What’s for Dinner: Sloppy Joes, Corn on the Cob, and Broccoli

What comes to mind when you think of sloppy joes?  I think of…a messy, yummy, easy, classic, all American, probably-not-very-healthy-for-you meal.  Well I have good news!  I have come up with a way to make it a messy, yummy, easy, classic, all American meal that is healthy for you!  I’ve always loved sloppy joes.  Eating them reminds me of having them as a kid, and I just love the “tomato-ey” flavor that accompanies the messy but yummy meal.  So I decided to make a “healthified” version of sloppy joes.  Just a few minor changes, and you’ve got yourself a a healthier version of a fantastic classic meal. 

A simple but big change you can make is to use lean ground turkey instead of ground beef.  It’s much lower in calories and saturated fat.  Some of you may put up your noses to the thought of substituting your red meat for turkey (like my husband did at first), but I promise you can’t taste a difference when it’s mixed in with the sauce at all! 

Prepare the joes as you normally would.  I do it the easy, cheap way by using a sloppy joes seasoning mix and some tomato paste.

Instead of serving it on regular white hamburger buns that have absolutely no nutritional value, opt for some high fiber whole wheat hamburger buns.  I always buy the Nature’s Pride 100% Whole Wheat.  They’re soft, dense, and high in fiber.  You can also get some Orowheat Sandwich Thins that would be great with these too. 

Cody always eats his on a full bun, but I like to have mine open faced on one side of the bun.  Both sides are a little bit “too much bun” for me.  It may be a little messier to eat it open faced, but you end up eating half of your sloppy joes with a fork anyway, right?  When you eat schloppy, I say go all out! 😉  Serve them with some veggies and you got yourself a delicious and nutritious meal.

“Healthified” Sloppy Joes

Ingredients:

1 lb. lean ground turkey

1 packet sloppy joes seasoning

1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste

1 1/4 cups water

8 100% Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns or Sandwich Thins

Directions:

Brown ground turkey on a skillet.  Drain extra fat.  Add water, tomato paste, and sloppy joes seasoning.  Stir well and bring to a boil.  Lower heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.  Serve on hamburger buns.  Makes 8 servings. 

After dinner we did something a little out of the ordinary… went to look at some houses in the Utah Parade of Homes!  Every summer, Salt Lake County has a few dozen homes that they “pretty up” and show for people to walk through and look at.  Some of these homes are incredible!  They range from more modest homes to mansions, but they are all decorated beautifully and are very nice.  One of the homes this year is a replica of the house in the movie “UP”!  We plan on going to that one later this week.  We saw four homes this evening and plan on going to see a few each night this week as it ends on Sunday.  I love decorating, and walking through all the “fancied up” homes is a great way to get some wonderful home decor ideas.  This is definitely my thing!   

 

Our favorite home was one of the more modest homes that we saw of the four.  I guess that’s the practicality in us. 😉  Nonetheless, it was still a beautiful and way too expensive home for us right now, but I can still dream. 🙂

Kitchen

Master bedroom

One of the living rooms

 There was a lot more that I wasn’t able to capture on my camera, but you get the idea. 😉  Maybe someday…

Weekly Dinner Menu

I apologize I wasn’t able to make a lunch hour post today!  It was a busy day with a meeting in the morning and our usual Monday staff lunch.  Today we agreed on Chick-Fil-A for lunch.  I had never been to Chick-Fil-A much before I worked at my church (the other staff members love it), but it’s growing on me.  I really enjoy their grilled chicken salads… they’re fresh, the perfect size, and full of healthy vegetables.  Today I opted for the Char-grilled Chicken Garden Salad, and I would definitely recommend it!  It was very good.  I left out the cheese and croutons that came with it, but ate every last bite of everything else. 

                      

After work on Mondays, I have made it my weekly routine to stop at the grocery store on my way home from work to stock up on groceries for the week.  On Sunday evening before I go to bed, I make a dinner menu for the week so I have a better idea of what I’ll need from the grocery store.  I have found that making a menu for the week prevents us from going out to eat too much, ensures that we have plenty of fruits and vegetables in the house all week, and helps us stay within our budget for food.  I keep a cute little notepad on our refrigerator with the weekly menu and a grocery list right underneath it.  

Cody has come to appreciate the weekly menu so he doesn’t always have to ask what’s for dinner (I appreciate it too! ;)).  I definitely plan on doing this when we have kids so I don’t have to hear the “What’s for dinner?” question every night.  The grocery list is convenient if we run out of something in the middle of the week, it’s on the list for the next week and I won’t forget it.  You can find these cute little notepads at Target, book stores, craft stores, etc.  I highly recommend it!!

Questions for the Day:

• Do you make a weekly menu for you or your family?
• How often do you go to the grocery store?