This is how I make my meat sauce. My family and friends seem to love this stuff. It must be pretty good because my brothers actually ask me to make it- and you know if your brother acknowledges that something you make is good, well it must be good!
Basic Ingredients
1 package of ground beef (about 1 pound)
1 jar of spaghetti sauce. Ragu is good, Classico is very good. If you want you can just start with plain old diced tomatoes or plain tomato sauce. Store bought stuff is a good starter though.
1 bundle of green onions- chop it up fine, I cut off the tip and just use the white to green white parts
1 large white or yellow onion- chop it up, but big chunks can be good- just make darn sure you've peeled it well enough. Nothing like chunks of tough onion paper befouling your spaghetti sauce! Often I will peel off one good layer as well, just to make sure the onion is pure.
1 package of mushrooms, slice 'em fine or better yet buy them pre-sliced
1 green pepper, gut out the white part and chop it up
1 cubanelle pepper (this is a spicey pepper that you may wish to include- it is a hot pepper, but not too hot I find) They are large thin yellowish peppers
6 or so large carrots chopped up (peeling carrots is highly overrated, I generally don't bother unless there's nasty bits, YMMV)
2 tbsp. of Chopped, Pureed, or similar Garlic- you can finely slice up a clove or so if you want on your own- but just buy the little plastic jars of chopped garlic!
Seasonings that work:
Montreal Steak Spice
Various Garlic Plus type spices
Various spicey, cayenne based spices
Salt and Pepper
Cooking it
Basically you start by dummping all of your veggies in a large (and deep) frying pan, with either olive oil, butter, or margerine. If you are on a health kick you can just spray the pan with cooking spray. Cook them just a bit higher then medium- keep them stirred up quite a bit. Once they are done (they will all be soft basically), then you add your ground beef. Brown the ground beef (turn the heat up a bit more and make sure you break up all the clumps of beef, stir everything up fairly frequently until its done). Once the beef is cooked add your sauce and turn the heat down to around low and stir it up every once and awhile. Add more seasoning as required. Serve with your choice of pasta.
Basically this is a veggie stir fry, then you add and brown the beef. I honestly don't know why people like my sauce so much. About the only thing I do different is fully cooking the veggies before even adding the meat- this makes them nice and soft as opposed to crunchy. The carrot thing I got from an old roommate- I thought he was nuts, but the sweetness of the carrots really adds something to the mix! YMMV