Have you ever tried this?

Sloppy Joes are one of my girls favorite things to make. Not sure why—My guess the saucy goodness. I remember once when I was a kid my mom preparing Manwich’s one night for dinner (this was well before her education on food ingredients). I remember thinking this is an interesting concoction and wondering to myself what makes this taste so good. It is a simple sauce you throw over browned ground beef, how bad could it be for you. Now that I am older and can read my own food labels, I did a little investigating knowing full well what I was going to find. This ingredient list did not surprise me at all.

Tomato Puree (Water, Tomato Paste), High Fructose Corn Syrup, Distilled Vinegar, Corn Syrup, Less than 2% of: Salt, Sugar, Dehydrated Onions, Dehydrated Red and Green Bell Peppers, Chile Pepper, Tomato Fiber, Spices, Guar Gum, Xanthan Gum, Dehydrated Garlic, Carob Bean Gum, Natural Flavors.

Red lights and food no-no sirens should be sounding after just reading the second ingredient on the list. What mother in America wants to voluntarily feed their kids a sauce with lots of artificial and unnecessary ingredients? Not this Mom on the Run! I totally understand how easy it is to come home, brown some mea, open a can, and dinner is served. It is not easy to work all day to only have to come home and do more work. I was recipe inspired by the Sloppy Joe recipe in the Nourishing Meals Cookbook that I am so in love with. In a matter of only about 20 minutes you can have the same sloppy goodness but this time with ingredients that you will be proud to serve to your family.

Sloppy Joes

Adapted from Nourishing Meals

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of EVOO
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 1 small green bell pepper, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon celery salt
• 1/4 teaspoon yellow mustard powder
• pinch ground cloves
• freshly ground pepper
• 1 pound of grass fed beef
• 8 oz tomato paste (about 1/2 cup)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tablespoon Coconut Aminos
• 1 teaspoon Sevia
• 1 squirt of Lime

Preparation:

Heat a medium sized skillet over medium heat. Add the oil onions, and green bell peppers; sauté until softened, about 5 minutes.

Add garlic, salt, cumin, celery salt, mustard powder, ground cloves, and black pepper; sauté a minute more.

Next add the ground beef and cook, breathing it up with a spatula as it cooks. Do this for a few minutes until it is no longer pink. Add the tomato paste, water, coconut aminos, stevia, and lime.

Cover and simmer over low heat for about 7 to 10 minutes. Add more water if necessary. Taste as you go adding more salt and pepper as needed.  Serve either on crusty rolls or how I “roll”– lettuce wraps.

These are so good and you won’t even miss the HFCS—I promise .

Have you healthified a childhood dish? What did you do?

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