Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

After many years of growing up making our own homemade salsa, canning tomatoes and other garden veggies, I decided to take a shot at making my own homemade spaghetti sauce.  I will be straight-forward and honest when I say, it isn't easy, it's pretty messy and it's very time consuming!!!  However, it is so worth the hard work...it tastes delicious and fresh, it full of flavor and it's better than anything you can get from a jar or can!  And I also take satisfaction in knowing that all of the products that I use to make it are homegrown and organic!  So not only does it taste good, but it's good for you too!  For all of you organic mamas like me who want to give your families the healthiest, safest foods possible, this is for you!

Ingredients

• at least 2 bushels of tomatoes
• fresh herbs -I used basil, oregano and parsley
• garlic powder to taste
• tomato paste (enough to thicken the amount of tomatoes you use)
• *optional* veggies of your choice (I used zuchini, green beans, and carrots)
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Wash tomatoes.  Boil water in a large pot.  Once water is boiling, add whole tomatoes to fill the pot. (they won't all fit, but just add as many as you can)  Leave tomatoes in for just a few minutes. Remove tomatoes and place into a large bowl or kitchen sink filled with ice water.  This is a step that a lot of people don't do, but it's such a valuable one!  By boiling the tomatoes for just a short time and blanching them in ice water, it loosens the skins, making it a breeze to remove the skin, which you don't want to add into the sauce!  Once the tomatoes are cooled, you can peel the skin right off.  Repeat this for all of your tomatoes.  After all of the tomatoes are peeled, slice the tomatoes in half, and remove the seeds and juices inside.  Something I like to do is to put the insides of the tomatoes through a strainer into a bowl, so that I have tomato juice that I can put into jars and can separately later on!  (it's a good way to get as much as possible out of the tomatoes that you use!)  Next, once you have all of your tomatoes seeded, chop them into about 1 inch cubes.  Add to the large pot you will use for your spaghetti sauce.  Now finely chop and add any herbs you like...I opted for lots of basil, oregano and parsely.  Add enough to flavor your sauce as you like it.  I love basil, so I use a lot of it and just filled with the oregano and parsely. Next, add tomato paste.  This will help thicken your sauce.  Now add garlic powder to taste.  I don't add fresh garlic because I've been told that it tends to get bitter during storage, so I opt for powder.  (but I do add fresh garlic to it when I prepare it for spaghetti) Also add salt and pepper to taste.  I put just a bit of garlic powder in it also for some extra flavor, but that's optional.  And last, finely chop any vegetables that you would like in your sauce.  This is a step that can be skipped, but I've found that it's a good way to get more veggies into our diets by adding them to stuff like this where they blend right in with the sauce!  With a persnickity 2 year old, I sneak veggies into almost anything I can when I can!!! :) 
Cook your sauce on a low heat until thickened.  This normally takes at least 2-3 hours, but I let it go longer than that.  The longer you cook it, the thicker it will be.  So if you don't mind runny sauce, you don't have to cook it long!
Once the sauce reaches a consistency that you are satisfied with, turn off heat and let it cool.  After it cools, simply pour it into freezer bags.  (*Note- I always make sure to label the bags with what it is and the date I made it prior to adding the sauce so I know...I make it multiple times throughout the garden season, so I like to know the dates so I can use the older stuff first)  
You can always can the sauce if you prefer, but I've found that freezing it works just as well.  Not to mention that the bags are easy to stack in a freezer and don't take up much space!  

And there you have it....yummy homemade spaghetti sauce that your family is sure to love!  Whenever you want to make spaghetti, just pop a bag out of the freezer, remove from the bag and put it into a pot frozen and cook it...or thaw it by putting the bag into a pot of boiling water for just a minute or so and then pour it into a pot for cooking. 
Enjoy!!!