4 Meat Spaghetti

Time for another recipe. I’ve been trying to reduce my sodium intake and increase the amount of potassium I get each day and have made decent progress with the sodium but potassium has been issue. So for now my best solutions is to start eating more tomato based foods. I’m also trying to build muscle so spaghetti provides protein and tastes great.

Now of course as with any of my recipes I need to put the salt disclaimer:  there is none. It’s not on the ingredient list but probably needs to be for most people. More on this later.

Ingredients:

• 8 cloves garlic minced
• 1 large onion diced
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 lb ground bison
• 1 lb ground lamb
• 1 lb ground turkey
• 5 cups tomato sauce (see note 1 below)
• 4 cups tomatoes diced (see note 1 below)
• 1 cup mushrooms sliced (see not 1 below)
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 1 tsp basil
• 1 tsp parsley
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1/2 tsp bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp marjoram
• 1/2 tsp rosemary
• 1/2 tsp savory
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 3 tbsp brown sugar (see note 2 below)
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese grated

• 13.25oz spaghetti (see note 3 below)
• 1/2 tsp olive oil
• 2 1/2 quarts water

Note 1: I buy the ‘no salt added,’ canned variety.

Note 2: If you like the tart taste of tomatoes or don’t mind the acidity you don’t need to add the sugar.

Note 3: I use a whole wheat blend pasta and love it.

Note 4: One way to combat the lack of salt would be to just buy the canned stuff with salt added. Otherwise I would assume one teaspoon would be fine but I know nothing about salt so don’t quote me on that.

Instructions:

• In a large pot brown the meat with the garlic and onions over high heat, drain off any excess fat (or allow if to burn off)
• In a separate pot add olive oil to water and bring to a boil
• Add remaining ingredients to sauce and continue simmering over medium-high heat
• Prepare spaghetti according to package directions (11-13 minutes should do it for tender pasta)
• Optional: mix spaghetti into sauce

Enjoy! I mix the pasta with the sauce just so I don’t have to worry about running out of one before the other. If I wasn’t so concerned about the salt I would add the following to the sauce: one pound of Italian Sausage, and a half cup each of feta, Mozzarella, and Romano cheese. You would probably need at least one extra cup of tomato sauce to accomodate the extra meat but probably two. My spice rack isn’t very exotic so if I had some on hand I would have added a teaspoon of fennel as well.

Let me know if you try it!

Paige and Kavita, I tried to keep the number of steps down, what do you think?