Sloppy Joes

The last time Scott and I went grocery shopping, we bought a bag of green bell peppers at Sam's Club.  We got to a point where we needed to use them up, and I thought of Sloppy Joes.  When I was a kid, I truly thought that Manwich was the only way to make Sloppy Joes.  We don't often have that on hand, so I needed to figure out a yummy sauce that would do the trick.

The original recipe comes from allrecipes.com .  I needed to make a few tweaks, so here's my take below:

Sloppy Joes
Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 small onion
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 2 tsp. yellow mustard
• 1 c. ketchup
• 1 T brown sugar
• salt & pepper to taste

1. Brown beef, onion, and bell pepper in a skillet.  Drain.

2. Stir in remaining ingredients.

3. Simmer for 30 minutes.  Serve on your choice of bread or bun.  I add cheese to my Sloppy Joe sandwiches.  I also had some yummy potato salad on hand, and I had that as a side.

Stuffed Pepper Soup

I LOVE Stuffed Pepper Soup.  I think I actually like this way better than regular stuffed peppers for a couple of reasons.  1) It's quicker.  2) I always break up the full pepper when I eat stuffed peppers anway.

I've shared this recipe on WordPress, but today, I share it in an updated way.  I made this soup in my Bean Pot today.  If you don't know, a Bean Pot is an item from Celebrating Home.  It is made of stoneware, and you can make way more than beans in it, as the name might suggest.  :)  Don't have a Bean Pot?  No problem.  You can make this soup in a Crock Pot or on the stove.  That's the beauty of it!

Stuffed Pepper Soup
Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 2 medium green bell peppers
• 1 serving minute rice*
• 1 4oz. can mushrooms
• 2 cans condensed tomato soup

*One serving of the minute rice I use is made with 1 c. boiling water, and 1 c. rice.
**We had half of a small onion left from our dinner yesterday, so I chopped it up and tossed it in, too.

1. Preheat oven to 350*. 
2. Brown ground beef and drain.
3. Cook rice according to package directions.
4. Chop up green peppers.
5. Put all ingredients into the Bean Pot.  Add 1 can of water.  (You can adjust this depending on the consistency you would like your soup to have.  For thinner, more "soupy" soup, add 2 cans.)

     6. Bake at 350* for one hour or until peppers are tender.

     7. Serve over mashed potatoes.  (I always do! :) )