Luci's Homemade Sloppy Joes

Sorry I didn't post yesterday; I have been very confused about day of the week for the past two weeks.  I spent all of Tuesday thinking it was Wednesday, then all of Wednesday thinking it was Tuesday.  Thankfully, I know today is Thursday and tomorrow is glorious, wonderful, workweek-ending Friday.

The upcoming story speaks volumes of my upbringing, I believe.... Tuesday night, I asked hubby what he wanted for dinner.  He wanted sloppy joes.  I replied that we had no Manwich (with a little glee in my heart) and thus thought the discussion on sloppy joes was over.  But it was not, because, my friends, you can make sloppy joes from scratch! I never even considered the possibility until hubby mentioned his friend, Luci, had recently made homemade sloppy joes.  Growing up, we NEVER had sloppy joes at home (or meatloaf and a few other classic Americana foods) because my mom is weird about meat.   Life story aside; I made sloppy joes (even though hubby said he would, because after putting the meat on, he remembered homework [was I like that as a student? probably worse]).

 Now Luci, I didn't follow the recipe exactly.  Our printer was dreadfully out of ink, so I just got the ingredients printed off and sort of went with my gut.  Please forgive.

Sloppy Joes


(original recipe from Luci's Tasty Adventures)

• 1 lb Ground beef, broken up into small pieces 
• 1 celery rib, finely chopped (omitted as we hate celery)
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped (I coarsely chopped)
• ½ green bell pepper, finely chopped (I coarsely chopped)
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp cider vinegar
• 1 15 ounce can of tomato sauce
• kosher salt
• freshly ground pepper
• ¼ cup ketchup (optional) (we opted out)

What I did:

Brown the meat in a medium skillet or pot until thoroughly cooked.  Stir frequently to thoroughly break up/crumble the meat.  Add in onion, bell pepper, and garlic.  Cover and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until veggies are tender. 

Stir in tomato sauce, brown sugar, worcestershire sauce, cider vinegar, salt and pepper.  (I added a splash of Chachere's to give it a kick).  Let simmer for 15 minutes.

We had no buns, so we ate it with crackers.  We both thought it was pretty darn tasty, even me, the nonsloppy joe eater.