Recipe- Easy Pasta Sauce with Sausage & Recipe Link (Cookie)

Well, I made the pasta sauce that I mentioned in MPM, Tuesday afternoon. It turned out really good! I made double the recipe so that I could freeze half of the sauce. That will make an easy dinner for us after Eli gets here. I originally intended to make it ahead Tuesday to freeze and eat Wed night for supper because I had plans for Tuesday night. My feet and back had other plans, though. My mom and dad did end up coming over because we've been having car issues (praying that we'll be able to buy a new vehicle sometime around the first of the year!!) for the past month and the Hubs needed some help working on it! Anyway, they stayed for dinner, since I just happened to have a huge pot of pasta sauce on the stove! Everyone really seemed to like it... well, everyone but Luke. He didn't even attempt to taste it!! He did, however, eat tons of grape tomatoes, that I had for the salad. That was a first, so there was progress!

So, here is the recipe, doubled:

Easy Pasta Sauce w/ Sausage
(I would guess it serves 10-12, it can easily be halved though!)

1.5 lbs ground sausage (I used mild Italian and it wasn't quite 1.5 lbs)
2 cans (15 oz) tomato sauce
2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
1 1/2 c mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
2 bay leafs
2 T sugar
Salt and pepper (although I don't think I had to add any salt)

Brown sausage until no longer pink. Drain, set aside. In a little olive oil, saute onions and mushrooms until onions are soft, add garlic the last 1-2 minutes of cooking. In a large pot mix tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, sausage, onion/mushroom mixture, sugar and spices. Bring pot to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Let simmer, covered, for 45 min to an hour. Serve over your favorite pasta.

*If you've never added sugar to a pasta sauce, try it. It doesn't make the sauce sweet at all (remember this is a doubled recipe) but it cuts the acidity of the tomatoes (doesn't that sound like I know what I'm talking about! Haha!).

And I just wanted to share that I love using pre-minced garlic. I use garlic quite a bit but not really enough to buy fresh bulbs. I've read that pre-minced garlic isn't as pungent (that is a word I learned from Giada De Laurentiis on the Food Network, she says it A LOT!) but that's OK with me. I'm not sure I want really PUNGENT garlic.

I also mentioned making cookies last week. Well, I really wanted something chocolate so I made these, last Thursday: Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

I followed the recipe almost exactly, except I did use half whole wheat flour, real butter, and only 3/4 c sugar total. They turned out really good and satisfied my chocolate craving!

Time to go get some things done. I've got pregnancy on my brain too so I'm sure I'll be back to give an update and share some feelings... I'll be 39 weeks tomorrow!