Whole Food Sloppy Joes

Last night I had a pound of ground venison thawed and hadn't a clue what to do with it.  DH's suggestion of making sloppy joes was a good one.  I haven't had sloppy joes (that weren't vegan) for... well, to many years to count at this point.  I then needed to look up recipes.  Since it's been so long (we're talking like 15-16 years now) all I could remember of ingredients were ketchup and ground meat.  I wanted to try for a whole food recipe, something that I could use some of my homemade tomato sauce (since we have 60 quarts in the basement).  So I started searching.  On Pinterest I found two recipes I could work with.  I liked Lisa's Dinnertime Dish for all the herbs and spices she put in, and  My Humble Kitchen because it is whole food based (and really it was the main recipe I took from).  I decided to combine the two and this is what I came up with:

Whole Food Sloppy Joes

Serves 4 - 6 hungry people

Ingredients: 

    •    1 lb ground meat

    •    1 onion, diced
    •    1 green bell pepper, diced
    •    4 cloves of garlic, minced
    •    6-8 oz tomato paste (or a pint of tomato sauce that's simmered to half it's original volume)
    •    1 cup water (or broth)
    •    1 TBSP chili powder
    •    1 tsp paprika
    •    1 tsp cumin
    •    1 tsp oregano
    •    1-3 tsp apple cider vinegar
    •    3 tbsps honey
    •    Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a large cast iron pan heat some oil and then brown the ground meat. (About 5-7 minutes)
2. Add onions, bell pepper & garlic and cook until the veggies are tender.  (Another 5ish minutes)
3. Stir in remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer for 10-15 minutes.
4. Serve over your choice of bread.  (We used this flax bread recipe since we haven't been eating much gluten in the last couple of months.  Note: I never actually add sweetener to the bread recipe as it turns out nicely without it.)

It was nice to have something different.  My daughter thought it was to sweet, but she told me that she believed nothing besides desert should be sweetened.  She's definitely her father's daughter.  And my 4 year old wouldn't eat it because he could see the onions and bell peppers. *sigh* That one would live of of beans and rice if I let him.  All in all though, it was quite the hit.  The whole batch disappeared, no left overs to be seen.  Plates were licked clean and everyone really was happy (even the 4 year old who after being forced to try 4 bites got his bowl of brown rice, *shrugs*).

Hope this helps someone else out there.  Enjoy!