This meal is a staple at our house. We eat WAY too much pasta but we all love it so what-a-ya gonna do? This pasta sauce makes me feel a little bit more like a responsible parent than when I just slide some buttered noodles in front of them (which happens a lot).
This recipe is doubled. I put half in the freezer and the other half will feed a family of 4 plus plenty for left overs.
2 lbs. ground beef or ground turkey
45 oz. jar of your favorite pasta sauce
1 can tomato paste
3 carrots, grated
1 onion, diced
5-6 small sweet peppers, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
red wine
olive oil
salt & pepper
I use a box grater to grate the carrots. The second to smallest grating side works really well.
Heat olive oil in a large pot. Saute garlic, carrots, onion and peppers for 3 – 4 minutes or until just soft. Add tomato paste and combine. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
Brown ground beef in the same pot. Season well with salt & pepper. Drain grease. Return the carrot/onion mixture to the pot and combine with meat. Add tomato sauce and a glug of red wine (red wine is optional). Stir and add bay leaf. Simmer on low while the water for the pasta heats up.
Sit back and enjoy watching your kids consume veggies that they may or may not have agreed to consuming.
ndjmom
I love Prego sauce, just on it’s own, won’t use any other sauce. However my husband has to doctor everything. One night he made spaghetti, I was expecting my standby comfort pasta dish and my tastebuds were assaulted by flavors foreign to spaghetti.
Moral: Leave my Prego alone, use a generic, canned sauce if we want to play and doctor up spaghetti. Hadn’t thought of grating carrots, good idea though.
Hugs, Kisses and Snot
Prego is my husband’s favorite. I don’t do much in the way of adding herbs b/c it already has a lot going on.
Hope you enjoy it w/ carrots!
ndjmom
My hubby added garlic, oregano, pepper to the hamburger, I was like, what did you do to my sauce…Hamburger, sausage, onions, mushrooms that all gets added on occasion though.
Author MelindaTripp
Yum, I add squash, mostly grated zucchini also, yellow if you can get it, since kids can take one look and ask , ” hey, what is this green stuff?.”
Hugs, Kisses and Snot
Sometime I do squash and zucchini too. I love it but my 7 yr. old is an expert at finding the green
Blond Duck
Popped in to say hi! This sauce looks perfect for my picky husband!
Hugs, Kisses and Snot
I hope he likes it and thanks for stopping by!
Vince Chough
We do the same with veggies. Sneak in the goodness!
Christa the BabbyMama
Can I just tell you that I am pregnant (hopefully I am still pregnant – we’ll find out on Friday) and this is the first healthy meal that has sounded in any way appealing to me. Like, at all. Maybe if more of this good stuff starts sounding yummy I’ll get off the mega weight gain train!
Hugs, Kisses and Snot
Congratulations!!! I hope you can find some recipes that look appealing.
Thanks for reading!
Andrea
I’ve never had to hide veggies…my kids will eat them cooked or raw, but this recipe looks great! Much more substantial than plain ol’ sauce!
Hugs, Kisses and Snot
Consider yourself blessed 🙂 Thanks for reading.