Best Spaghetti Sauce EVER!

Okay, it's been awhile since I posted. I was in Australia for a year and a half working for the Devil Global Conglomerate-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. My boss got fired and the new guy drove me crazy until I got so sick I couldn't get out of bed for weeks. But I'm back.
The latest is my sister has gone on this Whole 30 kick. Basically it's an attempt to cut all the sugar, grains and dairy out of your diet so that your guts can heal. I've been doing a lot of reading on the subject and there are a lot of doctors who espouse that most of the ills we have are caused by an imbalance in our gut bacteria. There are two brains in our body: the one we think with, and the one that men... no, not that one! And one that directs the nutrition and healing of our bodies, that one in our gut. When it is out of balance the body can't handle things that happen like cancer, diabetes, Parkinson's disease, etc. Bring the gut bacteria into balance and suddenly the body is able to deal with these issues on its own, like it was programmed to.

I got a kombucha scoby from my Aunt Jan this summer and started to make my own kombucha. I will post something on this later. But this was my attempt to re-balance the bacteria in my own gut. I was a very slim 190 pounds when I got married. But I brought back a virulent strain of strep from Colorado with me and the first couple of years I was married I kept coming down with it. The doctors gave me course after course of antibiotics for 6 months straight to no avail. I begged them to take out my tonsils (believing that was the cause) and they refused. Finally my doctor told me they would have to take out my tonsils. 6 months later. I swore at him and stomped out of the office. My mom gave me a course of tissue salts and I got better finally. But I have noticed that every time I have gotten sick and required antibiotics, I gain 20 or 30 pounds soon after and then plateau until the next course of antibiotics. So I started drinking kefir in Australia but it wasn't enough. Even with drinking about 500 ml of homemade kombucha every day for 4 months doesn't seem to be fixing it.
So Barb convinced me to do the whole 30 things with mom and her. But it's very tough on a dyed-in-the-wool sugaraholic. I love sugar. My body craves anything it can turn into sugar. I have been on diets. I can give up meat. I can give up fat. But giving up carbs? After a couple of days I wake up in the middle of the night to find myself in the all-night Tim Horton's drive-thru trying to crawl through the teller window after some honey crullers.

Anyway, back to the Whole 30. The first day we had a breakfast of grated potato fried crispy in coconut oil with an egg cracked over it and cooked until its done. Fantastic, except no ketchup allowed (waaay too much sugar in it). Some fruit later. Then for supper I made Lemon Halibut and Hedgehogs. I sliced the potatoes very thinly without cutting all the way through and then drizzled ghee, EV olive oil, sea salt and ground pepper on them and baked them at 425°F for 45 minutes. Yum!

The next day I drizzled EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) over a chicken, rubbed in sea salt, ground black pepper, rosemary and thyme, splashed some lemon juice inside the chicken and baked it until it was crispy. We had chicken for lunch, then I pulled most of the meat off the chicken carcass for another meal and dumped rest of the chicken in a soup pot. I fried up some onions, garlic, more rosemary, salt and pepper. Covered the chicken with water, cut up some carrots and celery and let the soup simmer for a few hours. After a bit I cut up half a 5 pound bag of potatoes and dumped them in. That night we had chicken soup and veggies I strained out of the soup. Not bad but I remembered why I never like my mother-in-law's chicken soup. Kept picking bones out of my teeth. Yech.

So last night I decided if I'm going to subject myself to this Whole 30 thingy, I'm going to do it right. I went to the store and bought some stuff.
Today I made some Whole 30 ketchup. Not going to post the recipe as I haven't tried it out yet. Tastes OK poured on my finger, but needs something to dip in it for the real taste test.
Made some Orange Poppy Seed Dressing. Tasted just OK tonight on salad. Needs some serious sugar. Oh wait, right, can't have that...

Next I made some Caesar Dressing for later that night. Then tried to make mayonnaise. Epic fail. Didn't emulsify.
We decided we were going to have spaghetti for supper but Barb had to run to the north end of Edmonton for a hockey helmet she found on Kijiji. It's all on me.
I've never made spaghetti sauce before. I've adulterated hundreds of jars of store-bought stuff with oregano, basil and Italian seasoning, but never tried to make my own before. Wait, not true, a few years ago I made a batch of marinara to top my famous Chicken Parm but wasn't very impressed.
So I went online to see what other people were doing with both regular meaty marinara and Whole 30 spaghetti sauce. Got some ideas and this is what I came up with:

Best Spaghetti Sauce EVER. 

