Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce

If you're anything like me, you're always on the lookout for something that you can just toss in the crock-pot, let it simmer for a few hours, and then come back to it and have a nice, delicious meal ready.

Well, I can't promise that, but I can promise you a meat sauce that you can use for spaghetti, beefaroni, or pretty much anything else you want to use it with. It can also serve as the base for chili (with or without beans).

It's a pretty low-maintenance recipe that you can spice up with any additives that you want. Mostly I just add cheese near the end, shredded cheddar or Mozzarella if I've got it on hand, because we're a cheese-eating family here.

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Four-Ingredient Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce
28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
14.5 oz can diced or stewed tomatoes
1 to 1.5 lbs ground chuck or ground beef
package of spaghetti sauce mix

1) In your slow cooker, add the ground beef and both cans of tomatoes, and stir everything up enough to get it mixed up. If your beef isn't thawed, that's okay. Make sure you put the cooker on high for the whole time you cook it.

2) Fill the crushed tomatoes can about two-thirds full of water, using it to rinse the sides of the can and the bottom out. Swish it around real good, and add it to the cooker. (If you want a thicker sauce, use less water, but don't use less than a quarter of the can, because you really do need some water in it to keep it from over-cooking and getting bitter.)

3) Put the lid on.
For thawed ground beef, cook for two hours on high, and two hours on low.
For frozen ground beef, cook for four hours on high.

4) Half an hour prior to serving, stir in the sauce mix packet and break up the ground beef. (Personally, I recommend a potato masher. It works amazingly well.)

5) After half an hour, if your cooker has a "Keep Warm" setting, switch to that. Otherwise, turn it off and leave the lid on until ready to serve.

Makes... a lot. Three folks can eat on one batch twice. I have never tried freezing the sauce, although I imagine that as long as it's cooled, it should freeze with no problems.

Variations On A Theme

• Use Italian Diced or Italian Stewed for extra flavor
• Store brands are recommended, but if you need to use name brands, that's okay too.
• Leaving out the sauce mix packet makes an excellent chili base that is easily doctored with onions, peppers, and Texas Pete to fit your palate.
• If you want a baked variety, prepare as noted above, but at the half-hour-before-serving mark, add in pre-cooked pasta along with the sauce mix packet, stir well to mix in pasta, cover with cheese, and leave the lid on it. That'll bake it in the cooker.