Who doesn’t love a delicious plate of spaghetti and sauce? I know I sure do! 🙂 Plus, now that I have discovered how wonderful it is to use spaghetti squash in place of noodles, I can’t say enough about this dish. Of course, if you are still craving noodles with your sauce, there are plenty of gluten-free options out there. In fact, Trader Joe’s sells an excellent brown rice noodle which actually cook up quite nicely. Without further ado, here is the recipe for homemade meat sauce! 🙂

Meat Sauce Ingredients:

1 pound organic ground beef (grass-fed is best)
1 pound organic italian chicken or pork sausage (I get ours from the local health food store.)
1/2 cup chopped onion
4 cloves of crushed garlic
*1 (28 oz.) can of crushed tomatoes (If you can find the crushed tomatoes with basil, this is definitely the best option.)
*2 (6 oz.) cans of tomato paste
*13 oz. canned tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons organic white sugar
1/2-2/3 cup chopped, fresh basil (This is so much better than dried! Trust me! 🙂
1/2 teaspoon fennel
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
3/4 tablespoon sea salt (If you can, choose the Himilayan Pink Salt for the health benefits.)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped, fresh parsley

*Note about canned tomato sauce: Make sure you look for BPA-Free cans. The acidity in the tomatoes causes this chemical to be leached a lot more easily.

Directions:
In a large pot, brown the beef, sausage, onion, and garlic until the meat is no longer pink. Add the crushed tomatoes, paste, sauce, and water. Stir. Add the remaining ingredients, and combine well. Cover and simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally to make sure there is no burning on the bottom of the pot. Your house will smell amazing!!! 🙂 Serve over spaghetti squash or gluten-free noodles. This makes a very large batch, so it works well to freeze the leftovers. It also works well as the sauce base in lasagna. This meat sauce recipe has actually been adapted from John Chandler’s Recipe: World’s Best Lasagna. If you feel ambitious, go ahead and make the entire lasagna recipe, subbing the lasagna noodles for your favorite gluten-free option. You still will have leftover sauce! 🙂

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