Healthier Sloppy Joes

Healthier Sloppy Joes are packed not only with meat, but also with nourishing veggies. Carrots, celery, onions, and peppers come together with beef and sausage in a deliciously tangy sauce.

Here's something you might not know about me: I'm not a huge meat eater, and I HATE hamburger. So you might think it's weird when I say that Healthier Sloppy Joes is one of my very favorite recipes. There are 3 reasons I think this is the case:

1. It is packed with tasty veggies! I always love dishes that are colorful, so adding in orange carrots, green celery, yellow onions, and red peppers automatically makes it more appealing in my book. But looks aside, adding in all these veggies gives these sloppies so much more flavor. Not to mention to added health benefit. Raise your hand if you're a parent that likes sneaking healthy food into their children's mouths.
   
   
2. It has hamburger AND SAUSAGE! Like I said, I'm not a huge fan of hamburger but sausage, mmm, sign me up. All those delicious seasoning found in sausage really enlivens the taste of this recipe.
   
   
3. It makes a ton and is freezer friendly! This recipe will feed a crowd! When I make this meal, I can easily feed my family of 5 for dinner, as well as have enough for leftovers the next day. Plus, there is still enough to freeze for another dinner down the road. It's a perfect meal to pull out of the freezer on a summer night when you just don't feel like cooking. Or serve it at your next party, it will feed everyone.

Tips for Making Healthier Sloppy Joes

• If you're trying to hide the veggies in this recipe, make sure to cut them up in to small pieces. You can even shred the carrot to make it blend in more. No one in my family minds the veggies, so I leave them big.

• Chili sauce is my favorite, but you could easily substitute ketchup if that's what you have on hand. If the recipe doesn't seem saucy enough, I usually squirt in some extra ketchup until it reaches the consistency I want it to be.

• To freeze, place desired amount in a freezer friendly container or ziplock bag. It will maintain it's best quality for 3 months in the freezer, however, it will still be safe to eat for months after that. Let it defrost in the fridge for 24 hours before serving, or microwave on a low defrost setting.
  
  Sloppy Joe meat can be reheated on a pot on the stove, simmered on low. I've also put it in my instant pot before and just turned it on warm for several hours.

• If you want to make this meal even healthier, you could serve it on top of a baked potato instead of a hamburger bun.

• Sloppy Joes can be really hard for kids to eat. When my kids were little, they'd just eat the filling with a spoon instead of trying to wrestle with it in a sandwich bun.

• This recipe is best when garnished with dill pickles, and if you're feeling wild, potato chips right on the sandwich!

recipe adapted from Ultimate Sloppy Joes