Quick, Easy, Dinner in the Crockpot!

Inspired by A Year Of Slowcooking I have been using my Crockpot more recently.  Today makes three dinners in a row.  Read this as three nights of no fuss, minimal cleanup, delicious dinners!  My husband has raved about them all.  I am really excited to serve him dinner tonight.  I have been home for about an hour, and cannot stop tasting the delicious spaghetti sauce I made.  It was simple.  While I was cleaning up last night, I set everything out for this morning.  Before I left for work at 5:30 am, I spent 5 minutes tossing everything in the crockpot.  Couldn't be easier, couldn't taste better.
I garden, and have my own tomato sauce, so I started with one pint of that.  While it is fresh from the garden wonderful, it is honestly a little thin, and not so robust on flavor.  So I spiced it up.

1 small can of tomato paste
1 tbls brown sugar
2 tbls soy sauce
1/2 cup of water
1 medium onion coarsely chopped
1 pound thawed hamburger
1 can of mushroom pieces
Italian Herb Mix from Penzey's

Quick shot of cooking spray, dump everything in, place on low, and let simmer for eight hours.  I could not believe how great the house smelled when I walked in.  I tasted it about 5 or 6 times, burned my lip once, and added 1/2 box of spaghetti noodles.  Just broke them in half and poked them under the sauce.  No water to boil.  No greasy pot from browning the ground beef.  No fuss.  I might add a splash of some red wine, if we open a bottle, but it really does not need the extra flavor.  This all day simmer left my already good homemade sauce tasting better than I could have imagined.  Try the same with your favorite store bought brand, and you will never cook spaghetti any other way again.  The secret ingredients are really the soy sauce and the brown sugar.  And just because I love it so much I will probably sprinkle a little Fool's Salt, on top, and over the green salad I am serving with the spaghetti.