Sorta Not Homemade Pasta Sauce

This is something that I do to jazz up hum drum weekday pasta sauce. Its also great when I'm pinched for time but still wanna have a little bit of a better tasting, looking, appealing pasta sauce.

So tonight it was like...ok whats for dinner? I dug around in the freezer...found some lean ground meat. Wouldn't you know in the cabinet there sat a can of diced tomatoes, some store brand pasta sauce and a box of noodles. It was pasta night for sure. I know you are probably thinking...yuck store brand pasta sauce. gag. Well that's where the 'sorta not homemade' comes into play. Look around and see what you can did up. We always have fresh garlic and onions on hand. So if course Id start with that. Combined with the ground meat...its already looking better.

Now I'm going to head outside. That's where my herb garden resides. I adore fresh basil, and grow plenty of it. This is a must have if you love to cook and eat Italian food. Basil is super easy to grow. Once you grow it and start using it, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it.

Anyways back to the sauce.

So yeah we got fresh garlic, onions and basil. yay. Half way home. I simmer the meat then add the garlic and onion, next I throw in a handful of fresh chopped basil. I also grow oregano, so I threw a lil bit of that in also. Add a can of diced tomatoes. If you want a less watery sauce I recommend draining the tomatoes of the excess juice. Let that all simmer up real good so that the herbs can release their flavors. Next I add a can of pasta sauce. I tend to buy the garlic flavored type sauces. Just depends on your taste. We are garlic lovers! Again, simmer. Toss with whatever pasta you have on hand. Literally 30 minutes, start to finish. Looks homemade, taste sorta homemade and best of all was effortless.I also top with a little bit of fresh parmesan cheese (we had cheese leftover from Caesar salad last night...bonus). 

Just by throwing in the diced tomatoes, fresh herbs and  a little bit of parm cheese....you look like a pro =) They will only know if you tell them! I didn't include any measurements on purpose, for the simple fact that I don't really use any. I just like pasta sauce to taste. Go ahead and experiment! See what you can fake homemade....I mean make.

This is the sauce during the cooking process. Isn't it pretty? I took a picture of the finished product...however my Droid decided to delete it for me :/ So this is all I got.

Shopping Deals

Ahh...yes. As I have previously posted I love coupons. Here's a peek at some of the deals I've got this week.

 Wisk on sale at CVS this week, BOGO. I used four of the $2 off Wisk coupons from last Sundays insert. Total spent $8! Oh yes! My stockpile is growing =)

 Stupendous deals at Walgreen's! The Dove Men's deodorant was on sale for 4/$15 with a $5 register reward...in turn makes its 4/$10. Plus....we had four $2 off coupons, again from this past Sundays insert. In the end I paid $.50 each for those regularly priced $4.99 deodorants! My hubby will not smell at least through October! The body wash and bar soap was on sale 3/$18 with a $6 register reward, making them 3/$12 and of course I had a $1.00 off coupon for each item. Total spent at Walgreen's for all of these items....drum roll please.....$11.00 plus tax =)

 The above deals were from yesterday. I returned to Walgreen's today for some more sale items that I had been wanting to get. However they were still out of the $.55 cans of Tuna. I was displeased. Anyways...here we go...the soda was on sale 5/$13 after an in store coupon. Hot dogs 2/$4 with a $1/2 coupon (I used 2) making them 2/$3 Mayo on sale $2.49 each with a $1/2 coupon (super cheap for mayo) making the mayo about $2 each. Hawaiian Tropic BOGO and I used 2 $1 coupons, both for $8.99. I also used $11 in register rewards that I got yesterday. My total.....the drum roll is played out....lets go with a harp....pretend you heard that....$22 plus tax. I couldn't even buy the two Hawaiian Tropics alone for $22!

As you can see I get a little excited when it comes to my deals and savings. Its unreal how much you can truly save in the long run by taking a little extra time and using coupons and looking for sales. I hope to get even better at this. Why didn't I start this long ago?????