Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

 Today, I was productive... Way to get out of my funk! I completely finished ALL of our laundry, vacuumed the entire house, worked on my blog AND made a fantastic dinner... Good-bye, Funk. Hello, Productivity.

Here is the recipe for my homemade, better than the jarred stuff, spaghetti. It is super easy and takes less than 30 minutes to make.

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Put large pot of water on to boil.
Start cooking .5-1.5 lb of ground beef seasoned with salt, pepper, and granulated garlic until browned.
Finely chop 1 small-medium onion and 2-3 cloves of garlic.
Once, beef is browned, drain fat and return to pan. Turn heat down to low/simmer. 
Add onions, 1-1.5 cans of tomato sauce (I use Hunts), and a can of diced tomatoes.
Salt and add noodles to boiling water (if you cover the pot with wooden spoon it will prevent water from boiling over).
**Don't forget**- set timer for 9 minutes
Season the beef mixture with salt, granulated garlic, salt and pepper (to taste).
Add chopped garlic to sauce mixture
Add 4-6 oz cream cheese to sauce mixture
Add 1.5 tbsp of Italian Seasoning
Add 4 tablespoons of sugar (This is the sauces secret weapon. You can add as much or as little as depending on your sweet liking- but definitely add some!)
Add 3 tbsp of butter and let simmer
Drain noodles once timer goes off/ they are cooked to your liking
Add about 2 tbsp of butter to noodles as they drain in colander
Finally, combine sauce and noodles in large bowl or pot and stir.

 You could also put the combined product in the oven (at 350) for 15-20 minutes to make it set up.  Add mozzarella and parmesan cheese to the top of your individual servings then eat up!

 It is sooo good as soon as it is made- but makes even better left overs! 

 I also have enough sauce for another serving which I will freeze to be used for the next time. My sauce this time came out a little thin- if I had some tomato paste on hand I would have added it- however, it was just fine with out it. Also, another secret weapon is to add a few heaping spoonfuls of Philadelphia Italian Cheese and Herbs Cooking Cream (but I am out!) so it didn't get added this time. It makes it even better and creamier in my opinion. 
 Don't be afraid to edit this and make it your own. You can serve it on any kind of noodles, or make it with out any meat at all or with whatever meat you might like. This is also the sauce that I use for my lasagna. It doesn't take much more effort than the jarred stuff but the outcome is A LOT better.

 Hope you enjoy the spaghetti. Let me know how yours turns out or any changes that you make for it to turn out better! Bon Appetite.