Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

I grew up in a home where my mom always made our spaghetti sauce.  Not once did the likes of Prego or Ragu touch my lips during my youth.  Now, of course you might think it is simply too great a hassle to make your own spaghetti sauce, but trust me, once you have a delicious batch of the good stuff, you'll never go back.  Interestingly enough, Spaghetti is Alice's favorite dinner, but Wes' least favorite.  Wes doesn't like pasta much, so I solved this dilemma by buying a small spaghetti squash that I prepare and make available to him and he is quite satisfied.  I thought I'd throw out that option in case you have a family member who isn't a fan of pasta, or are trying to prepare meals in with a low carb option.  Also, I make a batch large enough that it makes a full five quarts and it can be used in the months to come.

Ingredients include:

4 large cans tomato sauce (ignore the tomato paste- I didn't use it.  You can use it though if you are running low on tomato sauce.  Just make sure you have enough tomato goodness to fill up your pot!)

2 reg. cans of diced tomatoes

4 packets of spaghetti sauce seasoning (I like Lawry's or McCormick's)

1 package of mild Italian sausage

1 pound of ground beef

1 small onion

1 tablespoon of minced garlic

oregano

basil

salt 

pepper

Dice up your onion and brown the ground beef and the Italian sausage in a large skillet.  Add garlic and let it all cook until the meat is completely done.

In a large pot, or dutch oven (I use a 7 quart Le Creuset and that is as small as I would go), pour all of the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and spaghetti seasoning into it.  Stir it all together.  At this point you can turn the burner on low/medium.  

Add 1 tablespoon of basil and 1 tablespoon of oregano to the tomato sauce.

Once the meat/onion/garlic mixture is finished cooking drain any excess fat from the meat mixture and add it to the dutch oven,  Stir.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Let your sauce simmer on the stove for an hour or so, stirring every so often. 

**tip**  If your children are opposed to "chunks" in their sauce (i.e. tomato chunks, meat chunks, etc...) grab an immersion blender and give the pot of sauce a good blend.

When you are all done you'll have 5 quarts of sauce that you can freeze for later use.