Things have been tough lately and I’m sure most people can agree. For the next few months I will be sharing recipes that depend upon canned goods other items that people receive from the food bank. I’ve known a lot of people that have had to rely on charity from others recently and these are some of the things I have been cooking for friends and family based on the canned goods they receive from food donations.

Here’s a great way to use up all those canned tomatoes you have in your food storage. You’ll need three different types. Fresh produce can be difficult to come across during the winter but with the right spices (if you’ve been stocking your pantry properly) you can make some decent tasting food.

Spaghetti Sauce

• 1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 16oz can stewed tomatoes (I got lucky and this one had bell peppers in it)
• 1 16oz can diced tomatoes
• 1/4 cup brown sugar (to taste)
• Italian seasoning (most people have this instead of parsley, oregano, rosemary and thyme)
• splash of olive oil
• minced onions
• onion powder (to taste)
• garlic powder (I’d normally use garlic but I’ve noticed a lot of households don’t carry it)
• dash of cinnamon
• 1/2 of an apple

All you really need to do is cook your sauce first so that it can stew slowly for a while. This will allow all the flavors to blend. Plan on spending about thirty or more minutes with your sauce.

Start with the crushed tomatoes on a medium heat and then add your spices. After everything has blended for a few minutes go ahead and add your stewed tomatoes. If they are whole, slice them. If they are already sliced, you will still want to cut them in half or quarters.

Do not put in the diced tomatoes or the apples until the very end. If you have baking type apples then you can put them in with the diced tomatoes about10 minutes before you are finished. About the same time you start your noodles.

Most people make the mistake of starting their noodles with everything else. Generally, you will want to save the noodles for last.

I wanted to make some carbonara but I didn’t have any pancetta or Parmesan, so I just tossed the noodles with a couple of raw eggs. Don’t let this scare you. All you need to do is throw the noodles into a bowl with eggs and black pepper immediately after you drain the water. The heat from the noodles will cook the eggs well enough. Once the noodles are in just keep stirring and tossing those noodles.

I know this isn’t anything fancy but many people might like to know how to make spaghetti sauce if they don’t have the pre-made stuff laying around. I served tonight’s dinner with some fried and breaded eggplant with a side of green beans and apple muffins for desert. We just used the Jiffy brand boxed muffin mix. Nothing in this meal was fresh but it should be appropriate for the way most people stock their kitchens.

I took some pictures but I failed at figuring out how to transfer them from the cell phone to the computer. Hopefully your imagination makes it look yummy but that’s hard to do knowing everything came from cans.