Recipe: Homemade Pizza Sauce

I love Mondays! Well, I love Monday nights. Now that another season of The Bachelor has started, I'm back to my Monday girls' night. We rotate homes and watch The Bachelor (or Bachelorette), and the host home is in charge of dinner (the others are in charge of wine). Because most of our gal pals have moved away, its just Casey and myself for now. 
(Bonus: I get to take advantage of the weeks she hosts by sneaking in some baby Colin kisses before he goes to bed!)

I hosted this past Monday night, and it dawned on me that I had nothing planned for dinner! I considered picking something up, but she made such a delicious dinner last week, I hated to not put any effort into it. Spying a can of peeled tomatoes in our pantry, I decided to make homemade pizza. (Because that's the natural connection that my brain makes...can of peeled tomatoes...pizza!)

After looking at a few recipes online, I decided I didn't need anything extra in order to make the sauce. I had everything (or a substitute of everything) on hand. Which just helped justify my decision!

Here is the recipe that came out of my efforts. The beauty of making your own sauce is that you can customize it to your own taste. Like garlic? Add more! Like it sweeter? Toss in a little sugar! It's up to you.

And, since you know I love anything that freezes, I split the leftover sauce in half and put 2 bags in the freezer for future meals (spaghetti, another pizza, etc.). Yesssss.

Ingredients:

• 28oz. can of peeled tomatoes
• 4-5 tbsp. of Italian seasoning
• 1/4 cup olive oil (not pictured)
• 2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp. of minced garlic
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

• Put all ingredients into a large bowl.
• Mix with an immersion blender (don't be like me and lift it up out of the mixture. It will splatter red all over your freshly painted cabinets). It was actually my first time using it - I got it from Santa Claus and was SO excited when I opened it! I need to find more things to use it for. It's fun!
• Taste the sauce. If it needs more seasoning, add more. More salt? Toss in another pinch. This can be totally customized, so go for it!
• There are no more steps. Move on to your recipe! It's as easy as that :)

Do you have any recipes that I could use my leftover red sauce in? Please share!

Until next time - -