Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

This recipe is a staple in our home. I use the same sauce recipe for spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, marinara, and other various recipes. The sauce is very flavorful, robust, and easy to manipulate according to your taste and nutritional needs. For those of you who are salt restricted, this is a great recipe! Most all of the prepared spaghetti sauces contain excess salt and sugars. When you make your own sauce, you can pack it full of goodness without packing it full of unwanted additives. So here it is, homemade multipurpose sauce.

2 large cans (28 oz each) of crushed tomatoes, you can also use fresh canned tomatoes if you are fortunate to have them! Not all brands are equal, make sure you are getting tomatoes that don't have sugar added and if you are restricting salt, make sure you get the salt free variety.

1 lb ground turkey, beef, or venison

2 tablespoons minced garlic

1 medium to large onion chopped

1 large bell pepper chopped

Mushrooms if desired

Black pepper to taste

Onion powder

Garlic salt to taste (If you are able to have salt, if not leave this out)

Italian Herb Blend (this has basil, oregano, and a few other herbs if you would like to just add your own)

In a large pot, add meat, bell pepper, mushrooms, and onion. Cook until browned. During the last 2 minutes of browning, add the minced garlic. Drain meat well. Add the crushed tomatoes and about 1.5 tablespoons of Italian herb blend. Simmer on a medium to low heat. All of the ingredients are cooked so it really doesn't matter how long the sauce simmers. Add black pepper, onion powder, and garlic salt to taste. Add the garlic salt last so as to not add too much salt to the sauce.

As I said previously, you can serve this sauce on just about anything. Some of our favorite parings with this sauce is homemade low carb pizza, baked spaghetti squash, and steamed bell peppers stuffed with sauce! Enjoy!