Sloppy Style!

Hi all!  Hope you had a lovely weekend!  Its raining in VA today and we have needed it badly. We've barely had ANY rain in the past 3 months.  But the temps went from the 90's to the 50's and I'm NOT digging that at all.  Especially since I have to man ticket taking duties at the high school for 2 hours for the freshman football game...then sit in bleachers for son's JV game at 7:30 pm.  Gonna be a cold, chilly night...boots and sweater weather!

Thought I'd share one of my fave recipes with y'all today.  Nothing hard, nothing earth shattering...just something my mom always made for us growing up that I continue to make.  Especially good for cooler weather and so easy to make ahead..I'm all about dinner prep that I can do ahead and then easily heat up when we get home after games or practices.  

Pizza Style Sloppy Joes...mmmmm so good..and sooooo easy to make!

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Ingredients:

-1 to 1.5 lbs of ground beef, turkey or chicken

-1 small onion or 1/2 large onion diced

-2-4 cloves of garlic minced

-olive oil

-1 jar of pizza sauce (I use the Ragu below) or use homemade

-1 pkg shredded Mozzarella or Pizza cheese

-salt/pepper

-red pepper flakes if you like some heat

-hamburger rolls

Cook onion and garlic till softened in olive oil.  Add ground meat to pan and brown.

Drain oil/liquid from pan.  Add pizza sauce and cook for 10 mins more stirring well.

Turn oven on BROIL. Line a 9x13 pan with foil and add buns, load them up with meat sauce and top

with cheese..keep buns open while broiling.  Broil them for 2-5 mins until cheese bubbles and buns brown..watch carefully as you don't want charred buns.  EAT & ENJOY!

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Depending on how much ground beef you cook up will help you figure out how much onion to cut.

I cook between one and one-half pounds of ground beef for my recipe..its enough for 6-8 sloppy joes depending how much you load the buns up.  So a small onion or half of a large onion gets chopped up and put in with some extra-virgin olive oil and minced garlic (2-4 cloves).

Once onions and garlic are softened and cooked a bit (mmm love that smell) add your ground beef to the mixture.  And yes you could do this with ground turkey/chicken easily as well.  Cook beef until its cooked thru and browned.

Then you need to drain it...yup drain all that grease and liquid out of there so the mixture isn't runny.

My gram got me this gadget eons ago when I was first married...love it.  I think you can find them in Walmart/Target for around $2...it has little ledges on it that hold it to the pan when you are draining. Then you hold pan over sink or bowl and drain all that grease/liquid out easily.  I drain my grease into a cup so not to overwhelm the sink/septic...I'm a good girl...I do as told by the sink people ;)

Ta-Da!  The secret ingredient!

Ragu Pizza Sauce...in traditional or homemade..either works.

You can make your own sauce too..I do that on occasion but when I'm rushed for time during the week...cracking the ole' jar open is sometimes VERY worth it...and it tastes good.  

Add enough in so all the meat is covered nicely but you don't have a liquidy mess.

I use about 3/4th of the bottle of sauce most times.  Mix it in good, turn up heat for 10 minutes and stir well.  Add any spices at this time too...I add some salt/pepper and some red pepper flakes for a bit of heat.  At this point once cooked you can serve it right away or pack it up for later.

Put your oven on BROIL now.

Next line a large 9x13 pan with foil...add your buns (I like potato rolls because they have enough bread/thickness to them that they don't get soggy and fall apart)...top with meat mixture..and then your cheese.  I use mozzarella on my sloppy joes...but you could use whatever your heart desires!  Keep the buns OPEN when they go in oven...ya hear?  Broil until cheese bubbles and buns start to turn brown...this doesn't take long so keep a close eye on them.

They come out of the oven all warm and gooey...omgoodness yum-yums for your tum-tums I tell ya!

My boys, Riley & hubby usually eat 2 or 3 of these bad boys at a time!

And there ya go...super yummy...easy to make!  Your family will thank you!

I serve mine up with roasted potatoes or sweet potato fries and a salad most times.

Enjoy!
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