April 18, 2012

What was on the menu? Slow-cooker Sloppy Joes

Website: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/slow-cooker-sloppy-joes-10000001599544/

Picture of Yumminess:

Slow-Cooker Sloppy Joe, corn on the cob with butter and a Minneloa Tangelo

The differences: In the web recipe it calls for sausage and green peppers... I chose not to use the sausage cause of the greasiness factor of most sausages (since its mostly fat) and, as a general rule, I don't use green peppers in my cooking cause if the husband figures out they are there (and he almost always does) then all of a sudden the food is "spicy". I know green peppers are not spicy, and you know they aren't spicy, but he seems to think they are... sigh. I also used white vinegar instead of cider vinegar because it was what I had on hand.

The Prep: Ridiculously easy! It took me 5 minutes to chop the onion and 5 minutes to brown the beef and cook the onion. It took about 10 minutes to mix everything together in the crock pot. A note about that: with the brown sugar, vinegar, and flour I measured it out with everything else I guessed at the right amount. I didn't dump it all in willy-nilly but if you have been cooking as long as I have you get good at knowing roughly the right amount when something says one tablespoon. If you want to measure it exactly, go ahead. In fact, I suggest that you do, at least until you are so comfortable with the recipe you could do it blindfolded. :) Then, of course, it took 4 hours to cook... and man did it make the house smell really good! I spent most of the day feeling hungry!

The Cost Breakdown:
Ground beef: $5.07
Onion: $0.67
Can of tomato sauce: $0.33
hamburger buns: $1.00
Corn on the cob: $2.79
Minneloa Tangelos: $1.31

I figured most kitchens would have water, ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, mustard, chili powder, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and flour so I did not include those things in the cost of the meal.

Total cost for meal: $11.17 or $2.79 per person for a family of four.
A whole meal for less than $3 per person??!! Not to mention that both my husband and I had seconds fed our kids and still had leftovers??! What a deal!

The Verdict: I don't think the Sloppy Joe mix needed to cook for 4 hours on high. I think 3 hours would have been fine. Having said that it was extremely good! The corn on the cob was a perfect match for the sloppy joes. It wasn't overly sweet but it definitely wasn't spicy. As a friend of mine said to me yesterday, "If you did more than open a can of Manwich you are already steps ahead of most." I have nothing against Manwich and in fact have used it myself a couple of times when I was in a hurry. You will notice on the web recipe that there is a stove top option for those who can't come home in the middle of the day to put everything in the crock pot. I submit to you, however, that your family will probably like it better if it doesn't come out of a can. My husband wouldn't be able to tell you, in a blind taste test, the difference between Manwich and a pound of ground beef mixed with a packet of Sloppy Joe seasoning and a can of tomato paste. He could, however, tell you which Sloppy Joe I made with fresher ingredients and which one was the can of Manwich. My kids don't normally like food that doesn't consist mostly of sugar and carbs but I couldn't keep any of them out of the kitchen yesterday because the crock pot was filling the house with such a lovely smell. At $11 for an entire meal (can't get that at a fast food restaurant and walk out full) its a great deal! And it tastes good too!