The other day, as I was planning what dinner recipes I’m going to make for you this fall, I asked on my personal Facebook page, what people consider “easy” dinners. Oh my gosh. For a busy day in the life of working parents, so many chimed in! It was everything from number of ingredients, to how many pots and pans are used, to how long it takes to make.
This spaghetti meat sauce is done in just one pot. Yes, if you are serving it with spaghetti you need to use one more pot. But when all is said and done, not very many dishes. Your new favorite meat sauce is done in 30 minutes. For so many of the people I talked to, this was a big key to the easy dinner label. There are no complicated ingredients in this meat sauce recipe. In fact, all but one ingredient can be bought in bulk and stored in your pantry ready for use. That was a huge factor for a lot of friends.
Add in onions! My husband doesn’t like onions, so I left them out. And I love that nothing here needs to be diced. But if you love them, throw them in right after the meat is browned but before you drain off the fat. Make it less chunky! If your family doesn’t like tomato chunks, substitute one can of crushed tomatoes for the can of diced tomatoes (making it two cans of crushed tomatoes). Bring more heat to your spaghetti meat sauce recipe. Add in more crushed red pepper flakes. This recipe only calls for 1/8 a teaspoon. That is perfect for my kids who can’t tolerate spice. Bump it up to 1/4 teaspoon or even a little more to add some heat. Use ground turkey! If your family doesn’t care for the taste of beef, make your homemade spaghetti meat sauce with ground turkey instead. If you find that there isn’t 2 tablespoons worth of grease at the end, add a little olive oil in before adding your garlic.
If you change things up and find a variation that you love, leave me a comment and let me know! An alternative to adding sugar is to add a whole carrot cut up in large pieces. It will balance the acidity of the tomatoes as the sauce cooks and the carrots can be pulled out at the end.
Italian Chopped Salad: Easy to make and such a crowd pleaser, this is perfect! Garlic Bread: My garlic bread recipe is perfect to pair with this! Crispy Brussels Sprouts: Very little hands on time, and the end result is a side dish your family will love. Roasted Cauliflower Recipe: I’m adding this because it is our go to side on pasta night. All of my kids eat it up, and one of them even asks for seconds!
As always, if you make this spaghetti meat sauce recipe or any of my others, leave me a comment! I’d love to hear what you think.
