Spaghetti Sauce for Those in a Rush

When I was living alone and had plenty of time to make dinner, I used to make my spaghetti sauce completely from scratch. And, it was pretty good. In fact, I'm still convinced that the only reason my wife married me was because of the spaghetti dinners I used to make her.

But, now that we are married and have a kid, our different schedules give us limited time for making dinner. I absolutely can't stand the commercial brands of spaghetti sauce. They taste OK but have no substance to them. But, making the sauce completely from scratch is out of the question too.

One night, I decided to experiment and created a hybrid that combined the ease of store-bought brands with the robustness of homemade. It only takes me maybe 15-20 minutes to make and, unless they know how I'm making it, most people can't tell part of it is from a commercial brand.

Ingredients:

Two large cans Hunt's Traditional Spaghetti Sauce (I like this brand because of the seasonings).

1 Pound Hamburger

2 Cans sliced mushrooms.

Garlic Powder

Grated Parmesan cheese

Step 1 - Brown the hamburger and drain the grease. I will occasionally add garlic powder or Italian seasoning to the meat but it doesn't really improve the flavor all that much.

Step 2 - Put the hamburger in a sauce pan and mix with the Spaghetti Sauce and Mushrooms. Put on medium high heat and cover.

Step 3 - Once the sauce starts boiling, stir and add garlic powder and parmesan cheese. I'm not a person who measures things out so I generally add a few shakes of the garlic powder and enough cheese to turn the top of the sauce white before mixing it in. Cover and continue boiling for about 5-7 minutes (to allow the cheese to melt completely).

The sauce usually comes out pretty thick and is enough for about a pound of spaghetti; or enough for three people to have leftovers for a day or two. For variety, you can replace the hamburger with meatballs or put the sauce over ravioli or some other pasta.