Veggie Tables

This particular night was a breakthrough on the vegetable front. I made a Jamie Oliver tomato sauce recipe that claimed to be the "best tomato sauce ever". That's a lot to live up to and it definitely did.  It was a double batch recipe intended for you to freeze the extras. I liked that idea since starting this Monday I will be taking a full load of classes this semester: Humanities (why has it taken me this long to get that one out of the way?!), Sociology (again, I might add, since according to BSU the soc. class I took previously is unacceptable), French (because I'm stubborn and refuse to learn Spanish), and Human Growth & Development.  Since returning to school I've only ever taken classes part time so this is going to be my busiest semester yet.  Anyway the point is that I've been trying to stock up on healthy essentials so it will be easy for Matt to whip up dinner when I am in class at night. 

I was crossing my fingers that the Soyboy was going to approve of this sauce since one portion of it has 2 to 3 servings of vegetables! I really hoped this could be my ticket to getting some veggies in his little peanut butter fueled body. He watched me chop up all the veggies, helped throw them into the pot and watched me stirring it. While I was adding the finishing touches he was licking his lips and said he wanted some (as in he pointed at it and grunted). I gave him a couple spoon licks and he wanted more...next thing I knew he had chowed down two bowls! He didn't even have any noodles in it, just the sauce with some parmesan on top. 

It was a veggie miracle. 

What is this blessed sauce? Well, I've included the recipe below in case you want to try it. I should add too that Matt, who tends to be veggie challenged as well, also liked it. It definitely gets two thumbs up, three if I had an extra one. 

*2 small onions

*2 red bell peppers

*2 zucchinis

*2 stalks celery

*2 carrots

*1 leek

*1 small butternut squash

*4 (14.5 oz) cans plum tomatoes with juice

*2 cups water

*pinch of sea salt

*pinch of freshly ground pepper

*large pinch of dried oregano

*2 bay leaves

*olive oil

-Peel the onions, trim the leek and celery, halve and deseed the red bell peppers, then roughly chop everything up. Use the coarse side of a box grater to grate the zucchinis and carrots. Heat a LARGE saucepan over medium heat and add a tablespoon of olive oil followed by all your chopped veggies. Add the oregano and bay leaves, then cook slowly, stirring occasionally for about 20 minutes or until the vegetables are soft, but not starting to brown. Meanwhile, peel the butternut squash, then cut it in half, discard seeds, and coarsely grate the flesh. Add it to the pan of vegetables. Add the 4 cans of plum tomatoes, water, sea salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the squash is soft. Take the pan off the heat, spoon out the bay leaves, and let sauce cool before blitzing with a stick blender until smooth (or use a blender of food processor in batches). Makes 13 cups. To freeze, divide the leftovers between large freezer bags. Press as much air out of the bags as possible before sealing them, then lay flat in the freezer.