read the recipe here. :)

First I made the yogurt for the topping:

Then put together the hamburgers:

Cut up some sweet potato fries for me and some organic regular fries for him (since he doesn't eat sweet potato fries).

Dinner served! I also had a small side salad and nixed the bun (who am I?), I need some veggies since I haven't been eating to many lately.

This was a quick and easy meal to make and required hardly any dishes the best part! Well John cleaning up the kitchen was the best part.  ;)

Ribs & potatoes

Today was a beautiful day it was close to 60 and not a cloud in the sky. John and I decided to take advantage and take a long walk. We started out towards Davis square and continued down towards Harvard. We walked around looking in shoppes enjoying the nice weather. On our way thorough we came across this amazing gourmet chocolate shop, of course we had to go in. They had really expensive chocolate and a mini bar where you could purchase different flavored coffees, coco and baked goods. One of the baked goods were mini meringue cookies in a bunch of flavors. Since they were only a $1 each I decided on 4 for dessert this evening. Pumpkin, lavender, pistachio, and raspberry.

On the walk back home we were debating what to do for dinner when John said he was in the mood for ribs. So we stopped at the butcher in Davis and pick some up. John said he would cook the ribs if I did the sides and of course I agreed. He again used a spice rub we got for Christmas.

And for the sides I decided to oven roast the red potatoes we received in our CSA basket along with some carrots.The potatoes had a little evoo, salt and pepper and the carrots were steamed then browned in a sauce pan and with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

Everything turned out great, the ribs were cooked perfectly the only negative was the rub was a little to salty.

The potatoes were the perfect amount of brownness on the outside and the carrots still had a bit of a crunch I hate when there cooked until mushy.

And of course for dessert we each had a bite of the meringue cookies. They were to die for!

Were off to start a watching new show Breaking Bad.