Homemade Marinara Sauce

I know. I know. It's easier to buy it.

But hear me out. :)

Several weeks ago, when my 21 Day Fix Coach sent out a list of recipes to get us cooking in a healthy way, homemade marina sauce was in the mix of things she sent. She told us that sometimes the bottled sauces in the store are loaded with additional sugars and salts and things you can't pronounce, and it's good to make your own.

Right about then, I remembered how often Ryan and I would stand in the aisle at the store, grumbling about the price of such sauces, and how sometimes I rationed making dishes that used such a sauce more because of what I had to pay for it than anything else.

Maybe making my own wouldn't be so bad after all. Better for me, better for my wallet....yes, please!

I will tell you the complete truth here: this does not take long to put together AT ALL. The last time I made it, I whipped it up in about 10  minutes and let it simmer on the stove all evening while we did our workouts and such. And then I just stuck the whole pot in the fridge. The next day, I portioned it out by 2 cup intervals into storage baggies and put them in the freezer for someday, when I need marinara sauce.

Truly easy.

And I also have a funny story for you. Enjoy.

I grew up in a home with absolutely no alcohol. My parents do not drink, and alcohol was not permitted in our house. Not even for cooking. I also do not drink, and neither does Ryan. I've never purchased alcohol in my entire life, cough medicine aside. So when the recipe called for red wine, I panicked.

I purchased said wine in the same aisle with all the vinegars and such things. It's cooking wine, not I had a bad day wine. And yet I about freaked out in checkout putting that bottle of wine in my bag. And when the day came to make the sauce for the first time, I measured out the cooking wine, set it aside, and worked on the first part of the recipe. I got so flustered, I spilled the entire measured out portion of wine, and it went everywhere...over the counter, down the cabinets, onto the floor. The entire house smelled like a drunken fest had just taken place, and I figured that was my punishment for buying and cooking with wine!

HA!!!

So if you can look past the wine, here is the recipe for making homemade marinara sauce.

Homemade Marinara Sauce

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 teaspoons garlic powder
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1/4 cup red wine {IF YOU DARE!!!}
2 28-ounce cans crushed tomatoes
1 Tablespoon seasoned salt
3 Tablespoons chopped basil

Heat olive oil in large saucepan over medium high heat. Add onion and cook for about 5 minutes, until onion is translucent. Add garlic powder and tomato paste, stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes. Don't let tomato paste burn. Add wine {CAREFULLY} and stir constantly for 2-3 minutes. Add tomatoes, seasoned salt and basil and bring to a boil. Lower heat and allow to simmer for at least an hour - more if you'd like. Use with pasta, on pizza, or any other type of dish in which you'd use marinara. 

* A Few Tips

* I used red onion in this batch, because it's what we had on hand. Any kind of onion would be fine.


* The original recipe called for 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped, but I don't use real garlic cloves, so I switched mine to include the powdered amount I used.

* The crushed tomatoes I found already had basil in them, so my recipe was extra basil-y. You could include other herbs if you like them in your Italian dishes.

* The original recipe also called for 2 Tablespoons of agave nectar, but I don't like my sauces sweet at all, so I eliminated that.

* Another thing I eliminated was 3 ounces of parmesan rind because I didn't have any and didn't want to make another purchase. I think the sauce tastes fine without it.

* I got 7 1/2 cups of sauce out of this recipe. I bagged them in 2 cup bags, except the last one which was just 1.5 cups. You could make the portions even smaller depending on your needs.

* Kind of nice to be able to open a serving for 1 or 2 as needed rather than opening a jar, not using it all, and throwing the rest away.

* I labeled my bags and froze them until needed.

* If you can find the tomatoes on sale, you can make this REALLY inexpensively. 

Seasoned Salt

Hi. We are the Shaffers and we have a seasoned salt addiction. Truth? We put it on EVERYTHING that isn't dessert. Meat? Seasoned salt. Veggies? Seasoned salt. Mac and cheese? Seasoned salt. Eggs? Seasoned salt. Coffee? Okay, we draw the line there.

My friend Amy makes her own seasoned salt and she would give us some of it as a gift for different occasions, but I think we may have cleaned out her entire stash. Multiple times. She said she had never met anyone who went through as much of the stuff as we did.

