Bec’s Spaghetti Bolognese

Do you love spaghetti? Spaghetti was a staple food for me growing up and I could eat it 3 times a day and be happy as a clam.

My Dad, who was Italian, made amazing homemade sauce. Unfortunately, the spaghetti sauce was put onto processed, white pasta (full of gluten, very high in starch, low in nutrients). To support my and my family’s health as well as everyone like you who is looking for ways to incorporate healthy, delicious meals, the noodles in this recipe are spaghetti squash (nature’s spaghetti!).

Ingredients:

• 2 large 24 oz. can (or glass bottle) of tomato sauce or strained tomatoes~either texture is yummy. If you are using canned tomato sauce, I really like Muir Glen Organic sauce.
• 2 pounds grass-fed ground beef (or 1 lb ground beef and 1 lb Italian sausages, pastured pork OR grass-fed beef, sliced into bite sizes)
• 1/2-1 lb ground beef and ground organ meats. This ingredient is optional, but I kid you not, it makes the sauce AWESOME and you can’t tell there’s organ meats in there but you get all the benefit (huge dose of iron and fat soluble vitamins). More stores are selling this or you can ask your butcher if they’ll grind up some organ meat for you. If you can’t find it locally, you can order it from U.S. Wellness Meats and keep it in the freezer to add to meatloaves, hamburgers and any meat sauces.
• 1 can large black olives (preferably without ferrous sulfate in the ingredients)
• 2 tsps. ea rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, sea salt, black pepper
• 1 cup cubed Shiitake mushrooms
• 1/4 tsp. fennel seed (optional)
• Garlic (3-4 cloves finely chopped), onion (1 yellow, finely chopped), and green bell pepper are optional
• 1 large spaghetti squash

How To:

1. Brown ground meat and sliced Italian sausage in a large pot on medium heat with a couple tablespoons of olive oil. If you are using garlic, onion, and bell pepper, add to the mix when about halfway cooked, approx. 5 mins.
2. Add tomato sauce and spices, put lid on and cook on low-med heat.
3. Wash outside of spaghetti squash. Use a sharp knife to poke a couple of holes in the skin and then put into a glass dish and into the oven for 1 hr at 375 degrees.
4. Remove squash from oven and cut in half (horizontally). Allow to cool for about 10 minutes and then use a spoon to remove the seeds from the center (easy). Use a fork to scrape out the strands of noodles and add them to the pot of sauce.  Stir so that noodles are covered with meaty sauce.
5. Chop up Shiitake mushrooms into bite-sized pieces and add. Drain and add olives and continue cooking for at least 30 minutes so the flavors blend (this meal is even better the next day after refrigerating overnight and re-heating!)
6. Serve in a bowl, optionally with Parmesan cheese  and/or over a bed of spinach. Enjoy!

My daughter has requested this meal for her birthday dinner since she was 4 yrs old. 🙂