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.

Dinner Time Tuesday 4/16: Healthy Fries

I was so excited last week.  There were people besides me who linked up for Dinner Time Tuesday!  :)  Thanks Kristin & Kristin.  (P.S. I love that they both have the same name AND it's spelled the same AND they're people I've met IRL.)

All excitement aside, please feel free to grab the Dinner Time Tuesday button.  Follow me, and link back to the post!  Most importantly, post your link to the link up at the bottom!

Here's what I had for dinner:

Scott and I have decided to try making healthier choices overall, and trying to stick to using foods suggested in the Insanity meal plan.  This incorporated both ideas.  This is a "Lean Burger" as insanity calls it.  It's 80/20 lean ground beef.  I seasoned it with salt, pepper, onion powder, and a dash of Worcestershire sauce.  (Yes, I had to look up how to spell that...)  It is on a whole wheat English Muffin.

I made my own fries thanks to inspiration from my friend, Suzanne at Not Enough Chocolate.  She's doing a series of posts called "Small Changes."  One of those posts mentioned the weird ingredients in frozen fries.  She started making her own, and not just with potatoes!  I decided to take this healthier approach, as well.  I just cut up some fries, drizzled them with olive oil, and baked them at 400* F for about 45 minutes.  Then I lightly salted them.  SOOOOO yummy! 

So there you have it!  A perfectly normal American meal done in a much healthier way!

Dinner Time Tuesday 4/2: Burritos

It's Dinner Time Tuesday!

As I shared in Monday's post, Scott & I started the diet plan associated with the Insanity program.  However, before I start sharing those meals, I have one left that I wanted to share.

Here's an idea:

Burritos!

 

 

I made mine by browning ground beef with a chopped onion.  I drained the beef, and added taco seasoning.  I also bought a can of refried beans and heated those in the microwave.  Then I put the refried beans and meat on a warmed tortilla and topped it with Mexican blend cheese, salsa, and lettuce.

Quick, easy, and delicious!  We love tacos, and this was just a nice twist.  :)

 

Come link up below!

BBQ Sloppy Joes

Here's another recipe from my WordPress archive.  You will love how simple this is! :)

Easy Cheesy Barbecued Sloppy Joes*

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped onions
• 1 cup barbecue sauce
• hamburger buns
• cheese singles (preferrably KRAFT, because, really, is there any cheese single that's better??)

1. Brown meat in a large skillet and drain. Add peppers and onions. Cook and stir until crisp and tender.
2. Stir in BBQ sauce and cook until heated through, stirring occasionally.
3. Fill buns with meat mixture and cheese singles.

*This recipe hails from the awesome FREE cook book I've used in numerous posts. It was distributed on day at Sam's Club and sponsored by KRAFT.

Seriously, I loved this take on the sloppy joe.  Scott thought that I could've used less BBQ sauce because he felt it was too sweet, but it was RIGHT up my alley.  UPDATE: The BBQ sauce I used for this was Kraft.  It IS a sweeter sauce.  I have made this recipe other times, and I used Sweet Baby Rays Barbeque Sauce.  The sloppy joes weren't nearly as sweet with that sauce.

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! :) )