Cooking in batches could save your sanity. Start with this Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce
Each day, there are new discoveries about how our lives will be lived during this pandemic. I hope you and your loved ones are tucked in with groceries and toilet paper stocked. Never before have I been so grateful my mom taught me to run a well-stocked household.
Most of my girlfriends have young families. As if this pandemic wasn’t scary enough, now school is out for the year and they are in charge of becoming teachers in addition to their daily duties of being moms. This cannot be easy. It’s got to be overwhelming. Thankfully we can all go outside and walk. It’s our last saving grace these days.
And while we are all worried about our favorite restaurants that are temporarily closed or only providing take-out, we also must feed our families three meals a day. The demands of daily life do not stop even though it feels like everything else normal has come to a screeching halt.
To keep a tiny bit of sanity and efficiency, meal planning will become essential. We are all going to the store less, so we’re loading up when we do. And it just makes sense in so many ways to do some batch cooking right now. If you have a large family, doubling recipes could help save you expense, time and effort.
There are so many things I love to batch cook, especially during the winter months. The weather is warming, though, thankfully. Mother Nature and the calendar seem to know that we truly need warmer days and sunshine.
Ground beef seems to be one of those difficult-to-find items right now. Even though this recipe for Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce calls for it, use your creativity – either use only Italian sausage, or replace ground beef with ground pork or turkey. There seems to be no shortage of ground turkey. Apparently Wichitans really favor ground beef, and I cannot blame them.
Don’t be afraid to splash some red wine into this sauce – it will only make it better. A quick Caesar salad and garlic bread would make this meal complete. Stay safe and stay well fed, readers.
Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound ground beef
1 pound Italian sausage, casings removed
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 14.5-ounce cans diced tomatoes, drained
2 15-ounce cans tomato sauce
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add ground beef, sausage, onion and garlic. Cook until browned, about 4-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the beef and sausage as it cooks; drain excess fat.
Place ground beef mixture in a slow cooker. Stir in diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, bay leaves, oregano, basil, salt and pepper to taste. Cover and cook low heat for 8 hours. Stir well and serve over pasta of choice.
Recipe from Damndelicious.net
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