#GDRecipes: Homemade Marinara Sauce

#GDRecipes: Homemade Marinara Sauce

Since being diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes (GD), I've decided to adjust some of my favorite recipes to be more carb-friendly. I'm a sucker for Italian food (especially pizza and spaghetti), but when my nutritionist told me that most canned spaghetti sauces have added sugar, I decided to come up with a more natural alternative. 

Here's the recipe and instructions for my new favorite marinara sauce--and the best part is that its carb-free (yes, there are some carbs in the tomatoes, but for my diet my nutritionist says tomatoes are "free" in that I can eat as many of them as I want without it affecting my blood sugar levels)! 

So, grab your crock pot, some fresh ingredients, and sauce it up! Then, to make a meal of it, just toss this sauce over some whole wheat pasta or put it on top of english muffins to make your own personal pizzas.

Ingredients

Homemade Chunky Marinara Sauce

• 6 ripe tomatoes (I use small Roma tomatoes)
• 1 onion
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• salt & pepper, to taste
• 2 tsp dried oregano (or 1 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves, rinsed and roughly chopped)
• 2 tsp dried parsley 

Yields about 3 cups of sauce. 

Directions

1. Chop the tomatoes, onion, and garlic into small pieces. If you want to avoid pieces of tomato peel in your sauce, be sure to peel them first. 
2. Place the chopped vegetables, along with the olive oil, into a crockpot. 
3. Add in the seasonings and stir. 
4. Reduce the vegetables in the crockpot in one of two ways: on low for 7-8 hours, or on high for 4 hours. 
5. Every few hours, you can stir up the ingredients in the crockpot to make sure everything cooks through. Also, if you have a potato masher, I suggest mashing up the vegetables (especially the tomatoes) to help with reducing the vegetables to a sauce. 
6. Depending on how you like it, you can keep the sauce chunky and use it straight from the crockpot. Or, pour the sauce into the blender and blend for a few seconds until you get the desired consistency. 

Nutrition Facts

Of the entire recipe (3 cups)

Calories: 661 

Total Fat: 57g 

Total Carbohydrate: 52g

Protein: 7g 

Fiber: 12g

Per Serving Size (1/2 cup, about 6 servings per batch)

Calories: 110 

Total Fat: 9.5g 

Total Carbohydrate: 9g

Protein: 1g 

Fiber: 2g

Watch out for more #GDRecipes in the future! I'm going to record my food successes here, not only for those looking for GD-friendly recipes but also for those who want to try healthy (and delicious) alternatives to processed foods!

Thanks for reading!