lady, you're scaring us sloppy joes & onion rings

Have some more SLOPPY JOES! :)

Like I said before, I love, love, LOVE sloppy joes.  And Billy Madison.  This meal is one that Nate and I could always be in the mood for and it's great to use when we have people over/staying with us.  With this healthier version of the real OG, you don't feel as heavy and bleh after eating it aaand it makes delicious leftovers!  Everyone wins in this situation.  The mixture also has a bunch of vegetables in it, but they are easily masked by the sauce so this would work fantastically for kids or grown ups who say nay to veggies. Excellent.  I found both recipes on one of my favorite websites, Gina's Skinny Recipes, and tweaked the sloppy joe one, just a bit.  Seriously, this website is AWESOME.  I could probably throw out all of my cookbooks and just use her website as a recipe finder, so fair warning, a lot of what I cook comes from her.

Sloppy Joes
Adapted from Skinny Sloppy Joes

Ingredients
1.25 lbs extra lean ground turkey (Jenni-O)
1 tablespoon steak seasoning or seasoned salt

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce (separated)
1 carrot, minced
1 medium onion, minced

1 green bell pepper, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced

½ red bell pepper, minced

4 oz mushrooms, minced
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 ½ cups tomato sauce
2 tablespoon tomato paste

Directions

To begin, we will chop all the vegetables really fine, using a chopper (like this one from William Sonoma) or a food processor.  Personally, I like to leave the green peppers and onions a little bit bigger because I like the taste, but if you are trying to please a picky eater, a food processor might be the best way to go.

Then we are going to heat a large skillet over medium high heat and toss in 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil so the ground turkey isn't so dry.  Next, add the ground meat and continue to break it up as it cooks.  While it is cooking, season the meat with the steak seasoning and 1 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce to kick up the flavor.

Cook the meat until it all pink has disappeared, then add the finely chopped onion, garlic, carrots, mushrooms, green bell peppers, and red peppers to the skillet.  Reduce heat to medium and add the red wine vinegar and remaining tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce and cook for 5 more minutes.  Then we will add the tomato sauce and tomato paste to pan, stirring to combine.  Cover and reduce heat to simmer and cook an additional 5 minutes.  Then scoop up about a half a cup and place on a toasted whole wheat bun.

Skinny Baked Onion Rings

Copied from Low Fat Baked Onion Rings

Ingredients

1 medium onion, sliced into  ¼ inch rings
2 ¼  cups low fat buttermilk
½  cup panko bread crumbs
¼  cup Italian seasoned whole wheat bread crumbs
¼  cup crushed corn flake crumbs
Salt to taste
Olive oil baking spray

Directions
Place slices of onion in a shallow dish.  Pour the buttermilk over the top and let themsoak for about 1 - 2 hours, refrigerated.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper or foil.

Combine panko, bread crumbs and corn flakes and place half of the crumbs in a large dish, season with salt.  Reserve the rest for when the first batch is used up.  This should help avoid clumping and they should stick better to the onions.

Dip each soaked onion ring into the crumb mixture; coat well. Place rings onto two cookie sheets. Lightly spray with oil. Bake about 12 minutes or until golden brown.Serve immediately.