Meat Sauce for Spaghetti

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has a happy New Year! It was so great spending my first married Christmas with Mike and my family. I truly have such a loving family that cares about us :)

I know I haven't posted in a while because of the holidays! Back to the delicious food! Do you ever have a craving for a really delicious plate of spaghetti? I am constantly asking my mom for some of her homemade meat sauce, because it is fantastic!

Sorry to blab, mom, but I have been waiting for some of her sauce since we got married, and I was tired of waiting!! So I decided to steal her recipe and make it myself! Since Mike doesn't eat much ground meat, I made the full recipe and froze individual servings, so that I can heat one up for me and use a different sauce for Mike when we want spaghetti. This sauce definitely freezes well!

Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Active Time: 20 minutes

Yield:  Approx. 15--1/2 cup servings

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lb. lean hamburger meat
• 1 small yellow onion
• 1 medium green pepper
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 jars of your favorite marinara spaghetti sauce
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 Tablespoon sugar

Directions: 

1. In a food processor, combine and chop onion, green pepper, and garlic. (I don't like large chunks of veggies in my spaghetti sauce, but you could also try chopping these by hand for a heartier sauce). Set aside.
2. Place hamburger meat in a large stockpot and break apart. Turn heat on to medium and cook about 5 minutes. 
3. Add vegetables from food processor and stir, cooking until the hamburger is completely cooked through. Drain well. (You don't want the grease from the hamburger to water down your sauce!)
4. Add all 3 jars of sauce and stir to combine. Blend in basil, oregano, and sugar.
5. Cover and let simmer 1 - 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. Serve or place in well-sealed freezer containers.

Source: Lynn Palmer Homemade!