TIPitty Tuesday - Quick yet Robust Spaghetti Sauce

Woot Woot! Who doesn't love a good tip to help with running a home, feeding a family, or just making life a little easier to enjoy? I need all the help I can get -- y'all know I'm telling the truth!

For this, the first TIPitty Tuesday, I have a shortcut to creating a robust spaghetti sauce. I love a good sauce for s'getti, but often don't have the time to let it simmer all day.

You need:

However much store-bought spaghetti sauce you typically use for your family. For our family of 9, I use 4 cans of sauce.

2 cans Italian seasoned diced tomatoes (if you aren't cooking for a small army as I am, then use 1 can proportionally)

2 packets Italian spaghetti sauce mix (if you are only using half the sauce, then you only need one packet)

When I'm not cooking for picky children, I sautee green pepper and add a can of mushroom buttons to my sauce. Totally optional.

2 lb hamburger meat (sometimes I use pork sausage if that's what I have)

TIPitty #1 - STORE COOKED, GROUND BEEF FLAT IN THE FREEZER BAG! I buy ground beef in bulk and then brown it when I get home from the grocery store. Brown completely, drain the grease off and rinse (I use my colander for this). Then I divide into 2 lb portions and put it into a freezer bag. FLATTEN OUT YOUR BAG AS YOU ZIP IT CLOSED, SPREADING THE GROUND BEEF OUT INTO A SINGLE LAYER IN THE BAG. I usually put the bag between my belly and the counter and lean on it to get the air out....I'd take a picture of the process but y'all don't want to see all that!

This makes it super easy to defrost, and saves freezer space too! ; )

Fixin' the Sauce:

If your meat isn't browned yet, do that. Drain and rinse. Mine was already cooked and frozen flat!

Then add all other ingredients. DO NOT DRAIN TOMATOES. DO NOT ADD WATER AS THE SPAGHETTI SEASONING INDICATES. Just open cans and packages, pour into large enough sauce pan and stir it all up.

Cook on medium high heat until boiling, stirring constantly. Then turn heat to low and simmer 15 minutes or so while you cook your noodles. You can let it cook longer, but this sauce tastes great either way.

Robust flavor makes people think you worked on it all day!

Hope this helps someone out there! Cooking my ground beef and freezing it flat in an airtight freezer bag changed my life! ; )

Love y'all, Les