Nutrient load spaghetti night with grassfed organ meat & mineral rich veggies for a nutrient dense spaghetti sauce that’s easy to make & delicious!
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Humble beginnings…
This sweet peanut. I was 2 kids into figuring out this whole motherhood thing, and I was just doing the best I could with what I had. I felt like the only one sometimes feeding the girls the way I did. There weren’t a ton of resources 15 years ago on how to feed babies using traditional foods versus rice cereal, but I just knew in my gut I had to do it differently. I wanted my girls to grow up and not have the health challenges I did in my 20’s. I focused on simple, real foods. By the time I got to baby number 2, I had a bit of a rhythm, and grassfed organ meats were some of my baby’s first foods – and for good reason!
Nature’s most perfect multivitamin!
Organ meats were a vital source of nourishment to our ancestors. No matter the place of origin, whatever animal they would have eaten would have been from “nose to tail,” not wasting a single bit of the animal. Interestingly enough, the most powerhouse nutrients in the animal are housed in the organ meats such as liver, heart, spleen, thymus, and kidney. These weren’t an every day food, or the biggest part of their meal, but they definitely packed a punch on a weekly basis. Back when the girls were little, I used whatever liver I could get from local farmers. These days, it is easier to find than you think, and there is even a little short-cut to use if you don’t have access to fresh organ meat…
Dried Organ Meat!
If you don’t have access to quality organ meat, there are so many options for getting shelf stable, dried organ meat these days. I’ve been using the Perfect Supplements Multi-Organ Powder and Liver Powder for a number of years now, and love this option. While I still use fresh organ meat when available so that my girls palates continue to enjoy this food, it is a great little boost to add to a busy week if I don’t have it on hand, or the time to make it. If you have older kids that are not into fresh organ meat, this is a great, taste free option to add to just about any ground meat meal you make from meatballs and burgers to…spaghetti night!
Will I taste the organ meat in the spaghetti?!
It depends on how much you use. I can get away with quite a bit in ours since the girls are used to it. However, I would say that my husband and I are NOT as used to organ meat since we did not grow up on it. I still have not grown a palate for it! I don’t detect it in the ground beef recipes I use it in!
How much fresh or dried organ meat should I use in the nutrient dense spaghetti sauce?
If you have access to quality organ meat such as pasture raised chicken livers, grassfed beef livers or other organs, you can freeze and grate these organ meats into the ground beef as it cooks. When I use fresh organ meat, I use about ½ cup of grated organ meat per pound of beef. If you are just starting out, I would recommend using ¼ cup to ensure the flavor doesn’t change too much. If you are using the powdered organ meat, you can use about 3 tablespoons of dried organ meat per pound of beef. Start out with less if your crew has never had organ meat. We really cannot taste it at this point, but my kids have eaten organ meat since infanthood! If you have babies at home, start now!
What about the veggies in the nutrient dense spaghetti sauce?
Adding shredded veggies to the spaghetti sauce not only adds incredible fiber for digestion, it also boosts the mineral content of the meal! And you can change up the veggies depending on what season you’re in, which will provide variety too. Grated squash or carrots swap well for the sweet potatoes to change up the nutrients. Chopped baby spinach wilts right in without changing any flavor. You can either add it at the end as extra veggies, or swap out the zucchini for the spinach.
Is that…jarred sauce?!
Yep, it is! If you love to use canned whole tomatoes and truly make your sauce from scratch, please do that! Occasionally if I have time, I love to do this! Most of the time, however, spaghetti night gets plopped onto one of my busier days of the week so that it is a fast, easy, and nourishing dinner. Aldi and Meijer have great organic jarred sauces. But, you should be able to find a good spaghetti sauce just about anywhere these days.
Tips for packing Nutrient Dense Spaghetti for school
The best part about making this much sauce is not having to think about school lunch packing the next day! Use easier to manage pasta shapes for lunch thermoses. My tween and 2 teens do fine with long noodles now, but little spirals or elbow mac work best for less mess with little ones. To prepare the spaghetti for the thermos, temper them by putting hot water from the tap into the thermos with the lid. Let the thermos sit with the hot water while you warm up the spaghetti. I like to add a splash of water to the spaghetti while it heats up on the stove to loosen it up. Once the spaghetti is warmed up, dump out the water and scoop in the spaghetti! The kids will love this hot lunch option!
Freezer tips!
This recipe as written makes a lot of sauce even for my family of teens and adults. I tend to make enough pasta to go along with the sauce so there are leftovers for school. The sauce does freeze well though! The nutrient loaded spaghetti sauce can be frozen in Souper Cubes or freezer safe containers for up to 3 months.
Nutrient Dense Spaghetti Sauce
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp butter ghee, bacon grease, or olive oil to cook in
- 1 large onion diced
- 2 lbs grassfed ground beef
- Optional 3-6 tbsp dried/powdered grassfed liver or organ meat, OR 1/4 – 1/2 cup grated frozen liver see notes
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- Optional ¼ – ½ tsp red pepper flakes for heat
- ¼ cup red wine optional for flavor depth
- 2 – 23oz jars spaghetti sauce of choice
- 1 medium zucchini grated (about 2 cups grated zucchini)
- ½ large or 1 small sweet potato grated (about 2 cups grated sweet potato)
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
- Pasta of choice
Instructions
- Melt the cooking fat over medium high heat, and add the onions with a pinch of sea salt. Cook the onions for 5 minutes until soft, fragrant, and translucent.
- Add the beef and dried organ meat. Break the meat up to brown it. I like to let it really sit for a little bit to develop some browning (flavor) on the bottom of the meat before stirring it up much.
- Once the beef is browned, add the tomato paste and red pepper flakes. Stir to combine, and then add the wine to deglaze the pan. Cook the wine for 1 minute while scraping up any bits on the bottom of the pan.
- Add the spaghetti sauce, zucchini, and sweet potato and stir to combine. Bring the sauce to a simmer, then add a lid and low simmer for 10-15 minutes while you boil the pasta.
- Serve your nutrient loaded spaghetti sauce with pasta of your choice.
Notes
- The nutrient loaded spaghetti sauce can be frozen in Souper Cubes or freezer safe containers for up to 3 months.
- If you have access to quality organ meat such as pasture raised chicken livers, grassfed beef livers or other organs, you can freeze and grate these organ meats into the ground beef as it cooks. When I use fresh organ meats, I use about ½ cup of grated organ meat per pound of beef. If you are just starting out, I would recommend using ¼ cup to ensure the flavor doesn’t change too much. If you are using the powdered organ meat, you can use about 3 tablespoons of dried organ meat per pound of beef. Start out with less if your crew has never had organ meat. We really cannot taste it at this point, but my kids have eaten organ meat since infanthood! If you have babies at home, start now!
- Grated squash or carrots swap well for the sweet potatoes to change up the nutrients!
- Chopped baby spinach wilts right in without changing any flavor. You can either add it at the end as extra veggies, or swap out the zucchini for the spinach.
- I like to use this gluten free Jovial brand spaghetti noodle for spaghetti night!
