Spaghetti Sauce & Meatball Sandwiches

Spaghetti Sauce:
1/4 c olive oil
1 c diced onion
1 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb ground beef
1 can diced tomatoes
12 oz. can tomato paste
mushrooms, optional
1/2 c chopped celery, optional
2 T. dried parsley
1 T. salt
1 T. sugar
1 bay leaf
1/4 t. pepper
1/4 t. oregano
1/4 t. italian seasoning

Reserve water from cooking the noodles to thin out the sauce-optional

Brown onions and ground beef in oil. Combine remaining ingredients and add to beef. Simmer slowly for several hours to mix flavor. (or just til heated if you're short on time) Remove bay leaf before serving over noodles. This makes a thick sauce, add reserved water from cooking noodles to loosen up the sauce if desired.
Can store in freezer for about 1 month.

Meatball Sandwiches
24 (or more) frozen cooked Italian-style meatballs
1 26 oz. jar of spaghetti sauce
1 15 oz. can Italian-style tomato sauce (or plain tomato sauce with approx. 1 tsp Italian seasoning added)
1 5.5 oz. can V-8
6 hoagie rolls split, but not cut all the way through and toasted
shredded mozzarella cheese

The original recipe from Southern Living says to put this in a crock pot, but it's so fast to throw together that I just combine the sauce ingredients (spaghetti sauce, tomato sauce, v-8) in a pan and heat it up. Then I microwave the meatballs till there hot and stir them into the sauce. The cheese gets sprinkled on top of the meatball mixture after it's been spooned into rolls. The store bought meatballs are pretty greasy so I give them a good squeeze in paper towels to absorb the grease. Homemade meatballs would work too. My kids love this one.