Monday Night = Spaghetti

Every Monday night we have spaghetti for dinner. Since I work later than Jon on Monday's and Thursday's I wanted to have something easy to throw together when I get home. Since spaghetti is one of those "go to" meals and my husband loves it, I declared Monday night spaghetti night. Being gluten free hasn't changed this at all and we both really enjoy the gluten free spaghetti alternative just as much as regular pasta.

Once a month I'll make my own spaghetti sauce and then freeze it so I always have some on hand. While the bottled sauce isn't crazy expensive, I like to know exactly what is in it and I can control the quality of the ingredients I use. Sometimes I'll make it in my crockpot too and just let it go for 6-8 hours. It always comes out delicious and freezes really well!

Here's how to make it:

What you need (I forgot to take a picture of everything before I got started...silly me)
- One 28 oz can whole, peeled tomatoes (or crushed tomatoes would work fine too if you don't like chunks of tomato in your sauce)
- One 15 oz can tomato sauce
- One 12.5 oz can diced tomatoes (I like the ones with italian herbs)
- 2 small onions, chopped
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 tsp red pepper flakes (we like spicy spaghetti sauce, but you could leave this out)
- 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar (if you don't like balsamic you can leave this out)
- 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning (or whatever seasonings you like)
- Salt and Pepper to taste (I usually use 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper)

Other optional add ins:
- ground beef, turkey or sausage (make sure it's cooked separately first)
- mushrooms
- bell peppers
- zucchini

You can't really mess up this sauce as long as you have the tomato elements. Experiment with what you and your family likes until you find one that's perfect! We like simple sauce and since we've cut WAY back on our meat intake we usually leave that out too.

Directions:
- Heat 1 Tbsp of extra virgin olive oil (or coconut oil) in a dutch oven or large stockpot over medium heat
- Add in your chopped onions and cook 1-2 minutes
- Sprinkle in 1 tsp sugar. This will help caramelize the onions a bit and sweeten them. YUM.
- Add in the minced garlic. Cook 1-2 minutes

See all that beautiful caramel color on the bottom?

- Add the red pepper flakes, if using them, and cook 1-2 minutes

- If you're adding other elements like vegetables or meat, add it in now and allow it to cook out a bit
- Add all the tomato elements, (whole, diced and sauce) making sure to scrape the bottom part of the pot as you stir. Don't waste that flavor!
- Add the balsamic vinegar, italian seasoning and salt and pepper

- Reduce the heat to a simmer and let it bubble gently, stirring occasionally. I let mine go for 3 hours.

- After the sauce has simmered, remove from heat and let it cool. Separate into freezer bags (I used 3 quart sized bags) and lay flat in freezer.

- When you are ready to serve let it thaw in the fridge overnight and just heat up in the microwave or on the stovetop.
- Here's the spaghetti noodles we use. It is a quinoa and corn blend so the noodles are more yellow than regular pasta, but the texture and taste is wonderful! I get them at Publix and one box will last us 2 spaghetti nights.

- Top the cooked noodles with sauce, fresh grated parmesan cheese and a bit of parsley. Enjoy!