Not-So "Sloppy" Joe's

I had never tried a Sloppy Joe, up until a couple of years' ago. I think it may have been a combination of growing up abroad and that my mother would automatically refuse to give us anything to eat that had the word "sloppy" in its name. Either way, I was finally convinced to make one by my boyfriend who grew up eating them as a kid. I obviously had no idea what it was supposed to taste like, and pretty much all I knew of them was typical pop culture references on TV or some cooking show; so I resorted to using the dry package. I was eventually able to come up with my own version of this American classic.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup onion

1.5 lb ground beef

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 tsp. paprika

1 tsp. chili powder

1 8oz. can tomato sauce

1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

1/2 tbsp brown sugar

4 Buns (Kaiser Rolls)

Finely chop 1/4 cup of onion. Saute until translucent and add the ground beef, mix well so the onions are evenly distributed with the meat. Add the salt, pepper, paprika and chili powder and mix well. Once the beef has cooked through add the tomato sauce and mix well. At the beginning its going to seem overly liquid, but it will cook down. Once the tomato sauce has reduced in half add the Worcestershire sauce and the sugar. Cook for another 5 minutes until the mixture is a nice and saucy.

I always like to serve on a toasted bun, preferably kaiser rolls, and pair with another comfort food, macaroni and cheese. Feel free to swap out ground beef for ground turkey, the condiments and sauce are what help give this dish a huge boost of flavor.