The last three weeks my husband and I have been making a conscious effort to eat some of the “miscellaneous items” out of our pantry before we move into our new house. Less to carry, less wasted.

After three weeks of eating all of the good stuff, we’ve been reduced to the interesting remainders on the back of the shelf. You know what I’m talking about: those random cans of tomato puree and diced succotash and other strange pabulum that you bought because they were on clearance sale or because you saw some really posh person put in their cart so you figured it must be delicious.

So, yeah. Dinner has been an interesting event in our house the last few nights.

Feeling creative this morning, I threw the following items into the crockpot, set it on low, and let it cook all day:

• 1 can of Hunts diced tomatoes, Garlic flavor
• 1 can of tomato puree
• 1 jar of Bertolli basil marinara
• 1/2 bottle of leftover Cabernet Sauvignon
• 2 cans chopped button mushrooms
• 1 small jar [approx 12 oz] of artichoke hearts [I’ve always wondered what I was going to do with those.]
• 1 can of drained black olives
• 1 jar of roasted red pepper [approx 10oz]
• 2 cans of organic chunk chicken, well drained
• 4 tbsp dried onion flakes
• 4 tbsp dried basil
• 4 tbsp dried, roasted garlic slivers
• 2 tbsp oregano

When I got home, my house smelled like Buca di Beppo. It was amazing. Since my husband wouldn’t be home for a while and I wasn’t really hungry yet, I decided to add a bag of baby carrots and two chopped zucchini to the mix, letting it cook for another hour.

Inadvertently, I seemed to have made one of the best pasta sauces in the world. It’s incredible.

The sauce is rich and flavorful, but extremely low in fat. The tastes seem to deeply concentrate in the crockpot – I didn’t add a single speck of salt to the dish in any way.

I decided to serve the sauce over my last three bags of spinach Miracle Noodles [looks funny, tastes great!] and I’ve been in olfactory/gustatory Heaven ever since! Amazing!

And, coincidentally enough – it’s Paleo-friendly. A win:win!

Bon appetit, my friends!

~ Tori