Sing it with me…sloppy joes, slop, sloppy joes, come on…and you’re welcome for having that stuck in your head the rest of the day. It’s a great song for a great lunch, albeit one loaded in sugars and simple carbs made in the traditional lunch lady way. We can do better.
Back in my BC (bad carb) days, a sloppy joe meant ground beef drowning in a can of Manwich, served up on a white bread hamburger bun and not one but two slices of processed American cheese, plus a large dollop of mayo for good measure. Of course, I couldn’t have a sloppy joe without a greasy serving of fries and a diet coke. Nutritionally speaking, Lunch Lady Land is a disaster. It’s time to take her back to school and teach a new way of doing things. A sloppy Joe can be a quick and healthy lunch. It just takes a bit of re-education and a few easy to find substitutions.
The first thing that has to go is the canned Manwich sauce, or whatever your pick of poison happens to be on your shopping list. The ingredients for Manwich lists sugar twice (dos!) which is just crazy. First, it’s listed as High Fructose Corn Syrup as the second ingredient, which means there is a lot of it. Then later down the list, real sugar is listed. Of course, all the preservatives and weird chemicals are also present, and none of it is good. All you need to replace this can of gunk is some clean BBQ sauce and non-sugar added ketchup, both of which are easy to find at the mega-mart or just make yourself. I use a half cup of each and it works out perfect every time.
I swap out white bread hamburger buns for my healthy homemade tortillas, traditional mayo for avocado oil based mayo, and ground turkey instead of ground beef. Other than a can of diced green chiles, chopped red onion, and some spices, that’s all there is to it. My baked Jicama fries make a perfect substitute for deep fried greasy potatoes. Do all that and you will be able to leap and dance around like the Lunch Lady to your heart’s content, but you won’t be out of breath with your hands on your knees when you are done. Now hit that power chord on the guitar, rock out on the song, and get cooking.
Here are the links for the tortillas and jicama fries:
Sloppy Joes Remade:
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 cup bbq sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 tsp sea salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder
1/2 red onion, diced fine
1 can diced green chiles
Shredded grass fed cheddar cheese
Primal Kitchen Avocado oil mayo
Instructions:
Dice the onion and open the green chiles:
Heat a large skillet over medium heat and cook the ground turkey with the spices. Once the meat starts to brown, add the onion and chiles:
Once the meat is completely cooked, move it to a strainer and squeeze any grease and juice until the meat is dry. Add back to the pan and stir in the bbq sauce and ketchup, heat to warn through:
Warm a tortilla and spread a thin layer of mayo. Sprinkle some of the cheese and cover with the sloppy joe mix. Cover with more cheese and some crumbled black bean chips if desired:
See the list of all Jason Murphy’s recipes at www.mysaline.com/jason-murphy.