Living in a house with boys, there are certain things that are a given: Superheros, wrestling and sloppy joes. When Mom decided to hop on the crazy train and start eating healthy it was bound to trickle down to my guys before too long. Fast forward almost 3 years and eating healthy is just a normal way of life for us now. They survived the transition, one slow step at a time. It first started with switching to whole wheat and not buying pop. Then I started bringing in more varieties of fresh fruits and cut out the chips. The slow and steady pace worked. Do we have it all figured out? Absolutely not! But.. as a family, we are moving in a positive direction. Will we give up pizza night and ice cream, probably not. haha It's all about moderation. With that said I love finding recipes that are healthy but burst with flavor.. to the extent you don't even realize it's healthy. Yup, foods out there exist like that. This recipe is one of our favorites: Clean eating Sloppy Joes. My boys love these and don't even realize the difference. They get to be boys and love the things boys love and mom is satisfied that there are tons of healthy things inside including a serving of veggies!
So.. try it out. Test it. I have no doubt you will love it to!
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 15 mins
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 1 lb lean ground turkey ($3.00)
- 1 onion, diced ($.80)
- 1 green bell pepper, diced ($.90)
- 3 Tablespoons honey
- 1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1 Tablespoon garlic powder (if you don't love garlic as much as me definitely go for a little less)
- 1 can no sugar added natural tomato sauce ($1.50)
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste ($1.00)
- 1 Tablespoon Red Wine Vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon hot sauce*
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce*
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar*
- 4 rolls (for clean eating I tried Gillian's Gluten Free from Whole Foods, not the best but not too bad either) ($5.00)
Cook the onion and bell pepper over medium heat about 2 minutes. Add the turkey, salt, pepper, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, turkey, and honey and cook over medium heat about 10 minutes, or until turkey is completely browned (stir constantly).
Reduce heat to low and add red wine vinegar, hot sauce, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar and stir it all together. Now add the tomato sauce and tomato paste and mix until it is all completely mixed together. Cover and heat over low for 5 minutes.
