Homemade Beefy Spaghetti Sauce

I made spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner tonight. Apart from burning my wrist on the baking sheet of garlic bread, I made homemade spaghetti sauce. It's almost completely homemade ... the only thing left is for you to puree and dice your own tomatoes. If you have time for that ... by all means, go for it. Oh - and if you have your own garden, I'd say definitely GO FOR IT. Someday I'll have my own garden where I'll be able to pick tomatoes from the vine and will can my own tomato sauce! YAY!

Okay ... so here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs ground beef (I use 93% beef because it has LESS fat which makes the sauce LESS greasy.)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped (Sometimes I omit this, just depends on the amount of time I have. Like tonight there was NO onion chopping going on.)
2 cloves garlic, minced (to taste) OR 1-2 tbsp Garlic Powder.
*1 tsp oregano
*1 tsp dried basil
These above to astrik ingredients were omitted from my sauce tonight. I just used extra Italian seasoning.
1 tsp Italian seasoning (I really like Italian seasoning, so I probably added about 2 tsp of the seasoning.) :)
1 tbsp (heaped) brown sugar (I used Splenda to keep the calorie count lower.)

You can add salt, but I don't. Actually, I'm not a HUGE fan of adding salt to my dishes because most foods have salt in them already.ground pepper (I give about 6-8 turns on the pepper grinder.)

1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
2 (16 ounce) cans tomato sauce
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes

Directions:

In a skillet with 2-3 inch sides, add beef and pepper to skillet. Cook beef until browned. *If you have the time to chop the onion and use fresh garlic, add them to the skillet and let cook while beef is cooking.* If you have lots of fat from the beef, drain fat. Add tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, seasonings, and sugar to the skillet. Stir until all ingredients are combined thoroughly. Add the whole can of tomato paste to the pan. Stir. Let simmer on low heat for at least 35 minutes. I think mine cooked for about 45 minutes because I like a thicker sauce.

Enjoy with your favorite pasta noodle.

Bon Appetit! :)