Skip the high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, and dyes and make an easy prep one pan sloppy joe’s for dinner tonight!
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Last week of school chaos…and a summer dinner staple!
We are just absolutely *enjoying* a lazy weekend after the last number of “end of school” activities. That last week of school sure is a doozy with 3 school aged kids! The weather has finally heated up enough to hit the beach, and our favorite pond for paddle boarding, which means I need fast and easy dinners so we can be outside longer!
A blog staple for over a decade!
I created this sloppy joes recipe when my teens were just toddlers. Sloppy Joes were a staple in my home growing up and I wanted to enjoy this fun food concept with my littles! The stuff from the can is loaded with high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, and some brands add color to make it brighter, though! That’s a pretty ugly combo for anyone, let alone growing kids trying to focus on school work or having a good night of sleep!
A little Manwich® sloppy joes make-over!
Giving that saucy, meaty filling a copycat makeover is pretty simple. For a while, I used ketchup for this recipe, but over the years have figured out how to even cut the ketchup out and avoid the cane sugar. When you use simple tomato paste and sauce along with a natural sweetener like maple syrup or honey, you get the same slightly sweet saucy goodness that everyone loves in a good sloppy joe!
The Method :: Building Sloppy Joes flavor all in one skillet
To get your skillet started, caramelize some onions and peppers in the bottom of a large skillet or soup pot. This started building the flavor that we all love in a sloppy joe sauce.
The Method :: Adding the beef (and some add-in options too!)
Once your veggies are soft and sweet, you can brown the beef in the flavorful veggies. Also add the seasonings at this point to toast and cook into the meat for that signature sloppy joes flavor. There are a couple add-in’s you could use at this point too for added nutrients.
- Adding optional organ meat is a great way to get this nutrient dense superfood into the family because you cannot taste it at all. Cook 1/4 cup frozen grated liver per pound of beef while you are browning the beef (you could start out with a few tablespoons and work up to that if you want). Or, you can use a powdered organ meat supplement and sprinkle that in to cook into the beef.
- You could also swap half of the beef for 3 cups of beans for a nutrient change up if you like to include beans in your meal plan.
The Method :: Building the sloppy joes sauce right in the pan!
Once the beef and veggies are cooked, the sloppy joes sauce builds right in the skillet in minutes! Add the sauce ingredients into the skillet and bring everything to a simmer. I like to use a potato masher to make the meat into smaller pieces for a better sloppy joe’s texture experience.
The Method :: Sloppy joes sauce consistency preferences!
Once you get your sauce to a simmer, you can decide how long you simmer the sauce. The longer you simmer, the thicker the sauce will get. If you like the sauce thinner, just 5 minutes or so will do. If you’d like to reduce the sauce a bit more, then you can simmer for a good 10 minutes.
So that was super easy, but what do I serve with my sloppy joes dinner?!
This is supposed to be one of those easy peasy, low fuss dinners, remember? I like to serve sweet potato chips and salads on the side. If you have littles that don’t love salads yet, try serving fermented carrot sticks or pickles for a veggie side. You could also serve the sloppy joe’s mixture over a baked sweet potato or white potato!
Easy One Pan Sloppy Joes – Compare To Manwich® & Other Canned Sloppy Joe Sauces!
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp butter, ghee, or olive oil to cook in
- 1 medium onion diced
- 1 medium bell pepper diced
- 1 4 cloves of garlic minced
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 2 lb grassfed ground beef
- Optional grated frozen liver or powdered organ meat to boost nutrients if desired See Notes
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 15oz can tomato sauce
- 3 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 tbsp yellow mustard
- 1 tsp molasses
- 1 cup bone broth or water
- Sea salt/pepper to taste
Instructions
- Melt the butter over medium high heat in a large skillet or soup pot, and cook the onion and pepper with a big pinch of sea salt for 7 minutes to soften and sweeten the veggies.
- Add the garlic, chili powder, and smoked paprika, and cook for 1 minute until fragrant.
- Add the ground beef with a couple good pinches of sea salt, and break up the meat, mixing it with the cooked veggies while browning the meat. I like to use a potato masher to get the pieces of beef smaller for this recipe.
- Once the beef is browned, add the tomato paste, and stir it into the meat mixture to cook for one minute.
