Family Favorite- Sloppy Joes & Cucumber Tomato Salad

One of the first meals that my mother-in-law ever made for Brett and I while we were dating was sloppy joes. I thought that they sounded disgusting. I had seen the Manwich commercials and thought to myself, who wants to eat ground beef slathered in ketchup and warmed up?? Nasty. But then I ate one of these delicious home made wonders and became a believer. A few friends of mine had asked for the recipe so I decided to post it. It's super easy, great to make for large groups, and I have yet to find anyone that doesn't like them. Or at least will admit that they don't like them.

Sloppy Joes

1/2 of an onion; diced

1 tbsp butter

2lbs ground beef (you can use ground turkey too)

2/3 cup ketchup

1/2 cup water

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp worshester sauce

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vinegar

1/4 tsp dry mustard (you can get in bulk at Winco)

*Saute onions in butter Add beef and brown. Drain fat. Add rest of ingredients and stir. Simmer for 30 minutes on low low heat. Makes 4 cups.

I love serving them on the onion hamburger buns for the most flavor.

I also lightly butter and broil the buns prior to spooning on the sloppy joe meat.

Cucumber Tomato Salad

This one you can't go wrong with. I don't have a real specific recipe for it, I just eyeball it each time. Basically I cut up one whole cucumber, some cherry tomatoes and about half of a sweet onion. (onions weren't in the batch above, I made it for a family that had small kids and I didn't know if they would like the onions so I gave them on the side) Add a couple tablespoons of mayo, a splash of vinegar and maybe a tablespoon of sugar. Give it a good stir and let marinade all day. It is a really light and yummy salad and we eat it all every time. Emersyn even likes the cucumbers in it. This is an easier salad for us to eat. I find that when I make a salad with lettuce, tomatoes, etc. I end up wasting a lot of the ingredients because the two of us can't go through as many veggies as I would like to. Anyways, this is a yummy salad and I almost always serve it with sloppy joes, just a yummy side!

Happy comfort food cooking!