spaghetti meat sauce

This is another basic recipe that you can trust - especially on those days when you have 30 minutes to make your meals. This has lots of hidden veggies, so if the kids (or adults) don't want to eat salad, that's ok! They still get good amount of veggies (depending on what you decide to put in) in the meat sauce. We like to mix wheat and regular spaghetti together so it's kind of 'healthy'. 

Ingredients: 

Ground beef (or turkey, pork, chicken) - 1 lbs
White mushrooms - 5 (chopped)
Carrot - 1 med (chopped)
Onion - 1/2 med (chopped)
Garlic - 2 cloves (minced)

Butter - 2 TBS

Diced tomatoes - 1 can (see TIPS)
Ketchup - 1/4 cup (see TIPS)
Water - 1/3 cup
Sugar - 3 TBS (less or more, depending on what you like. start with 2 TBS and add more)
Italian seasoning - 1 TBS (see TIPS)
Salt & pepper - 1 tsp each 

Spaghetti (wheat and/or regular) - 1 packet
Parmesan cheese - as much as you like

 [optional veggies]

Bell peppers (green, red, yellow) - 1 (chopped)
Celery - 1 stalk (chopped)

Prep: 

1. Cut all veggies in small pieces (if you have picky eater, put them in the blender and chop them very finely so they can't 'see'). 
2. Open the diced tomato can.

Chop the veggies to the size you like! Picky eater? Just chop the veggies smaller. :)

Cook:

1. In a wok or deep frying pan, add 2 TBS of butter. Let it melt. Add onion, carrots and garlic. Stir fry until onion starts to caramelize (change to brownish color), about 3-5 minutes. 
2. Add in ground beef. Break big chunks of ground beef. Keep frying for 3 -5 minutes, then add in mushroom. Cook additional 2 minutes.  Put salt & pepper to taste. 
3. Add the whole can of tomatoes in, together with ketchup and water. Stir well so the liquid mix well with beef mixture. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes.
4. Add in sugar and Italian seasoning. Don't cover the wok, and let it simmer until your desired texture (some like it dry and some like it soupy.). If it gets too dry, add water and adjust taste accordingly. 
5. 15 minutes prior to serving, cook pasta according to direction (see TIPS).

Fry onion, carrots and garlic until onion caramelize

More ketchup, thicker it gets!

Simmer until it gets to your preferred texture

Serve: 

1. Serve good amount of meat sauce and grate them with Parmesan cheese.
2. Simple salad or garlic bread will be perfect! 

TIPS

• If you don't have can tomatoes, just use regular tomatoes. Cut 1 medium size (regular tomatoes you use for burgers) or 2 small (like roma tomatoes) and combine with 1/3 cup of water. 
• If you like your pasta to be thicker, add more ketchup (1/3 cup instead of 1/4)
• If you don't like ketchup, you can use tomato paste (1/4 cup)
• When you see 'Italian seasoning' in my recipes, it usually means that 'you are free to use whatever herbs you like.' Italian seasoning is a great mix of different herbs in one! 
• In the same pot of boiling water, cook wheat pasta for 2 minutes first, then add in the regular ones. Wheat pasta takes longer to cook. :)