Yet another spaghetti sauce recipe (slow cooker)

Using what we had...the Apprentice said she liked this one, except for the chunks of pepper.

Mama Squirrel's Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce

1 lb. ground beef or other ground meat
2 little cans pizza sauce
1 little can tomato paste
1 cupful (more or less) beef broth
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 11-oz. package Europe's Best Roasted Gourmet Grilled Red & Yellow Pepper Parrilla (frozen grilled peppers), thawed in the fridge
Hot pasta for serving

Brown and drain the ground beef.  In a slow cooker (or a pot on the stove or a casserole in the oven if you prefer), combine the browned meat, pizza sauce, tomato paste, beef broth, and garlic powder.  The standard instructions would probably be to cook it on High for four hours, but if the meat is browned and hot, really you are just heating the rest of the ingredients through too, so you can probably get away with less time or with cooking it on Low.  If you're going to be home, you might try starting it on High and then turning it down to Low after awhile.  If you're cooking it on the stove or in the oven, just cook it all together till it's sauce.

Just before serving, I cut the grilled peppers up into smaller pieces and stirred them into the sauce.  They were still a bit frozen, but the hot sauce cooked them quickly.  They added some bulk and a bit of colour to the sauce.  You could use other vegetables instead, maybe mushrooms.

Serve on pasta, with cheese or whatever else you like.

What's for supper? Pizza chicken

Tonight's menu:

Pizza chicken (cut-up chicken breasts cooked with canned pizza sauce, green peppers, and mozzarella cheese)
Whole-wheat spaghettini

Banana-Bread Sundaes (a fancy-dessert-glass concoction of a bit of banana bread, a bit of mostly-thawed banana, a bit of mostly-thawed yogurt, a spoonful of peach jam, and some frozen strawberries warmed in the microwave)

What's for supper? Spaghetti night

Tonight's dinner menu:

Mama Squirrel's Diner-Style Spaghetti Sauce, with linguini and Parmesan cheese
Spinach salad with carrots and sunflower seeds

Dessert:  Homemade chocolate pudding

Mr. Fixit and Crayons will have their dessert when they get back from swimming lessons.

The Apprentice will have her dinner when she tools in after a day of university classes and the commute home.

We are thankful for fridges and microwaves.

What's for supper? Diner-style spaghetti sauce

Last night's dinner menu:

Diner-Style Spaghetti Sauce, with wholegrain spaghettini
Green salad with apples and sunflower seeds
Canned green beans

Peanut-butter-cereal squares

I know there are lots and lots and lots of recipes for spaghetti sauce, so who needs another one?. But this is something I adapted from the Hillbilly Housewife's Easy Seasoned Italian Sauce, and the way it came out reminded me of the way one of our favourite diner-style restaurants makes their spaghetti. More American-style than authentic Italian; but still good. It tastes like spaghetti and meatballs, only with broken-up meatballs, if that makes sense.

Mama Squirrel's Diner-Style Spaghetti Sauce
 1 lb. ground beef
About a cupful of sliced mushrooms (optional)
1 28-oz. can diced no-salt tomatoes, undrained (you can substitute two cups of homemade tomato puree)
1 small can tomato paste
1 tbsp. dried onion flakes
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. dried basil
1/4 tsp. oregano
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
One or two slices slightly dried (or toasted) bread, diced (optional--my kids didn't like this addition as much as I did, so I have been leaving it out)
Fresh parsley, chopped and added near the end (optional but pretty)
Hot pasta, Parmesan cheese, etc. for serving

Brown the ground beef, breaking up the meat as it cooks; add the mushrooms just before it's finished browning, and let them cook a few minutes. Drain the fat if necessary. Add all remaining ingredients except for the bread, and simmer until slightly thickened and it smells good. I added the diced bread near the end because I thought the sauce was still a bit liquid; it turned out to be a good addition (don't overdo it, though). Parsley too, if you have some (I just grabbed a bit from the garden).  Serve over hot spaghetti.

We had quite a bit left over (I never know where to stop with spaghetti), so tonight we're having Spaghetti Pie.