Spag Bol - pls give me your best kid friendly version

[wrenster]

Rather embarrassingly since the kids have been born despite being a confident cook, I have always used Dolmio to make my spag Bol. The articles in the press this week about the levels of sugar it contains have made me think I should probably be making this from scratch but I don't want the kids to turn their noses up!

So, please could anyone share how they make their spag Bol? I try to put as many veggies as I can in I.e. Courgette, onion, pepper just to bulk it out it's the exact quantities of tomatoes etc that I'm not sure about. Thanks v much

Lean mince.about a 3/4 of a pound. The better the quality the better. 3 cloves of garlic, two onions finely chopped, a tube of tomato purée and two tins of chopped tomatoes.
Olive oil to fry onions and garlic until transparent, add meat and fry gently and then rest of ingredients.
I usually put in into a dish in the oven as I want it to simmer slowly. On around 180, in an already heated oven for an hour. Keep checking it's not burning. Or gently simmer on the hob until it tastes done.
I find it is much tastier the next day as the tomatos have had time to marinade the beef. I usually make it the day before I serve it up.
You can add any cut up veg to this you like. Courgettes, carrots.peppers.
For a veggie version I just use mushrooms instead of meat.

What on earth do you think goes in a Bolognese sauce that would make it not kid-friendly?!

I know what you mean by kid friendly op! My kids love quite a basic sauce, I use passata, onion and garlic. Tbh they do prefer dolmio but like my one too. I sometimes stir in just 1 block of frozen chopped spinach as well.

Oh I forgot- I chuck a couple of teaspoons of tomato puree in as well

BIWI wasn't she referring to the sugar in the Dolmio Pasta sauce as not being the child friendly bit, apparently it is quite high.

My GS loves pasta but all ready made Pasta sauce has a high sugar content. I make it from scratch and they love it. I don't want them eating too much sugar as there is sugar in cereal.

So if they eat, say, bran flakes for breakfast ( they have sugar in I believe) doesn't Cows milk also have some natural sugar in it? They have orange juice containing more sugar. A piece of toast ( bread has sugar in it)
It soon tots up.
When my DCs were small I made all their food from scratch, including bread and even 40 years ago I was aware of the dangers of sugar.

My DCs buy a lot of prepared stuff, full of sugar and salt. It depresses me to see my GC with a Fruit Shoot. I think they are disgusting.
Still, I keep my mouth shut. If I dared express my opinion to my lazy DCS and DILs, there would be a post about me on MUMNET. It is laziness because I had a full time job and more children than they have and just worked very hard providing sugar and salt free meals for my family.

Thanks everyone, will give it a go and hope my fussy brood don't notice.

By kid friendly I meant no red wine which while I know the alcohol will burn off, I don't see any reason to waste good wine on the kids!

Holeinmyheart - I do work really hard on making almost everything from scratch but dolmio is my one fall back 'jar'. NO more though!

It never tastes as good without some wine - why woud you leave it out? Here's what I do. Onions, celery and carrots, grated small. Cook down for ages. Add lots of garlic. Cook down. Whole you're doing this, brown 4:1 beef mince and pork mince. Drain off a lot of fat. Put it in a big pan with the onion stuff. Tins of tomatos, wine and stock. Cook for ages. Eat some. Make lasagne with leftovers.

Diced onions (2 large) sweated off, chopped garlic, 2 large sticks of celery chopped, 3 large carrots, 2 courgettes, a red, green and yellow pepper chopped. Fry it all off in a little olive oil, add basil and oregano then a can of chopped toms and a large bottle of passata. Once all veg is soft blitz it in a processor til smooth.

Then fry off lean mince, crumble in a beef oxo, add a large glass of decent red wine, some paprika and then add the veggie tomato mixture. Let it simmer and thicken.

If I don't have a bottle of wine open I'll add some balsamic vinegar but I always cook for my dcs as I cook for myself - we all eat the same food, don't be mean add the wine!

"Don't have a bottle of wine open...." Sorry- don't understand.......

Do try the 4:1 beef and pork mince, it makes a huge difference.

Cook it for as long as you possibly can- a slow oven is good. If you taste it and it needs something, try some Worcestershire sauce or some tomato ketchup.

And if you can, make it in advance. It's so much nicer the second day. Make a big batch to save fuel, and freeze. Or use some to make lasagne and freeze them.

I always add dried mustard powder to our bolognese. It is lovely with beef.
Plenty of courgettes etc. Sometimes I add red lentils too.

Sugar is sugar is sugar, autummroses - your body processes it in exactly the same way. Doesn't matter what source/where it comes from

Red onion and some garlic sweated until transparent (tiny bit of fresh chilli for warmth but not heat)
Add finely diced carrots and finely diced beetroot (I sue the cooked, vac pack organic stuff) and soften- extra vegetables plus sweetens it a bit. Add peppers too if I have them.
A little chopped bacon if I have it.
Brown the mince (agree that pork/beef mix is good, especially if you have no bacon).
Add a tin of chopped tomatoes and some stock, simmer with a bayleaf for a bit.
Just before serving I remove bayleaf, stir through some spinach and some lemon juice/zest. Idea is to have vegetables from the whole rainbow of colours in (purple, red, orange, yellow, green) to try to maximise vitamins/minerals. Chopped parsley or basil on top rather than parmesan usually, pop a wee bit of fish sauce or worcestershire in at the tomato stage to replace the umami note the parmesan brings though.

The Annabel Karmel recipe for spaghetti Bol that includes aubergine is ridiculously good. So much so that DP was trying to make me make it for him last night even though he hate aubergine lol.

Simplest is best. Fry off a finely chopped onion in olive oil, add some chopped parsley, add a carton of passata, put the spaghetti on to cook, then as the bol is cooking, add half a stock cube and some pepper and a dash of cream. Bung the spaghetti into the sauce once cooked and then mix and serve.

That's my basic and serves two if you use 75-100g pasta each adult, or 50g per child.

If you want mince in it, add that after the onions. Ditto finely chopped veg.

Mine is
Two onions
Two cloves garlic
Two carrots (peeled and sliced)
Fry in a deep pan
Add 500g mince and stir til browned
Add a beef stock cube crumbled
Add two tins chopped tomatoes
Add mixed herbs
Add chopped bacon
Stir, bring to the boil, lid on and simmer for 20 mins.

Its not Michelin star but its tasty, kids love it, and most importantly, its quick. We have so so little time.

I use 500g mince - beef or half beef, half pork.

Lots of chopped veg - onions, leeks, carrots, courgettes, peppers, mushrooms, celery. I cut them fairly small, but I think it's nice to have some chunks of different texture

1 tin of value chopped tomatoes and one carton of good quality passata.

I don't usually add basil (DD doesn't like it), I usually add parsley and paprika instead. Not very authentic, but it does taste nice too, just different.

I do add wine, though when DC were babies I used dealcoholised cooking wine.

I make in bulk so;
3 onions
1kg mince (1yr old won't eat beef mince so using turkey atm, ts not the same)
Mixed herbs, paprika, garlic salt
Add one tin toms
Then the veg (eg 3/4 peppers, 1 tin sweetcorn, 1 pack mushrooms, basically anything but aubegine, will add 3 diff veg/beans/lentils usually)
Add a carton of passata
Tube of tomato purée
Leave it on, stirring every now and again, for minimum of 2 hours.
Mix in the pasta (we usually use penne or rigatoni to make it easier for kids to eat) once it's cooked.

None of this serving the sauce on top.