Spaghetti and Meat sauce

Tonight's dinner is another of my husband's favorite meals. Luckily it is also my kids favorite as well so everyone over here will be quite happy tonight.

I am making my grandmother's meat sauce. This sauce is super yummy and so easy to make. This is actually one of the meals I make in bulk every month. I multiply the recipe by 6 and have 6 dinners done in no time flat. I store them in gallon sized ziploc bags and freeze. On the day we want to eat them I throw the frozen sauce in the crockpot on low all day and all I have to do at dinner time is boil the pasta. 

Since I am cooking in bulk I also save a ton of money. I am able to buy the gigantic #10 cans of tomatoes from Costco for $2.50 per can. When you do this recipe by 6 you need one of the #10 cans of tomatoes ($2.50) and 1/2 of a #10 can of tomato paste ($1.25) then you just have the meat as a big cost and you are done. Super frugal.

Meat Sauce
1 clove garlic minced
2 c tomatoes
1 Tbsp Sugar
1/8th tsp Paprika
1 lb hamburger
1/4 c chopped onion
Two 6oz cans of tomato paste
2 tsp salt
1 bay leaf

Brown the meat with the garlic and onions. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer till heated through. Done!

Financial breakdown:
Garlic $0.05
Tomatoes $0.41
Sugar $0.05
Paprika $0.02
Hamburger $2.85
Onion $0.10
Tomato paste $0.20
Salt $0.05
bay leaf $0.07

Total for meat sauce: $3.29

Add in $1.20 for the box of spaghetti and you have an entire meal (plus enough for lunch the next day) for $4.49