After surviving the insane blizzard we had in Colorado on Wednesday and more snow in the works for tonight, there’s nothing better to eat than some hearty, warm comfort food!
It is absolutely essential to have an easy meat sauce recipe that you can cook a bunch of and throw on top of any vegetable. Except maybe salad, probably don’t put this on top of salad or you’ll end up with a pile of mush. But you could put it on top of zoodles (zucchini noodles), roasted broccoli, roasted eggplant, sautéed spinach or kale…you get the point!
This is an ideal recipe for weekly meal prep, which is what I made it for this week. I set aside time every Sunday to prep breakfast for the 5 days of the work week and also something for at least 4 days of lunches for both my fiance and I. (you can say it…he’s a lucky guy!) There are numerous reasons why I believe meal prep is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle: cooking in batches is a huge time saver, it saves you ~$10 a day going out to lunch (unless you’re getting a McPick 2 at McDonalds… EW), it makes it easier to say no to “less healthy” options like cravings for pizza or 50 cent wing Tuesdays and you can impress your coworkers with your cooking skills! For this recipe I tripled the sauce & meat to make 6 lunches and froze the other half to have on hand for a weekend in the future when I don’t have time to meal prep. I am always thinking about what to meal prep and eat next…
Before we get to the recipe let’s talk salt and meat fat. I always salt my food as I go instead of in one big pile right at the end. Salting as you go helps to break down the food as well as bring out more flavor. Doing it a little bit at a time throughout the cooking process will develop a better flavor by breaking down and penetrating the food more thoroughly. Check out this video from America’s Test Kitchen that explains it!
In the case of meat fat, as I mention below in the recipe I cook my onions first and then add the meat so it cooks in the onion juices. Afterwards I just keep all the juice and continue with the recipe. You will notice that grass fed beef usually produces less juice anyway. If you are using high quality grass fed and organic meats I recommend keeping the juice because you get a lot more flavor and a lot of the antioxidants, minerals and vitamins are present in the fat. Check out this article by Paleo Guru Chris Kresser for more info on grass fed over grain fed cows. If you are using non grass fed meat, which there is nothing wrong with if you are on a budget, you will want to drain the grease or if it’s a different cut of meat trim off as much fat as possible.
Try this for your next meal prep for the week and I promise you won’t get sick of eating it all week. Add some avocado on top for a healthy fat, or some hot sauce to spice things up! Hot sauce will probably be a recurring suggestion- add hot sauce to everything. We’re pretty hot sauce obsessed in this house.
Easy Tomato Meat Sauce with Spaghetti Squash
Ingredients
- 1 Medium Spaghetti squash
- 1 Pound Grass Fed Ground Beef *or Turkey, Chicken or Pork
- 1 Medium Yellow onion, diced
- 4 Cloves garlic minced
- 2 Tablespoons Coconut oil or other cooking fat
- 1 14.5 oz can Diced tomatoes *can use flavored tomatoes for a different flavor!
- 1 15 oz can Tomato sauce
- 2 Tablespoons Fresh basil, finely chopped and divided
- 2 Tablespoons Fresh parsley, finely chopped
- 1 Teaspoon Dried Oregano
- 1-2 Teaspoons fine sea salt divided
- 1 Teaspoon Black Pepper
Instructions
Spaghetti Squash
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Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Cut the spaghetti squash in half, scoop out the seeds with a spoon and place inside down on a baking tray. Cook for 20-30 minutes or until you can push down easily in the middle of the squash.
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After removing from the oven flip the squash over to let it cool before scooping it.
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Using a fork scrape out the squash "noodles".
Meat Sauce
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Heat a saucepan (big enough to add your diced tomatoes and sauce to later), on medium high heat and add the coconut oil once hot.
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Once the oil is melted add the onions, sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt and stir to coat. Cook for 2 minutes or until onions are translucent.
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Add the garlic and stir to incorporate. Cook until garlic becomes fragrant.
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Add the ground beef, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of pepper and stir to incorporate, breaking up the meat into smaller pieces as it cooks. Cook while stirring occasionally until there is no pink left in the meat, about 10 minutes.
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IF YOU WANT- drain the grease from the meat before putting in the tomatoes and sauce. If you are using grass fed, organic meat- keep the juice to get all that good fat and flavor in.
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Add the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, oregano and salt to taste. Bring the sauce to a boil then reduce the heat and allow to simmer for at least 10 minutes.
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Right before serving turn off the heat and add 1 1/2 tablespoons basil and parsley.
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Serve over spaghetti squash and sprinkle with leftover basil.