I’m a picky red-sauce eater. Most restaurant sauces make me gag; they are too sweet and I don’t care for the green pepper taste that many of them seem to have. I prefer to make my own sauce at home. Spaghetti was one of the first things I learned to cook – my dad taught me, so I have fond memories with it as well.

This week I was craving spaghetti sauce but since we aren’t eating pasta, I could only eat the sauce. Then I got to thinking, meat sauce is just like tomato soup with ground beef (close enough, right?). So I kept telling myself that it was perfectly okay to eat the sauce sans noodles. And I still enjoyed it. I could try it over zucchini strips (aka zucchini pasta) or any other vegetable. You can also dip celery or vegetables into it, or just eat it with a salad.

It’s still warm and sunny here, but this would be a nice winter meal, too.

Serve meat sauce/tomato beef soup/spaghetti sauce in a mug or a bowl

Lulu’s Favorite Garlic Meat Sauce

Makes approx. 4 servings (more if using pasta and not heavily sauced)

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground beef (preferably 100% grassfed)
• optional – add a little chopped liver with the ground beef
• 2 15-ounce cans tomato sauce (find sauce with no sugar added)
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar or Worcestershire sauce
• 3 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning (or 1/2 tsp each oregano and basil)
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Olive oil

Directions:

• Heat large skillet or pot with olive oil and add ground beef.
• Cook for a couple of minutes, pulling apart and crumbling the meat, and add diced onion and a dash of balsamic vinegar or Worcestershire sauce.
• When meat has browned, drain and return to stove top, add garlic cloves and stir.
• Add tomato sauce, seasonings, and stir.
• Let simmer, uncovered (if you pan is shallow, it could get messy) 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add more seasonings to taste (I like a lot of garlic).
• Enjoy!