I looked through my entire blog history and cannot find a time in the past year when I made sloppy joes. That is really weird – it’s a staple of American food. Now that spring sports started, I need to pull out the slow cooker more because there is not time to make dinner after all of the pick-ups and drop-offs. If you have a half hour, you can make this in a pan, but if you know you aren’t going to feel like it, cut up the vegetables and do the prep the night before to get the pot ready to go. I use ground turkey so it’s leaner, and also use more vegetables than meat.
As you’re browning the meat, keep breaking it into smaller pieces so in the end it’s very finely ground; it will stay on the buns better. A lot of recipes make the sauce more sweet and sour by adding equal parts (3 tablespoons) of a vinegar and brown sugar, but I did not want to add any sugar so left out the vinegar. I was trying to multitask and help my son with his math homework while I was browning the meat, that’s why it looks a little too brown — you only want to cook it until it’s not pink.
Sloppy Joes
1 lb ground meat
1 chopped sweet onion
1 chopped bell pepper
1 chopped stalk of celery
1 lg can crushed tomatoes
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 T Dijon mustard
1 t chili powder
2 crushed cloves garlic
1/2 t season salt
1/2 t paprika
Put the meat and onion in the slow cooker pot and brown the meat over medium heat. Put the pot back on the slow cooker and add the rest of the ingredients. If you want the sauce thinner, rinse out the tomato can with a little water and add that to the mixture. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Serve on toasted buns.