- Add the tomato sauce, syrup, mustard, molasses, and broth, and bring to a simmer. Simmer about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens to your consistency preference. (The longer you cook, the thicker and less saucy it will be.)
- Serve on a bun of your choosing, or if you are grain free it is delicious over a baked sweet potato or potato, or in a big salad bowl.
Notes
- This recipe doubles easily in a large pot and freezes well.
- You can swap half of the beef for 3 cups of beans for a nutrient change up if you like to include beans in your meal plan.
- The optional organ meat is a great way to get this nutrient dense superfood into the family because you cannot taste it at all. Cook 1/4 cup frozen grated liver per pound of beef while you are browning the beef (you could start out with a few tablespoons and work up to that if you want). Or, you can use a powdered organ meat supplement and sprinkle that in to cook into the beef.
I really wish to try this…..but I do not understand about the ground beef drippings do you drain it first? or is it okay to cook the ground beef with all its fat ?
Any help would be appreciated -Thanks
Hi Deb! I’m cooking with grassfed ground beef which is super lean and doesn’t lend a lot of grease – if you are using store bought (which is totally fine btw!), it might need to be drained!
They look so good! I will have to sprout some beans this week!
Let me know how the boys like them 🙂
Holy YUM! These sloppy joes sound amazing! I’ll be whipping these up soon. Thank for the great recipe!!!
Thanks Jessica! Enjoy them!
I love homemade sloppy joes … and I love how you sprout the beans to stretch the meat/budget. That’s such a great idea! Beautiful photos too!
Thank you Emily!
Mmm, the sprouted beans always make me so happy to see! Love that photo. Yummy ingredients!! Thanks for sharing this classic comfort food!
You’re welcome!
A fantastic nutrient dense alternative to the canned options for sure! I need to get a face-to-face demo on sprouting beans and how to store and prepare them (I don’t eat many but would be willing to try more if I knew how to do this). Next on the how-to list. Pinned and shared. =)
Thank you Jessica! I hope you enjoy them – the beans are super easy -great science experiment for Blaise 🙂
These pics are making me salivate! Being grain free your lettuce bowl idea is perfect!
Love this! I can’t remember the last time I had sloppy joes.
I’ve never eaten a prepared sloppy joe, but I love finding out how to make it better and last a little longer. I pinned for future reference.
Great April!
Forget kid-pleasers, my husband would be ALL over these!
Haha! Right Kylie 😉
Where do you buy Sami’s bakery buns at?
Hi Amy! Our health food store here carries them – you live near me correct? Check the freezer section 🙂
Health Hutt? I have one in North Muskegon I go to, I’ll give it a shot! Having a hard time finding a bread my littlest can have. She is allergic to egg, peanut, wheat and corn (and a few other things). I try to make things homemade, but I haven’t made too many breads without wheat and most I am finding use some sort of nut or eggs or corn. I have a lot of experimenting to do!
Yes Amy Health Hutt should have it!
Just made these for the second time… they are SO good!
Love that Nicole! We love these too!
Hi there. There is a broken link in the actual recipe so I am not sure what the amount of beans should be. It looks like 6 cups?
This is one of the few things I make regularly cause generally I like to change it up, but it’s such a family favorite that We end up eating it at least once a month! And I love that it makes a huge batch for plenty of leftovers.
Hi Jenny! I’m so glad this one is a good staple for your house! We use it all the time too!
My husband feels pretty nostalgic for sloppy joes but we have adopted much cleaner, healthier eating habits since the days of manwich. When I saw this recipe come across facebook I knew I had to try it. I followed the recipe exactly and it came out PERFECT. Thick and flavorful just like what my husband remembered but BETTER. He was eating it at least 2 times a day until it was gone! We both absolutely loved it. It was so thick before I added the broth that I thought the liquid would be too much, but nope. My husband was curious about the molasses but that worked out just fine too. Dont doubt this recipe, just try it. Its simple and delicious. Renee-you are definitely one of my top favorite recipe creators. Keep doing what you are doing-THANK YOU!
Hi Melissa! I’m so glad the sloppy joes were family approved including husband approved! So good to hear! I appreciate your kind words, and the time you took to give us some feedback! Thank you!