Spaghetti Sauce with Ground Beef

We have spaghetti at least once a month! What can I say, it's a go to meal that is always good and leftovers are likely. It's something that the entire family enjoys, and really, who doesn't love the comfort of pasta!! Well, for some reason I decided to change things up a little bit with the spaghetti. Not going to lie, we don't get fancy with our spaghetti. Boil the noodles, brown & season the ground beef, throw some Ragu in it and bam, it's done! But this time I wanted something different. I didn't just want the plain ole' spaghetti... So I searched for a recipe and the first one that popped up sounded good (considering I already had all of the ingredients).

This was an easy recipe to prep, yet the actual cook time was long. My kid was so hungry that I ended up giving him his fruit before dinner. Which in our house fruit is dessert so that was huge for him!!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pound ground beef (I use 90/10)
• 1 onion chopped (Although my husband I love onions. I didn't use an entire onion because my son can pick up the taste and will immediately let you know, "No like it!!")
•  4 cloves, garlic, minced (I know all great cooks say that you have to use fresh garlic, that it makes all the difference. Well, I have never used it, I use the stuff out of the jar.)
•  1 small green bell pepper, diced (I also had a red one so I used that too)
• 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1 (16 ounce) can of tomato sauce
• 1 (6 ounce) can of tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons of dried oregano (what else would it be but dry?? wet?? who knows)
• 2 teaspoons dried basil
• 1 teasponn salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper   

DIRECTIONS:

1. Combine ground beef, onion, garlic, and green pepper in a large saucepan. Cook and stir until meat is brown and vegetables are tender. Drain grease. (I did this a little different because I had pots/pans that were not available. My ground beef was frozen too which caused some issues.)
2. Stir diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste into the pan. Season with oregano, basil, salt, and pepper. Simmer spaghetti sauce for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

All in all this was great! It definitely had a different taste and more flavor. Wouldn't do this on a go to meal because I didn't realize the cook time was going to be so long -- even though the recipe mentions it right on top!  When my husband realized that I was getting frustrated at how long it was taking to cook, he even questioned why I decided to change things up with the spaghetti sauce. He is one to say, spaghetti is spaghetti no matter what you do to it. He doesn't even like to acknowledge that there is a difference between penne, spaghetti, ziti. You can forget farfalle because in his mind that's just silly! 

Will definitely cook it again though because it was tasty and a nice change!! 

Allrecipes.com
Spaghetti Sauce with Ground Beef