Sloppy Joes

Sloppy Joes-All recipes.com with few slight changes

 1 pound lean ground beef/turkey

         1-1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil

         1/4 cup chopped onion

         1/4 cup finely chopped green or red bell pepper

         1 cup ketchup

         8 oz. tomato sauce

         2 tablespoons brown sugar

         1 tablespoon vinegar

         1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

         1 tablespoon dry mustard

         1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste

         1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Heat a deep skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat and add ground
meat. Brown meat until it is cooked thoroughly. Carefully drain and discard fat. Transfer meat to a bowl.

To same pan, heat oil on medium heat; and add onions and peppers and cook 4 to 5 minutes, stirring frequently. (If I'm in a hurry, or lazy, I'll just add them to the hamburger just before it is totally done and start them sauteing , just make sure the onion and green pepper are soft before you add the rest of the ingredients)

 When vegetables are tender, return meat to pan and add remaining ingredients. 

Stir frequently to cover meat with sauce. Reduce heat to low and cook for 20 to 30 minutes or until mixture thickens slightly.

Then serve up on favorite bun, or make your own using the potato refrigerator dough.

Some of the reviews on allrecipes.com stated that it was too sweet if you aren't a fan of the sweeter sloppy joes decrease the brown sugar.  But I wouldn't say I like sloppy joes in general, but I did love this recipe and it's fast!!!

Sorry again no plated picture, we love to have corn on the cob when it comes in our Bountiful Basket or when it's in season.  I can hardly wait!

Hope you enjoy!

Santa Fe Chicken

A friend sent this to me as one of her "food storage" recipes -- something you eat when it's the end of the world and you don't have anything else more worthwhile to eat. But it's delicious, and (especially if the chicken is precooked) it's super fast.

In a large skillet, boil

• 2 cubed chicken breasts*
• 1 cup of salsa**
• 1 cup water
• 1 packet taco seasoning***

*I used precooked shredded chicken.
**I always throw my salsa in the blender and whirl it up. I don't like chunks and neither do some of my kids, but if it's blended we'll lap it right up on its own or in recipes.
***We use taco seasoning in several recipes, so instead of dropping 70 cents each time, we bought a big container of it from Costco for $3.50. If you do the same, you'll use about 2.5-3 Tbps of seasoning.

Cover and simmer until chicken is cooked (or warmed in my case). Stir in

• 1 can black beans
• 1 1/2 cups cooked rice

Heat through. If you have to cook the chicken, this whole thing can take maybe 20 minutes start-to-finish. But if your chicken and your rice are already cooked, you're looking at 5-10 minutes total.


You can top this with sour cream and cheese and eat with corn and tortilla chips, or you can throw these in a wrap like we did last night. Might I recommend getting super fancy and buying a pack of jalapeno cheddar burrito shells and garnishing with lettuce, cheese and sour cream. Amazing.

Tomato Bacon Pomodoro

From Taste of Home Cooking School 50^th Anniversary Cookbook

(This recipe tasted great and was really pretty fast. See the changes I made at the end.)

1 package (19 to 25 ounces) frozen ravioli or tortellini

½ pound bacon, finely chopped

1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil

½ medium onion, diced

1 garlic clove, minced

1 can (14.5 ounces) crushed tomatoes

5 tablespoons tomato paste

2/3 cup chicken broth

¼ teaspoon dried basil

¼ teaspoon dried oregano

2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

Prepare pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook bacon until almost crisp. Add onion and garlic; cook until onions are tender. Stir in the tomatoes, paste, broth, basil, oregano, and parsley; simmer for 3 minutes to blend flavors. Season with salt and pepper. Serve over cooked pasta. Yield: 4-6 servings.

Changes:

I used rotini pasta instead of tortellini because that was all I had – 12 ounces of rotini was enough.

Next time I will skip the olive oil, but don’t drain the bacon (needed for flavor).

I used a can of diced tomatoes with Italian seasoning – didn’t have crushed in that size. I think the added seasoning helped.

I used a 3 ounce package of tomato paste instead of measuring tablespoons.

Used dried parsley instead of fresh.

Didn’t need any salt or pepper.

4.5 out of 5 stars. Would probably have been better with tortellini, but it was really good. The amount of oil and grease seemed excessive, but it didn’t look it in the finished product.