Spaghetti Sauce

I got this Cooking for Two cookbook from Ryan for my birthday. I had mentioned to him before my birthday that I really wanted it since right now it's just the two of us that I'm cooking for (and who knows how long it will be like that before kids start coming). One of my goals for the New Year is cooking something new once a week. For this first week, I decided to make something from this cookbook. I flipped through the pages and found Spaghetti Sauce! I have never made homemade spaghetti sauce (we always just used the jar spaghetti sauce), so it was fun to make it! (and it tasted SOOOO good!)

Ingredients:
1 lb. hamburger
1 16-oz. can crushed tomatoes
2 8-oz. cans tomato sauce
2 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 garlic clove

Brown hamburger with salt, pepper, and garlic powder in a medium saucepan. Drain fat. Stir in tomatoes, sauce, seasoning, and sugar. Press garlic with garlic press or use 1 tsp. minced garlic. Add garlic to sauce and stir well. Simmer 1 hour or until sauce thickens and turns deep red in color. Serve over cooked spaghetti noodles. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Tip: Do not rinse noodles, as this rinses off the starch. The starch makes the noodles sticky, which helps the sauce stick to the noodles.

I didn't follow the recipe exactly. For one, we didn't have crushed tomatoes. I just used what we had which was diced tomatoes. I don't think it makes much of a difference. Also, it doesn't say whether to drain them or not, so I drained them a little. It came out being a little runny at the end, so maybe the tomatoes are supposed to be drained. 2 Tbsp. of Italian seasoning seemed like a lot to me, so I used a little less than that amount. Also, we didn't have a garlic clove, so I just used a little less than 1 tsp. of garlic powder. I had it simmering for about 45 minutes and it didn't seem like it was getting any thicker, so we just ate it after 45 minutes instead of an hour. Even though it was a little runny, it tasted really good!!! We had it over whole grain spaghetti noodles, so it was nice and healthy! Just add a salad and some veggies, and you're set with a good dinner!