Bolognese recipe

A friend of mine served Spaghetti last week during our weekly playdate and I just couldn't stop raving about it. She was kind enough to wrap some up for us to take home after the playdate. It was the sweet Jolly Spaghetti-type yummy. I loved it. Bud loved it too. He ate it for dinner that night and lunch the next day.

I was inspired to come up with my own version of Bolognese to add to Bud's repertoire of meals. After checking the pantry, I realized we were out of tomato paste and we don't have any bottled spaghetti sauce. It was P who pointed out that we still have some canned tomatoes and i could use that. My though balloon was: "Hmmm... a culinary challenge! Let's see if all those hours spent on watching food network will be put to good use."

Well, indeed it was. The Bolognese turned out quite yummy if I may so myself. Here are the readily available ingredients from our pantry that i used:

1/2 lb ground round beef
1/2 onion minced
3 cloves garlic minced
1 small carrot minced
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 tsp butter
1 tbsp Ketchup (substitute for tomato paste)
1/2 can whole tomatoes
3/4 can campbells condensed tomato soup (substitute for tomato sauce)
1 slice american cheese
salt
sugar

Procedure:
1. Saute onion, garlic, and carrots in olive oil and butter until soft
2. Add the seasoned ground beef to the sauteed vegetables. Cook until brown and fat has been rendered. Take out all extra oil from the pan.
3. Add ketchup and diced canned tomatoes (this is the substitute for the tomato paste)
4. Add the condensed tomato soup and the juice from the canned tomatoes (this is the substitute for the tomato sauce)
5. Add cheese. Add salt and sugar to taste. Let mixture simmer until sauce has reduced to your desired consistency and flavor.