Tonight’s dinner was inspired by my mama!
Growing up one of my favorite dinners was my mom’s spaghetti with marinara meat sauce. It’s the kind of meal that feels like home and comfort served on a plate.
She used to make it for me the night before my cross country meets in junior high when I would get so nervous. In hindsight, I’m not sure why I got nervous. I wasn’t integral to the team in the least and really just participated in the sport because it was no-cut and I didn’t make the basketball team. (I told you I got cut from everything!)
I used my mom’s sauce as inspiration for the semi-homemade marinara meat sauce I prepared this evening.
I started by browning one pound of lean ground beef before adding half of a chopped large onion and a large chopped zucchini to the mix.
I then added an entire jar of marinara sauce.
I seriously could not stop sampling this sauce as it bubbled. Yum!
Ryan and I poured the sauce over some spaghetti squash before digging in.
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You know I went back for seconds. I also ate a bunch of the sauce as I was pouring leftovers into Tupperware. I couldn’t get enough!
After dinner we took this little nut job on a nice walk around our new neighborhood.
As Ryan and I were walking we noticed that two different houses nearby had police cars parked in the driveway. Gotta love the added safety of having cops as neighbors!
Time to join Ryan on the floor with a bunch of blankets for movie night. We tossed our couch from our previous apartment (it was gross), so we’re in the market for a new one. Until then, it’s floor livin’ in this house!
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Floor livin!! Love it! When my old roommate and I were living together a couple summers ago, we had shared a house with a couple other people and when they moved out they took their couches. We had couches for our new apartment stored in our garage, but we were too lazy (and it was too awkward) to move them out for the couple weeks before we moved. So we used the cushions and blankets to watch movies and have what we liked to call “Poverty Picnics!” Haha, this reminded me so much of that!!
I loove spaghetti with marinara meat sauce!! My mom makes it and usually we have yummy garlic bread with it! 😀
When I lived in my first apartment, I had a cop next door and a fireman across the street. It was awesome and I definitely felt a little safer knowing they were going to park their cars in their driveways!
I was on the track and field team in high school for the same reason! I’m not a runner though and really just stuck to the “field” stuff, but it was the no cut rule that made me go for it!
We also just moved and are “homeless” for a week. I know you did it for much much longer, but it’s definitely not fun 🙁 We won’t move in until next Wednesday, and will be couchless too! Too bad I live in MA or we could furniture shop together 😉
My spaghetti sauces are always pseudo homemade like that! I love letting the jar stuff simmer all day with the meat and extra spices and it tastes homemade!
I’ve never had spaghetti squash, but I’ve been hearing a lot about it lately, so I’ll have to try it 🙂 I love meat sauce! I haven’t made it in so long… but it also reminds me of my moms cooking!
I have never had spaghetti squash, but it looks right up my alley! Also, World Market is having a furniture sale right now. I love their stuff!
oooh I never thought of adding a zucchini in sauce!
I’ve always loved your blog, but I love it even more with the captions from Sadie!! 🙂
How do you cook your spaghetti squash :)? I’ve googled and recipe searched it just seems like such a long/hard process…
First, stab about 10 holes around it. Then I roast it whole in a 425 degree oven for 45 minutes. Take out and let it cool 5 to 10 minutes. Cut in half and scrape out middle seeded section using fork and discard or compost. Once seeds are removed scrape entire fruit with fork to create spaghetti strands. Super simple actually.
I love spaghetti and meat sauce, it’s always my go-to meal. I’ve never put the sauce over spag squash, but I bet that would be tasty, too!
Love the Sadie pics. I recommend sauteing your veggies before adding the meat to brown. It adds more flavor to the meat as it browns and the veggies get super tender. Just a suggestion.
Sometimes the floor is cozy. We both end up on the floor with the dog at night many times 🙂
That sauce looks delicious! I am definitely going to have to try making that sauce! Good luck finding a couch! 🙂
I wanted to make this for my dinners this week, but I had a question about how much it makes.. lol, about how many one-person servings did you get out of the sauce? I just wonder if I should halve it if I’ll only want 3-4 servings?
Hi Julie! Thanks for the great recipe! I made this last night and my husband liked it so much that he went back in for seconds! Score! It made SO much! I’ve been thinking about it all day today – I can’t wait to go home and have leftovers for dinner! (wow.. there are a lot of !!! in my comment… here are few more just for fun!!!) 🙂