Recipe: Bob's Meaty Tomato Sauce

Last night Bob made his meaty tomato sauce.  This is a great sauce to put on spaghetti squash (a favorite paleo and low-carb alternative to spaghetti) and serve to the family or when you have friends over for dinner.  Per my request Bob started making the sauce with more meat (he used two pounds last night), because we usually eat the sauce by itself as a meal. It is THAT good. Normally he makes it with ground beef, but we thought we would be a little adventurous and switch things up a bit since we are doing this Whole 30 thing. No reason to be monotonous! We also already had some ground venison and ground elk that we bought from Sprouts a while ago just sitting in the freezer. Including a wide variety of vegetables and fruits in our diet is good for us. We get all sorts of different vitamins and minerals with each kind of vegetable or fruit we eat. I am going to use the same logic with meat and say eating a wide variety of animals has got to be good for you too. A lot of the exotic meats, such as venison, elk, wild boar, (grass-fed) buffalo/bison, kangaroo, ostrich, and many more are leaner with even more protein than regular beef. Being adventurous will keep you from getting bored with your dinners!

 Note: the fresh basil on top was from Bob's garden

Bob's recipe is below. It serves about 4-6 people for dinner. I didn't put exact measurements for the spices, because some people will prefer more or less. We are both big on garlic, onion, black pepper, and spicy flavors. We definitely use a lot of garlic powder and onion powder in this recipe. In my opinion, you can never go wrong with those two. If you can't handle spicy whatsoever you may want to skip the chili pepper and crushed red pepper. The spicy-heat level was very subtle with the amount we used. If you want a spicier sauce throw an extra Serrano pepper in there! ;-) You may also use less meat, but I don't know why you would want to do that!

Bob's Meaty Tomato Sauce

What you will need:
1lb of ground organic venison
1lb of ground organic elk
(Or you may use ground beef, ground turkey, or other ground exotic meats. You may also use less meat. 2lbs makes for a very meaty, hearty sauce)
Coconut oil
Extra Virgin olive oil
Organic chicken broth
Large onion
Whole garlic head
1 carrot
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 hatch chili (or 1 Serrano chili)
Onion powder
Garlic powder
Oregano
Basil
Cracked black pepper
Crushed red pepper,
Himalayan pink salt (or sea salt)
1lb can organic whole tomatoes in juice
6oz can natural tomato paste

Prep:
Finely dice onion, garlic, carrot, bell peppers, and chili pepper.

In blender:
Half cup chicken broth, 1lb can tomatoes in juice, a couple pinches of diced garlic, basil, oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, cracked black pepper and crushed red pepper.
Blend until everything is liquefied and of the same consistency

In large skillet:
Turn the heat on medium and put a little coconut oil in the pan. Sauté the meat and break into smaller chunks. Add 1/3 of the diced onions, a couple pinches of the diced garlic, onion powder, garlic powder, Himalayan pink salt, cracked black pepper and crushed red pepper.

In 2.5 quart saucepan (or you can go a little bigger):

Cover the bottom of pan with coconut oil. Add the rest of the garlic, the rest of the onion, carrot, bell peppers, chili pepper and a dash of olive oil. Simmer vegetables on medium heat for about 10-15 minutes or until soft. After the vegetables are cooked down, put tomato paste in. After a few minutes when tomato paste caramelizes a little bit add a couple dashes of chicken broth, oregano and basil and stir. Wait about
a minute and add blender mixture. Then add meat. Stir. Place a lid on the saucepan crooked (see picture below). Let simmer on medium for 30 minutes to 2 hours, stirring occasionally. After about 30 minutes the sauce will thicken up a little bit. If you want to thin it add you may add a dash or two of chicken broth. The longer it simmers the more flavors come out of the spices and vegetables.