If you are craving Italian food, try this easy slow cooker spaghetti sauce recipe. It’s really chunky, healthy and includes a secret ingredient that you don’t typically find in spaghetti sauces.
The best part is that you are making it yourself, so there is no added sugars that are found in store bought sauces.
I have to tell you something. I love marinara and spaghetti sauces. I actually love homemade marinara sauce, but I also love the convenience of store bought sauce. It’s just so easy to pop the top and use whatever you need. Boom…done.
But have you ever looked at the back of a spaghetti sauce bottle? Oh man…it’s not pretty. They hide sugar in their spaghetti sauce – did you know that?
While I am beginning to realize that sugar is in almost everything bottled or bagged, I didn’t expect to find it in a spaghetti sauce, which isn’t sweet at all.
That shocked me…and I decided to make my own sauce which will last a good long while and is delicious.
Plus, there’s a secret ingredient in it (can you guess what that is?) which you don’t typically find in store bought spaghetti sauces.
I don’t think I have met a kid who doesn’t love spaghetti. This sauce is toddler approved and a great kid friendly dinner option.
What is your favorite Italian meal?
Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 1 Tablespoon garlic minced
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 2 medium carrots chopped
- 15oz can diced tomatoes
- 8oz can tomato sauce
- 6oz can tomato paste
- 1 Tablespoon garlic salt
- 1 Tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 Tablespoon dried parsley
- 1 Tablespoon garlic powder
- red pepper flakes optional
Instructions
- In a medium skillet, cook the meat, onions and garlic until the meat is cooked through and the onions are translucent, about 8 minutes.
- Add the meat, onions and garlic into the slow cooker. Add the remaining ingredients (except the noodles) and cook on low for 6-8 hours.
- Serve over cooked noodles or zoodles!
I will have to remake this to check the recipe/serving size. One thing I noticed that could be a factor is that I might have used 15oz can tomato sauce and not the 8oz can in the recipe card. I’ll have to remake this to adjust the recipe (if needed). When I updated the serving size to 6 like you said, I got 3 Freestyle points, not 5. Are you also including the pasta in your points calculation? I didn’t add any pasta to my calculation at all, so that could be the big swing in points.
This is a delicious spaghetti sauce but I disagree with the number of Freestyle points per serving. First of all mine only came out to 5 1/2-6 servings, not 8. So I refigured it and I see it coming out as almost 5 points per 1 cup serving. Is there a misprint in the recipe (something left out?) or was it calculated wrong?
Hi Rhonda – it is 2 SP without noodles. It would probably be less points if you used a higher percentage lean ground beef. I would do a serving of pasta which is 1 cup cooked.
It said 1 cup of sauce is 2 pts. Is that including the pasta, and how much pasta are you allowed? And if not how many pts for just the pasta?
Thank you so much! I’m so happy that you can use the sauce for other things too…it’s so delicious and easy to make.
My family LOVES this recipe and we get quite a bit out of it! I use leftovers for air fryer 2 ingredient dough calzones! My 2 year old LOVES this sauce and he hates almost everything! Lol
Oh wow. I probably need to make this again just to see how many servings you can get. I remember getting 8 when I first made it, but if you got less than 1/2 of that, then I need to see what’s happening. I’m glad you loved the recipe though!
The sauce was very good, however we didn’t get 8 1 cup servings from this recipe. We actually ended up with less than 4 1 cup servings.
If you just had to reheat the sauce? Between a few minutes to 10 minutes, I would guess. I don’t typically freeze my sauce (we eat it too fast), but I bet it wouldn’t take too long to reheat it.
How long would this last if refrigerated or frozen?
Fresh tomatoes should be 0 points. I love chunks in my spaghetti sauce too.
Do you know what how many points are in fresh tomatoes? I love chunks of tomato in my sauce.
It is the perfect sauce when you are wanting spaghetti. I loved how easy it was to make and so delicious.
This looks delicious! The perfect dish to warm the tummy and heart 🙂