Skinny Sloppy Joe's

I haven't blogged in a reallllllly long time.  Going back to teaching is always such a shock to the system.  Ask my poor husband... I've barely cooked.  But now that I'm back in the swing of things (3 months later)... it's time to cook again.  Actually, part of it is that I started using Peapod for grocery delivery, which requires advanced planning - so I know WHAT I'm cooking each night.  Planning ahead... who'd have thunk it.  

Anyway, tonight I made Skinny Sloppy Joes from this recipe.    It was DELICIOUS.   Here's the low down and I how I made it a bit different than the original.

1.  I started by browning 1 pound of lean organic ground beef with 1 Tbs of steak seasoning.  Because my husband is anti-onion I can never use store bought steak seasoning, so I used a rub that I made a while back. It was soooo good that I kept the extra.  (*update* Here's the steak rub recipe - I left out the onion powder for the hubby... yes, he is THAT anti-onion).   

2.  Once the meat was browned all the way through I strained some of the fat off (I always do this), and added a handful of pre-shredded carrots that I chopped up, 1/2 chopped red bell pepper, approximately 4 oz of mushrooms chopped, and 3-4 tablespoons of pre-chopped garlic.  The original recipe calls for onion... obviously, that was out, and for the veggies to be very finely chopped up in a food processor.  I didn't do that and the dish was still awesome.  

3.  Then I added 1 Tbs red wine vinegar and 1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce. 

4.  Last, I added 16 oz of tomato sauce.  The recipe called for two cups of sauce plus 2 Tbs of tomato paste.  I always have sauce and paste in the house... except tonight I didn't.  So I figured if I added extra tomato sauce - put a wire mesh screen over the pan, and boiled it down it would be roughly the same thing.  It worked out great. I served them on whole wheat buns and tada - tasty, messy, sloppy Joes from scratch!   

Ribs!

Vegetarians - you may want to skip this one.  If the sight of meat or bones freaks you out - move on.


Making ribs for dinner tonight!  I've had some frozen pork ribs in the freezer for way too long.

Using this recipe 

1.  The first thing that I had to do was defrost the ribs since they'll spend the next 7 hours in the slow cooker.  I didn't really have time for them to defrost in the fridge or on the counter (probably not healthy anyway).  So here's what I'm doing:

That's just cold water pouring over 2 lbs of pork baby back ribs.    I flipped them around a few times, but it only took about 15 minutes for them to full thaw.  

The Next Step:

2.  Make the rub by blending together 1.5 Tbs Paprika, 1 Tbs light brown sugar (I packed mine),  1/8 Tsp of cayenne (I probably used 1/4 tsp or more.  Mine is large pieces because they're dried peppers from my garden from summers past), salt and pepper to taste.  I used about 1/2 tsp of each.  Mix all of that together and you get a really attractive red rub (thanks Paprika!)

3.  After patting the ribs dry with some paper towels, rub the dry mix all over them.

4.  Then place them in a slow cooker with the meat side against the wall and the thicker side down.  I couldn't tell which was the thicker side so I guessed.  Pour 1 cup BBQ sauce over them and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

The Last Steps:

5.  Prepare a baking pan by lining it with tinfoil, and putting a few cooling racks in it.  

6.  Carefully remove the ribs from the slow cooker.  They're tender so watch out cause they can fall apart easily.  Put them on the rack bone side up.

Evidence of the difficulty of moving them (see the fallen rib).

7.  In the slow cooker, skim off any visible fat.  Then pour the juices through a strainer into a saucepan. Bring to a boil and the reduce the heat to simmer for about 15 minutes.  (I accidentally skipped the strainer step.  Oops.  I did skim the fat, but it's tricky.  After a while I just said forget it and started the boiling to simmering).

8.  Make sure that your oven has a shelf at the very bottom (original recipe says 10 inches from broiler, that's the bottom tier in my oven).  Turn on the broiler and let it heat up.

9.  Brush the ribs with the sauce you were just simmering and broil the ribs for 3-4 minutes.  Take them out, flip them over (tongs are handy here... again, be careful so they don't fall apart).  Brush the top side with the sauce and broil meat side up for about 3 minutes, remove and brush with sauce, broil for 3 more minutes, remove and brush with sauce, and then broil for 3 more minutes.

10.  Serve remaining sauce with ribs.

As you can see - there were NO remaining ribs. *burp*  The meat literally just fell off the bone, and the broiler at the end gave them that perfect bit of crustiness.  This one is a winner!

Husband approved!