Homemade Sloppy Joes

I'll start by saying this was a spur of the moment recipe, which I came up with because I needed to try the french fries I bought for 79 cents/bag before the sale ended so I would know if I wanted to buy more of them for that ridiculously low price. (They were excellent - I'll probably buy a case of them :) So, for those of you who don't mind cooking with vague instructions, this recipe is for you. I had to take this first picture because it was so pretty in the pan. I started by sauteing diced onion, celery, yellow and red peppers in a little butter. (Oh who are we kidding - I can't afford real butter. I used the cheapest margarine I could find!)


Once the veggies were beautifully sauteed, I added raw ground beef, and cooked it all until the beef was done. (I might add that this particular ground beef was from a cow raised on my husband's uncle's ranch. We split a cow with his parents, so my freezer is well stocked...)


After the beef was cooked through, I added a little Montreal Steak seasoning, a bit of Famous Dave's BBQ sauce, and maybe 1/4 cup of ketchup. (I told you this was going to be vague!) When I tasted it, I thought it was way too overpowering (I'll chalk that up to too much bbq sauce) so I added beef broth and cooked it down. That mellowed it perfectly. Everyone agreed that it was a million times better than the canned stuff. It wasn't hard either. The hardest thing was chopping the veggies, but I love to do that. I find it therapeutic :) Anyway, next time I will cut back a bit on the steak seasoning. My 6 year old thought it was a bit too spicy... but he still cleaned his plate ;)