Thanks Dave, and everyone, for the good suggestions on preparing good home cooked meals. I'm a single dad with 2 children, and I'm a lousy cook, so when I get home in the evenings it's fast food joints. It's not good for you for the most part and it kills your pocket. I'm going to try the crock pot.
*no crock pot needed*
1 onion
1 garlic
ground beef
1 can tomato paste
1 can tomato sauce (Cento brand San Marzano tomatoes for both...yellow cans, says San Marzano on the side)
herbs (oregano, parsley, basil and a bay leaf)
salt
pepper
20 minutes
Awesome gravy (spaghetti sauce) that's much more homemade tasting and 10000x less acidic than the store bought jars. Obviously, I'm missing all of the measurements, but they're not hard to figure out by taste, especially the herbs.
Put dried herbs in early or fresh ones in last and at half what you would dry.
The can of paste is small (4-6oz I guess?) and the sauce is generally a big ol' 24oz or something.
You can also add peppers, celery, carrots, etc. to it, but I like a fast, down and dirty gravy.
Start with the onions. Get them going and then add the garlic (too early and garlic burns = nasty). Get everything translucent and add your meat to start browning if you're adding any. Pour your sauce on top of the browned meat and mix in the paste as well. Season to taste, but generally, everything is tsp, tbsp measurements.
I've got a BBQ sauce recipe I want to share too but have to find it first.
Along with the crockpot theme though, chili works awesome on top of some rice. Makes it more of a meal than just a bowl of chili.