Super Easy Meat Sauce with Mushrooms and Olives

Growing up, I remember coming home from school and having the aroma of fresh spaghetti sauce greeting me as soon as I opened up the door. My mom always made the most amazing sauce! However, it always seemed to take a lot of time to make.

Fast forward to many years later (I will not mention how many ;-)): I never thought that I had time to make my own sauce, so I always used store-bought. Spaghetti night was one of those meals during the week that we had, but nobody was ever overly excited about. Recently, I created this sauce recipe when I was trying to come up with a way to liven up spaghetti night. After rave reviews from the boys, I will never go back to store bought! Spaghetti night is now one of our favorite meals of the week since I have used this quick and easy meat sauce with mushrooms and olives recipe:

2T olive oil

1/2 pound very lean ground beef

1 T minced garlic

1-28 oz can crushed tomatoes

1-4 ounce can slices mushrooms (drained)

1-4 ounce can sliced black olives (drained)

1t salt

1/2 t pepper

1t Italian seasoning

1t sugar

Heat a large pot over medium-high heat. When the pot is hot, add 2T of olive oil. Add the ground beef and brown until no pink remains. Drain the ground beef and add it back into the pot. Add the minced garlic with the ground beef and cook over medium heat for 1-2 minutes, until the garlic is fragrant.

Add the crushed tomatoes, mushrooms, black olives, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and sugar to the pot. Stir well to combine. Increase heat to medium high to bring sauce to a slow boil,stirring frequently to keep from sticking and burning. Reduce heat to low and simmer sauce for 10 minutes, while continuing to stir frequently.

Serve over your favorite cooked pasta, use it on homemade pizza, in a lasagna, or with any other Italian dish!