dianeseattle
Member
Ground turkey Sloppy Joes
- Thread starter dianeseattle
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dianeseattle
Member
I went overboard with the vegetables, including red yellow orange and green peppers, jalapeno pepper, Walla Walla sweet onions, and garlic. I didn't have all the things he included in the recipe because those were things that were local to him. So I made substitutions. I used less tomato sauce, a little mustard, a little ketchup, sriracha sauce, red pepper sauce, tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce.
But the truly weird thing was the ground turkey. I went to Safeway and for one pound of turkey they wanted $6.79. At that point I decided I wasn't going to be able to make sloppy joes after all. But I knew I could get turkey at Trader Joe's and when I went there, they only wanted $5 and some change.
But even weirder than that, as I was putting the meat in the skillet I noticed that it looked a lot more than a pound. I read the label and it turned out to be 2 lb. So I got twice as much ground turkey from TJ's for a much lower price.
Initially I took the second pound and bagged it for another use. But my tomato sauce was so runny because of the liquid that came out of the vegetables, that I decided to just put the second pound in and freeze it for future meals.
Considering the fact that I grew up on Sloppy Joes made from a can of Campbell's tomato soup and hamburger, this was a gourmet feast. And I will never make sloppy joes the old-fashioned way again. I will always use a recipe. But I did use BBQ sauce as the guy recommended, and I don't like barbecue sauce, so I was concerned about it and when it was all done it was way too sweet. So I dosed it with more Worcestershire sauce and that helped to bring it back to level.
For buns, I used Trader Joe's brioche buns because I love brioche. I only cut off about an inch of the bottom of two rolls to put the mixture on. But I can see that this concoction could make a fabulous burrito and I could put it over rice if I wanted to or pasta or homemade pizza dough or eat it plain. It is good enough.
Making a turkey sloppy joe is a lot more complicated and takes a lot more slicing and dicing than your average meal. But as I was slicing and dicing I was putting everything in freezer bags so I could use the vegetables in a quiche, or a chicken fajita or a nice Curry dish or whatever else I can figure out. And my family that used to be together, my son and my husband always requested the chicken fajitas. And if they showed up for dinner they would practically lick the pot.
I have only made my way through one half of a bun and I am too full to eat the rest. So those silicone Lids are going to get a workout tonight.
But the truly weird thing was the ground turkey. I went to Safeway and for one pound of turkey they wanted $6.79. At that point I decided I wasn't going to be able to make sloppy joes after all. But I knew I could get turkey at Trader Joe's and when I went there, they only wanted $5 and some change.
But even weirder than that, as I was putting the meat in the skillet I noticed that it looked a lot more than a pound. I read the label and it turned out to be 2 lb. So I got twice as much ground turkey from TJ's for a much lower price.
Initially I took the second pound and bagged it for another use. But my tomato sauce was so runny because of the liquid that came out of the vegetables, that I decided to just put the second pound in and freeze it for future meals.
Considering the fact that I grew up on Sloppy Joes made from a can of Campbell's tomato soup and hamburger, this was a gourmet feast. And I will never make sloppy joes the old-fashioned way again. I will always use a recipe. But I did use BBQ sauce as the guy recommended, and I don't like barbecue sauce, so I was concerned about it and when it was all done it was way too sweet. So I dosed it with more Worcestershire sauce and that helped to bring it back to level.
For buns, I used Trader Joe's brioche buns because I love brioche. I only cut off about an inch of the bottom of two rolls to put the mixture on. But I can see that this concoction could make a fabulous burrito and I could put it over rice if I wanted to or pasta or homemade pizza dough or eat it plain. It is good enough.
Making a turkey sloppy joe is a lot more complicated and takes a lot more slicing and dicing than your average meal. But as I was slicing and dicing I was putting everything in freezer bags so I could use the vegetables in a quiche, or a chicken fajita or a nice Curry dish or whatever else I can figure out. And my family that used to be together, my son and my husband always requested the chicken fajitas. And if they showed up for dinner they would practically lick the pot.
I have only made my way through one half of a bun and I am too full to eat the rest. So those silicone Lids are going to get a workout tonight.
dianeseattle
Member
I have never liked ground turkey or ground chicken because they use the breast meat and there is no fat in which to fry it send. But this recipe called for a couple tablespoons of olive oil right up front so it worked out fine and the sauce made the turkey very tender and moist. I'd have to say this is an unqualified hit.
A story from my childhood when I lived on the farm: I was walking home from school and my friend asked me what I was going to have for dinner and I said, pulling a face of repugnance and boredom "Ugh, we're having steak. Again." No way could my parents raised 8 children without butchering a steer and keeping the meat in a freezer. And then they both went hunting in the fall and usually both of them came back with a deer, which also went into the freezer. To this day I still despise venison. And I'm not all that crazy about steak. They also hunted elk and moose successfully and although I hated the elk meat, the Moose tasted a lot like cow. And every day when my dad got off work he would put on his waders and grab his Pole and head up to Index where he could fish on the Skykomish River and it was unusual if he didn't catch a 20 lb steelhead salmon. By the way, I hate salmon too.
I didn't know how fabulous food could be and how much variety there was until I moved off the farm and away from my mom's cooking. No offense intended. She was just a horrible cook. And she hated cheese, so we didn't get to eat any cheese. And she hated spaghetti sauce, so we never got any real spaghetti sauce. Just Campbell's tomato soup over squiggly egg noodles. She wouldn't let us do our own seasonings so she would over-salt our food and if we had cereal she would put a couple tablespoons of sugar on it. I don't know why she ever thought we couldn't control the amount of sugar we wanted to eat. And she overcooked cauliflower until it would sag across your fork and break in a really thick sauce she made from milk and sprinkled with nutmeg. I learned a lot of other ways to make cauliflower and discovered I loved it after I left home.