Delicious Sloppy Joes

Summer time is here and summer foods are calling my name! Before I lived in Ohio, I'd grown up in the Michigan area, and I still remember our one story house with the screened in back porch and our above ground swimming pool. On lazy summer days my dad would be outside grilling burgers or hotdogs while my brother and I ran around in our backyard or the neighborhood like the little tyrants we were. We RULED our neighborhood...or liked to think we did. But there's always those classic summer dishes: Burgers on the grill with frenchfries and pasta salad, Grilled hotdogs with chips and a tall glass of cold lemonade, and then there were the deliciously sloppy, sloppy joes with varying side dishes and a cold glass of milk. We didn't have the manwich style sloppy joes, but delicious homemade sloppy joes with a slice of melted cheese on top! Oh those were the days! Even now, 22 years later, I still love my mom's homemade sloppy joes and know when she's making it simply from the smell in the house. A year round favorite, and quick and simple to make.

Ingredients
1 package ground turkey (or ground beef, whichever you prefer)
1 small onion (diced)
1/2 green pepper (diced) optional
hot sauce (optional)
brown sugar
ketchup
mustard
Worcestershire sauce
salt/pepper

Assembly
In a medium frying pan brown the ground turkey (or beef) on medium high and drain the fat. Add the diced onion and green pepper to meat and cook until onions are translucent. Add some salt and pepper for taste. Pretty much that is your meat mixture. For the 'sloppy' part of the joes, add a couple tablespoons brown sugar, large squirt of ketchup, squirt of mustard, some hot sauce for spice (or for a real kicker add a pinch of cayenne pepper to the sauce) and a splash of Worcestershire sauce to the pan. Mix the ingredients together until well blended, folding the meat/onion/pepper mixture in so it's all incorporated. Simmer on low. You should have a nice sauce over the meat. Like everything else I tend to eye ball amounts, so if you like it a bit more soupy make more of the sauce mixture. If you want it a bit thicker and it's too thin add a little flour, or continue to cook it, stirring frequently, until the desired consistency.

Final Thoughts
Serve the sloppy joe on a burger bun with a slice of melted cheese over top, or another favorite way of mine is to just serve it on the plate with a topping of french friend onions and shredded cheese! Still tasty and delicious. Add a side of the glazed apples and you're good to go. It makes a great meal for any time of the year, and you can jazz it up however you'd like. This reheats really well too so it makes great left overs. Hope you enjoy! Happy eats!