Crockpot Pasta Sauce

Homemade Crockpot Pasta Sauce

Ingredients:
1/2 roll of breakfast sausage, or 8 ounces Italian sausage
1 lb. lean ground beef, turkey, pork, or chicken
1 can (14.5 ounces) crushed tomatoes
1 medium onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 med. chopped green bell pepper (or 1/2 of a large one)
2-3 cloves garlic, minced (can use 2 tsp. of the jar kind)
1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce
1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
1 Tbsp. dried Italian seasoning
1 tsp. salt (or to taste)
1/8 tsp. ground red pepper (or 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes), if desired
1-2 Tbsp. sugar to cut the acidity (I used honey)

Directions:
Remove sausage from casings; brown in a heavy skillet along with ground beef. Break up sausage and ground beef and add in chopped veggies and cook until meat no longer pink and veggies are soft; drain well. Add sausage and beef to crockpot, along with all remaining ingredients. Cover and cook on LOW setting for 3.5-4 hours or HIGH for 1.5-2 hours. This sauce can be frozen if you don't want to use now.
Serves 8 to 10

*Tastes great with Parmesan on top and served with garlic bread and a fresh garden salad.  You can make this meatless by using 8-16 oz. (or more) of chopped fresh mushrooms in place of the beef and sausage. Just saute after cooking the onions, celery, and bell pepper. Sometimes I like to use mushrooms in my sauce too with just the ground beef. I have also be known to add sautéed spinach to my sauce for added nutrition.

**In my above picture I've doubled this recipe and cooked it in my 6 qt. crock pot so I can serve some spaghetti for dinner tonight and put the rest of the sauce in the freezer for another day. I let it cool down in quart Mason jars before adding to labeled gallon size Ziploc freezer bags. When I want to use it I just thaw the sauce in the refrigerator over night and boil some noodles to stir into my heated up sauce. This sauce can be used for lasagna and other types of pasta dishes too.