Homemade Sloppy Joes

I love sloppy joes and So do the kids. These make a fun easy meal when I have had a long day. I often make this recipe in what I call “Large family batches” that allow us to feed the 8 people in our home plus some of our bonus family dinner and turn around with leftovers for a lunch another day.

Homemade sloppy joes are easy enough I can even have the kids whip them up if I am busy with the new baby or drowning in work.

Sloppy joes can get a bit expensive when the price of beef goes up. This is one of those dishes that makes me stock up on the summer ground beef sales. The other big favorite for me is my Sloppy Cheeseburgers.

A few tricks make this even easier. I store minced veggies for this when I have leftovers in a freezer bag so I can thaw and saute to use them and skip the chopping when I need a quick meal. I do this for a lot of my favorite recipes.

For our family, I multiply this by 3 to make 3 pounds at a time.

We recently discovered these go amazing with homemade hamburger buns. Dig out a bit of the bottom half of the bun to make more room for holding more sloppy joe with less mess.

Homemade Sloppy Joes

Ingredients

:: 1 pound ground beef

:: 1/2 cup minced bell peppers.

:: 1/2 medium onion minced

:: 4-5 cloves minced garlic

:: 1/2 teaspoon steak seasoning

:: 1 teaspoon mustard

:: 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

:: 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

:: 1 tablespoon butter

:: 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

:: 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)

:: 1 cup tomato sauce

:: 1/4 cup tomato paste

Directions

Melt butter and saute vegetables

Add in meat and brown. I prefer to leave larger chunks for slightly less messy sloppy joes.

Add in remaining ingredients and bring to a light simmer while stirring.

Serve piping hot.

Ways to spice up homemade sloppy joes

Sloppy joes are one of those things you can spice up fairly easy. Add some nice sides like creamy mac and cheese or cheat and just grab some chips.

The sauce its self can be given a bit of a kick with the addition of your favorite barbecue sauces a dash of hot sauce or playing with more spices.

Add a homemade dessert like this no-churn apple pie ice cream and you are good to go for a happy family.

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