A Girl Named Michael: Have Tomatoes? Make Spaghetti Sauce

If you have been following my mad cap adventures these last few weeks on Facebook you may have noticed my Health Nut Sister and I have been doing a lot of canning. We are obsessed with food preservation all of the sudden. And since she and I already canned tomato sauce (more on that later I promise) I decided to make spaghetti sauce with all the tomatoes, onions and peppers from my garden and freeze it. I may have canned it but my mom has all the canning equipment and it doesn't sound like as much fun all by myself.

And believe it or not but canning with family is lots of fun. Or at least it is with my family. But we are very odd people.

1. I started out by collecting all the goodies from the garden and washing them. When I say I collected them I mean The BF went and got all the goodies including some things for dinner that night.

2. After washing them I cut them in to large pieces and placed them into my handy dandy Ninja. This is apparently controversial because I don't blanch and peel the skins off the tomatoes. When I freeze or can whole tomatoes or diced tomatoes I always peel them but when I am making sauce I don't...mostly because I am lazy and that's an extra step. I have never had any complaints. Back to the ninja, I puree the vegetables. You can leave it chunky if you like but I am trying to hide the vegetables the kids don't like.

Ingredients*:

19 cups of tomatoes after you have pulsed them in the blender
3 medium onions
2 green peppers
4 celery stalks
2 tablespoons garlic (I like the already chopped kind)
3 -12 oz cans tomato paste
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons brown sugar
4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried basil
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoon Italian Seasoning of your choice (I used Pinch Perfect Tuscan and Sicilian seasoning)
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon cumin
3 Tablespoons lemon juice

3. After all the vegetables are purred I add them and all the other ingredients to a big stock pan and bring to a boil.

4. Once the mixture is at a boil reduce the heat and cook for at least two hours, I usually cook it 3 hours but two is the minimum, stirring often.

5. Remove from heat and let cool completely or start the canning process if you are not freezing.

6. To freeze the sauce place 2 cups in freezer sandwich bags. Push as much air out as possible, seal the bags and lay flat.

7. Put on a cookie sheet and place in freezer. Once they are completely frozen stack in freezer.

Now you have some homemade spaghetti sauce in your freezer.