Something’s Gotta Give

Today was one of those days that kind of flashed before my very eyes.  I feel like I accomplished nothing, but the hours still seemed to disappear. Go figure!  This weekend I plan to get some Spring cleaning done, and of course the weekly meal planning. 

I tweeted about this yesterday, but I thought I would talk about it on the blog today. Between sick kids, a new job, the Slow Cooker Challenge, and of course, thirty meatless days, I’m feeling like something’s gotta give right now.  I am completely loving this whole slow cooker experience, and of course, I can’t quit the job, or give the kids away, so I think I’m going to have to do something that I hate doing…quit. 

My thirty meatless days have officially become 8.5 meatless days, and I’m okay with that.  I’ve decided to make a concerted effort to eat less meat, and have the balance of the week meatless instead of having the ENTIRE week meatless.  If it were just me, or even Mr. T. and I, it would be far easier than having to find meatless meals for the kids too!

That being said, let’s move on to Melanie’s entry for the Healthy Slow Cooker Challenge – Veggie Spaghetti Sauce.  Melanie contacted me to say she’d love to participate, but asked that I put it up on my blog.  No problemo, happy to do it! So here’s Melanie’s recipe, and pictures!

The recipe in pictures:

Classic Veggie Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped Onion

1 cup chopped Red Pepper

1 cup chopped Green Pepper

3 stalks celery, chopped

5 (or so) crushed cloves of Garlic (depending on taste)

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 cup sliced mushrooms (I didn’t include these – you’ll never find those yucky things in my house haha)

1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes

1 jar tomato/pasta sauce

3 cups water

2 Tbsp. dried Parsley

1 Tbsp. dried Oregano

1 Tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

Directions:

Chop all the chop-ables, toss in the crock pot. Throw everything else in there too, while you’re at it. Give it all a good stir. Cook on low for 8 hours or so – I usually like to stir once half way through cooking time. Once done, serve over whole wheat pasta. Top with fresh Parm if you’re feeling cheesey! This is my usual Spaghetti Sauce recipe, and when we’re not feeling only veggie, I usually add about one pound of browned lean ground beef.

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Doesn’t it look great? Such an easy way to get lots of veggies into your kids, too.

I wanted to share a another blog with you that’s devoted entirely to healthy slow cooking!  Zibi  at Fresh Slowcooking read about the challenge and submitted her recipe for Spiced Apple Whole Grain Cereal, but you should check out ALL of her amazing recipes.

Lots of you have commented that you don’t have a slow cooker but would love to have one to try out some of these recipes, well, Jocelyn at Jocelyn Eats Fresh is giving away a slow cooker! What perfect timing, go enter to win.

Speaking of giveaways, have you entered my first Free Stuff Friday 24 hour VitaMuffin giveaway??