Veggie Packed Spaghetti Sauce

I know there are jarred sauces out there that are fine for our kids, but there's nothing like a good homemade (EASY) sauce over some delicious noodles. I've been making sauce for awhile, but I didn't have everything today that I needed, but I had a lot of veggies to use up. So, I figured I'd try to hide some in this sauce. My ADHD child will eat veggies no problem, so the true test was the picky 4 year old diva...and she gobbled up two helpings. Score for momma.

You'll need:
1 Medium can petite diced tomatoes (appx 28ounces)
1 small can tomato paste
1 pound ground hamburger
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
1/2 medium sized green pepper, finely chopped
1/2 large sweet onion (i used vidalia), finely chopped
1 large carrot, grated fine
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 Cup water

To taste:
Salt
Brown sugar (we like a sweeter sauce)
Oregeno (I used dried)
basil (again, dried)
Red pepper flakes
Rice vinegar or Apple cider vinegar...a couple splashes
EVOO

Swirl about 2 tsps EVOO in the bottom of a medium sized pot. Toss in onion and saute til translucent. Add garlic, celery, green pepper and carrot...saute til soft. Add garlic, being careful not to burn. Saute about 1 min to infuse flavor.

Add ground burger to the veggie mix and cook til done. Drain grease and then add tomatoes and the tomatoe paste. Stir well. Add the rest of the ingredients. :) Allow this to simmer for about 3 hours over a low heat. That's really the key to this...it needs to cook and let the flavors infuse and you can tweak the spices as you see fit.

Any veggies will work. My kids absolutely loathe peppers and NOBODY had a clue they were in there. Momma wins again! Delicious hearty recipe. I served this over Tinkyada Fetticcine. YUM!

Enjoy!