So finally, she just gave me the recipe and let me make my own. I struggled with it a bit, because I was trying to cut the recipe in thirds, and you ALL know how I feel about math. And some of the ingredients were in ounces and others were in teaspoons and tablespoons - so finally I just sort of made my own version of the thing. We thought it turned out pretty well! {But if you really like one of the ingredients and you want to add even more, you can, because it will be YOUR house recipe!}

Seasoned Salt

* 3 pounds kosher salt
* 2/3 cup black pepper
* 2 Tablespoons ginger
* 3 Tablespoons paprika
* 1 Tablespoon chili powder
* 2 Tablespoons garlic powder
* 1/3 teaspoon turmeric
* 1/3 teaspoon sage

Mix all ingredients together and store in airtight container. Use on all your favorite recipes that call for salt and pepper!

A Few Tips:

* We found the kosher salt in a big box in the spice aisle. The actual grains of salt are a little thicker than table salt but not as thick as sea salt.

* We used restaurant black pepper, which is a little coarser than regular black pepper for a table shaker.

* If you like some kick to your cooking, you can add more chili powder. Increasing that or the paprika will also give the seasoned salt a bit more color.

* We store part of the salt in an old seasoned salt container we had from a time when we bought it at the store. It allows me to sprinkle or use a measuring spoon when I'm cooking.

* It does call for THREE POUNDS OF SALT, you know, so not all of it fit in our seasoned salt container. I stored the backup portion of our recipe in an airtight container in the cabinet, and I'll use that to refill the regular container when it runs low. The rest of it, because YES, there is a rest of it, I put in a gallon storage bag and stuck it in the freezer.

* This is also a great gift idea if you're looking for something to share with co-workers, friends, or neighbors. I seriously loved it when Amy gifted this to us, and the cost isn't bad at all, so making a gift in bulk like this is easy to do.

* As I mentioned earlier, this works well on absolutely anything that isn't a sweet dish. Ryan sprinkles it on everything he grills, from meat to veggies to our quesadilla shells. We put it in with crock pot meals, in our veggies, in our scrambled eggs, literally everything.

* I like to make it myself, not only because we use it so much, but because I know exactly what is in it - no preservatives - and we can customize it to our own tastes!

Homemade Taco Seasoning

I told my friend Amy that I aspire to adopt a healthier diet...and she asked about my plan. I don't think she was expecting me to say something about veggies...not about making my own brownie mix and taco seasoning!

I'm not the clean eating type who sits and studies everything about pre-packaged foods and all the hidden preservatives and how those things will kill you. Frankly, I can't think about it without working myself into a tizzy. No one has time for a Bekah tizzy.

So why did I have this desire to make my own homemade taco seasoning? Mostly because it felt all homemakerish. I love feeling homemakerish. It's the thing I grasp for in my crazy commuting life. I found the recipe idea here...and I've made a couple of tweaks to it to suit my tastes. {AKA take out a bit of the fire.}

WE. LOVE. IT. We really do. I've made it several times and have finally landed upon the perfect combo for us, and we love the flavor of it so much. And I do feel better that I've done something {minute though it may be} to make our eating a bit less processed. 

Homemade Taco Seasoning

* 1 Tablespoon chili powder
* 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
* smallest possible pinch of red pepper powder
* 1/4 teaspoon oregano
* 1/2 teaspoon paprika
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
* 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
* 1 teaspoon black pepper

Mix everything together in a bowl. Use 2 Tablespoons and add 1/3 cup of water per one pound of ground meat for tacos. Store additional seasoning in an airtight container. This makes about enough for 2 pounds of meat.

A Few Tips:

* I realize it's much easier to rip open an envelope and dump in the contents, but you would be surprised at how LITTLE time it takes to whip up this concoction. And if you make it in bulk, you can have a bunch on hand whenever you need it!

* If you do want to make a huge batch of it, I found the big batch recipe here - and I've tweaked it to allow for my adjustments...so for us, a big batch would be * 1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons chili powder * 2 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder * 2 1/2 teaspoons onion powder * still the tiniest smidge of red pepper powder * 2 1/2 teaspoons oregano * 5 teaspoons paprika * 1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon ground cumin * 1 1/2 Tablespoons sea salt * 3 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon black pepper

* We use ground chicken or ground turkey {depending on what is available and/or on sale} instead of ground beef - just to try to help with the health factor. I truly cannot taste the difference with all this seasoning on it.

* I added about 1/4 of a chopped onion to the meat as it browned just to add to the flavor. 

* We eat our "tacos" as nachos. We get low fat tortilla chips and put the meat on top, along with cheese, green onions, salsa, guacamole if we have it, and fat free Greek yogurt in place of sour cream.

* This is one of our faves - hope you like it too!