Healthy Spaghetti Sauce - lots of veggies!

I love making large dishes on the weekends that Travis and I can enjoy throughout the week.  It's such a nice feeling to be able to enjoy healthy, homemade food all week long, without having to spend lots of time in front of the stove every night after work.  One of my favorite things to cook with hubby is spaghetti.  Since we've been married, we've perfected our favorite sauce - and it's packed full of veggies!

I think the thing that makes this sauce stand out are the carrots.  It's a great way to get a subtle sweetness in your sauce without adding sugar or overwhelming the entire dish.

Ingredients
1 large onion (diced)
1 cup minced carrots
10 ounces mushrooms
3 cloves garlic, minced
6 ounces spinach
1.5 pounds ground turkey
1.5 - 2 jars of your favorite pasta sauce (+/-)
Olive Oil
Oregano
Basil
Salt


Directions

Brown the ground turkey in a very large frying pan.  Once cooked, drain grease and return to pan.  Then, prep the veggies!

Mince (finely chop) carrots until you have about 1 cup of tiny carrots pieces.
Dice and saute onion in 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
Mince 3 large cloves of garlic.
Saute mushrooms in 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil.
Add all of the above to the ground turkey as they are prepared.

Pour in 1-1/2 jars of your favorite sauce, and heat on medium/low for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add oregano, basil, and salt - the amount you'll  need will depend on your taste and the sauce you choose.  We added 1/2 tablespoon of each to ours.

After simmering for 30 minutes, add spinach.  It works best to add 3 ounces first, mix with pasta and allow to start to wilt, then add the rest.  Continue to simmer until pasta has wilted.  You may want to add a little more pasta sauce as you add the spinach, depending on how thick the sauce is.

Serve over your favorite shape of pasta (we picked thin spaghetti tonight) and top with grated cheese!

Give it a try and tell me what you thought!