I don’t care for sloppy joes. There. I said it. I grew up hating them because my school cafeteria would put something together that they called sloppy joes but it wasn’t yummy or comforting or anything good. Don’t get me started on the hoagie sandwiches! Needless to say, the school cafeteria had me put sloppy joes on a “no eat list” for a long time. I happened to be perusing pinterest and came across a picture and a recipe that drove me to want to try them again.

This pandemic had me trying just about anything and really reaching for comfort foods. I feel like it was pretty normal though. Wasn’t everybody doing that? I cooked every meal, never did take out so I was always looking for meals that I could stretch into a few days. This meal did the trick and I wasn’t disappointed that I had leftovers for days.

My pinterest search found a recipe from spaceshipsandlaserbeams.com I ended up doubling this recipe in order to have plenty for the week.

Ingredients (doubled for my purpose)

• 1 pound ground beef
• 2 tbsp butter
• ½ cup finely chopped onion
• 8 ounces tomato sauce
• ½ cup ketchup
• 1 tbsp brown sugar (more to taste)
• 1 tbsp prepared mustard
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp onion powder

You don’t have to be too much of a rocket scientist to put all of this together. I browned the meat first, then I added the chopped onion and cooked it until it was a bit translucent. Then I added all of the other ingredients and slow cooked it for several hours.

I ate mine on a soft hamburger bun but you can toast yours if you prefer. I think the reason why I liked this recipe is that it definitely had more of a bbq tangy quality to the mix. I love mustard and vinegar flavors, so this appealed to my taste buds when I read the recipe. It hit the spot and now I’m a lover of sloppy joes! Hope you will be too.

If you’re curious about where sloppy joes got their name, check it out here