Thinking outside the tomato box

I have made the sauce that has no tomatoes but looks like tomato sauce because it has beets and carrots and the two combined create a lovely red appearance, but this got me thinking that it really does not have to be red. I had no beets today and had leftover spaghetti squash which had me a hankerin' for something spaghetti-ish so I cooked up some ground beef and mushrooms and then I started dropping veggies in the blender and voila...veggie sauce...not even red...so there! Ok, I used peeled and cut up carrots, chopped onion and celery and a clove of garlic, and some basil, oregano, salt, pepper, and water. After blending I added the sauce to the cooked meat mix and heated through, then poured over warm spaghetti squash. I did sprinkle a little paremesan cheese on top for taste. It was wonderful...I like thinking outside the tomato box. So what if the sauce is orange and the noodles are yellow... the taste is pure gold.

Veggie sauce

I have recently been trying to perfect a veggie sauce to replace tomato-based sauces and this one is a keeper. I avoid anything with tomatoes as the acid bothers me, even on acid reflux meds, which I try not to have to take.

Boil the following for about ten min. in about 2-3 cups of water

2 carrots, cut up

1 celery stalk, cut up

onion, cut up.

Then add about 1/3-1/2 of a can of drained beets to the vegetables and the water they boiled in and blend in a blender until saucelike consistency. Add cooked ground beef, (about one patty-sized amount) if desired, basil, salt and pepper, oregano, garlic powder. The spice usage is totally your personal preference. I think the key is to have fun trying. That does not mean there will never be a flop. But now and then you produce something incredible and the joy, for me, comes in being creative.

I ladled mine over cooked spaghetti squash (I baked the squash in the oven) but you can also serve this sauce over any of the pastas you can tolerate. I prefer Tinkayada white rice spaghetti.

Well...happy day...I will be writing my fingers to the bone and loving every minute of it. I am at 30,000 words in the novel I am writing and can't wait to see what is on the next page...bye bye