Homemade Sloppy Joe's

I remember having Sloppy Joe's as a kid and thought this would be a really great thing to have for tonight's dinner.  My husband wanted a meat loaf, I really wasn't in the mood for something so heavy so I changed his mind with what I concocted.  In this recipe you will find that I didn't use green peppers, which is what you find in most recipes, so in its place I used carrots.  This is a great way to get vegetables into your diet and adds nice color and texture.  The meal was served with sweet potato fries that we actually had pre-made from the freezer.  This dinner will not take very long to make and you will have dinner on the table in no time.

Sloppy Joe
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup minced carrots (I used about 3 small carrots which ended up being slightly over 1/2 cup)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, pressed
1 pound grass fed ground beef
1/2 cup organic ketchup (organic ketchup doesn't have HFCS or MSG added)
1 - 15-1/2 ounce can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 tablespoon brown sugar
pinch of dried thyme
fresh ground pepper
salt
steak seasoning, like McCormick

Heat olive oil in a heavy skillet, add carrots and onion.  Cook until onion is translucent and tender.  Add ground beef and brown.  Add garlic as the beef is cooking.  Once beef has been browned add ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, red wine vinegar, brown sugar, and thyme.  Reduce heat to a simmer and simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes.  Add salt, pepper and seasoning to taste.  Serve on hamburger buns.

A trick that we do in this house is to keep a package of hamburger buns in the freezer and only take out what you need.  This is a great way to have them on hand and that they won't go to waste if you buy a whole package and only use a couple.  Just make sure that the buns are doubled in freezer bags so that you don't end up with freezer burns.

We also had a Caesar Salad to go along with tonight's dinner.  You can catch the recipe for Caesar dressing from a previous post here.

This post was shared on the Healthy Home Economist Monday Mania 3/19/2012