Ingredients 4 Tbsp EV olive oil
1½ pounds of lean ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped or minced
1 large carrot, diced (yeah I know, carrots in your spaghetti? Too wacky)
1 celery stalk, chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
2 tsp red wine vinegar (I used a raspberry infused version, very nice)
½ cup apple juice
1 tsp oregano (normally would have used 2 tsp but Barb isn't a big fan of oregano)
2 tsp basil
1 tsp thyme
2 tsp Italian seasoning (check to ensure no sugar or corn starch, some brands a lot more than herbs in them)
1 Tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp crushed red pepper
2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 small can (5.5oz.) tomato paste
1 large can tomato sauce
1 can sliced mushrooms (or equivalent fresh)
Water as needed
4 cups packed fresh baby spinach leaves 

1 spaghetti squash or spaghetti noodles 

Directions Pour olive oil in high sided frying pan or dutch oven. Over medium heat, start ground beef browning in olive oil. Add onion, carrot, celery and garlic as you chop them. Add red wine vinegar and apple juice. Add spices and cook until beef is browned and onions translucent.
Add tomato sauce, tomato paste and mushrooms. Continue on medium heat until sauce is bubbling, then turn heat to low and simmer sauce for at least an hour. Add 1 cup of water at a time when the sauce gets overthick and stir in. The sauce will cook off liquid as it simmers and will need occasional infusion of water to keep from turning into a paste.
Cut spaghetti squash lengthwise into halves with large knife or cleaver. Remove seeds and guts with a ice cream scoop. Drizzle EVOO olive oil and sprinkle liberally with sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. Turn squash flesh side down in baking pan and pour water in pan to steam squash. Bake uncovered at 400°F for 60-75 minutes until outer rind can be easily pierced with a fork.
Scoop cooked squash flesh into serving bowl, it will easily break into strands similar to spaghetti noodles.
Ten minutes before serving, add baby spinach and stir into sauce.
Serve sauce over spaghetti squash or noodles. Enjoy!

I can't remember the last time I aced a recipe I made up the first time out this awesomely!

It is easily the best marinara/spaghetti sauce I have ever eaten. I'm not a fan of Olive Garden's marinara. Their meat sauce is just OK. My favorite is the meaty marinara sauce at Boston Pizza and this is better than that.

Mom cut up a couple of romaine hearts and added some chopped cucumbers and little green onions to it. Can't have croutons or freshly-grated Parmigiano Regannio on the Whole 30, and to make matters worse, I discovered that the bag of bacon bits from Costco has sugar as one of the top 3 ingredients. Really? Sugar in my bacon, say it ain't so Joe! But the Caesar Dressing I made up that afternoon was really good. Almost made up for missing bacon and Parmesan.

Paleo/Whole 30 Caesar Dressing

Ingredients

2 eggs

2 cloves garlic, minced

½ tsp sea salt

½ tsp fresh ground black pepper

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

Juice of 1 lemon

2 cups of light olive oil or avocado oil

Directions
I just threw it all in my blender and cranked it on high for 30 seconds. Done. Poured it into a bottle and served it over salad.

The kids were going to have regular spaghetti pasta with their sauce, so I figured I needed another vegetable. So I dug some asparagus out of the crisper. We had poached asparagus and julienne carrots the other night so I decided I wanted something different.

Sauteed Cashew Asparagus

Ingredients
1 bundle asparagus
3 Tbsp coconut oil
⅛ cup apple juice
splash of red wine vinegar
couple of handfuls of cashews

Directions
Bend the asparagus stems in half. The asparagus will snap at the start of the woody part of the stem. Set aside the top part and discard the woody stems.
Heat oil over medium heat and add cashews. Once the cashews are nicely browned, pour into bowl. Pour used coconut oil from cashews back into frying pan. Add juice and vinegar. Add asparagus and cook until al dente. Add cashews back, stir to mix and serve.


Whole 30 or no Whole 30, this might be one of the best meals I have eaten in a long time.