08/12/2026
😲 Wow!! Thanks for all the responses 😀
A cookbook sounds like fun, but it also sounds like a lot of work! I'm definitely not committing to that yet. It would be nice to have these all organized just for myself, but that may be later down the road. Plus, there really aren't any secret family recipes. Google is an amazing thing! 💯
Many of the recipes we found, we tweaked them a little so they tasted good to us. Many recipes we used exactly the way they were written. I don't know the rules about putting other people's recipes in a cookbook...
Today was a long day, so I'm going to share an easy recipe tonight. Our spaghetti was unlike any other I have ever had. It was just one of those recipes we came across, tried it, tweaked it a little, and loved it. Apparently some of you loved it too. We didn't use a red sauce. It pretty much had all the same ingredients as a chunky tomato sauce, but we used rotel instead of tomato sauce.
As much as I hate "a pinch of this" or "a little of that", it really does depend on your taste. So, I'll use those phrases as little as possible. Just remember to taste it along the way to make sure you've got enough seasoning.
1 lb spaghetti noodles
1 lb ground Italian sausage
1 onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
28 oz Rotel, undrained
Italian seasoning, at least 1 TBSP
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to test
Shredded parmesan
Boil the spaghetti with a little vegetable or olive oil so the noodles won't stick. Just pour a little in, possibly 1/4 of a cup but I really don't know.
Start browning the Italian sausage. Once it's all crumbled/separated in the pan, add the onion and pepper.
When the sausage is browned and vegetables are softened, drain the grease off. There isn't much, usually.
Return sausage and vegetables to the skillet and add the undrained Rotel. Heat it a little so it kind of blends flavors, then add Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.
This is where you start tasting. I would add at least a teaspoon of each salt and pepper and then go from there. We used more salt than pepper and we probably used closer to 1 1/2 TBSP of Italian seasoning.
Pour the sausage mixture over the drained spaghetti noodles.
If you top with shredded parmesan, that will add a little salt taste also.
*we used green or yellow bell peppers for color. Green are usually cheaper and taste exactly the same in a recipe.
*we used Walmart brand Italian sausage. Tastes great, cheaper than brand name.
*we used generic Rotel that we got from our food vendor. I'm sure the Walmart brand would be just the same and cheaper.
✨️Just remember that even if you do exactly what we did, it might not taste exactly the same to you. Just like when someone else fixes a sandwich, it tastes better 😊
Hopefully whoever you're cooking for appreciates the effort ❤️
