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Ingredients Archives: Onion Powder

Sugar Detox Sloppy Joes

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1969. It was a big year the world. Richard Nixon became president, man walked on the moon and Hunts came out with a can of deliciousness called Manwich. Yes, Manwich. Just add ground meat and you have yourself a delicious sloppy joe. I grew up with this stuff. We kept it on hand a long with emergency water and matches in case of power failure. So when I got married and started my own family, I knew I had to stock up on the Manwich.

Sadly, life changes. Richard Nixon resigned after questionable activity, NASA had budget cuts and had to put an end to the Apollo missions, and I read the label on the back of a can of Manwich. The second ingredient listed is high fructose corn syrup, followed by regular corn syrup. A few ingredients later we have sugar and down the list we have ingredients with a breakdown that include high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup and sugar. That’s one giant crash for mankind, Manwich.

Yet if we learned anything from Adam Sandler and Chris Farley, it’s that sloppy joes are awesome. So something had to be done.

What I came up with was a delicious, healthy, saucy mixture to go with my ground beef for a sloppy joe that puts Manwich to shame. Eat your heart out, Manwich! But first, drizzle a little high fructose corn syrup over it.

The key is to let the ingredients simmer together.

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After you brown your beef and onion, add the liquids and spices and let the whole mixture simmer together for 20 minutes. One of the ingredients in this recipe is that amazing bone broth I told you to make a few weeks ago. Now it’s even healthier than before.

We sometimes have this on whole wheat buns, but my favorite way is to scoop some into a lettuce cup. The crunch pairs nicely with the meat.

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My husband and kids eat this with shredded cheese on the top, but dairy makes my hand beak out in eczema like I have a zombie hand, so I pass on the cheese.

Now if I could just find another way to put man on the moon…

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Healthy Taco Seasoning

Last week, we bought half a cow. We now have enough steak, stew meat, roast and ground beef to last quite a while. Not to mention liver. I think I’m going to need to do more research before we tackle that one. My kids’ reactions were very different. My 8-year-old son was appalled. I guess there’s something different about buying a pound of ground beef at the grocery store. Getting a cooler full of beef made it more real for him. He was shocked that we would eat an adorable cow. My 5-year-old daughter on the other hand, took a different stance. She wanted to meet and pet the cow before it was sent to the butcher so she could see what she was eating. She also now wants to know what part of the cow she’s eating. I’m not sure what sparked the difference in reaction but one thing is for sure; they are their own people with their own views an opinions. They never cease to amaze me.

On a different note (well… kind of different anyway) we had beef tacos last week. I wanted to make my life easier by buying a taco seasoning packet. Then I read the ingredient list and decided that wasn’t going to happen. Every seasoning I could find had sugar (sometimes organic, but it’s still sugar) and modified corn starch. What exactly is modified about it? The point is, I wasn’t impressed. I once again realized, that eating healthy means spending more time and is often inconvenient. But it’s also worth it.

So I decided to put together my own taco seasoning and the entire family was pleased. Plus, I can make a bit batch of this and it’s like having packets when I need them. It’s also easy to customize. I left out the chili powder because my daughter is really sensitive to spicy food. Even if a sauce is labeled “mild,” she’s not sold on it.

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The amount listed below is enough seasoning for one pound of meat. If you opt to make a big batch, just use around 4T seasoning per pound of meat.

You can add this to meat alone or stir in some tomato sauce or tomato paste. This is also a great seasoning for chili or taco soup.

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No Sugar BBQ Sauce

BBQ sauce makes any meat better. Pour it over chicken, that’s all you need for a great dinner. Pour it over a pork roast and, voila; pulled pork. Smear it on hamburgers and they’re suddenly the best hamburgers ever. My daughter DSCN0305uses BBQ sauce like most kids use ketchup, so we go through a lot of it in our house. While I’m totally okay with adding strange things to food to get kids to eat them, I’m not okay with the sugar content of most condiments. This is especially true for BBQ sauce. When we made the change to a healthier lifestyle, I knew we couldn’t give up BBQ sauce. That’s when I began the quest to make a no-sugar BBQ sauce. Not only did I succeed, but my husband says this is the best BBQ sauce I’ve ever made and my daughter gave it her stamp of approval.

First let’s look at a typical bottled BBQ sauce. The sauce we bought before we made our own, contains 32 grams of sugar in 1/4 C with high fructose corn syrup being the first ingredient. That is crazy. My BBQ sauce has less than 3 grams of sugar in 1/4 C and tastes delicious.

This is also an easy recipe. I didn’t want a recipe that required a lot of sauteing, dish washing and vegetable chopping, so I made it simple. Just throw all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk them together. Yes there are a lot of ingredients, but they are likely things you have in your pantry. If you don’t like an ingredient, leave it out.

I like to store it in a mason jar (or a washed, glass peanut-butter jar since we have a million of those sitting around) and stick it in the fridge. This will stay good for about a two weeks.

DSCN0314One night we had some left over pork roast and needed a quick dinner. I threw the roast leftovers in a slow cooker with the BBQ sauce and we had dinner. It’s almost too easy.

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