Another Low Sodium Recipe....Homemade Alternative to Sloppy Joe Sauce

I made Sloppy Joes the other night for dinner and I didn't use a can of processed anything to make it!

Ok, so this picture is from the last time in May I made my own sauce for Sloppy Joes.  Humor me a minute willya? lol
I tried a different sauce recipe and we like this one even better.  It's got more of a 'bite' to it(but not spicy)due in part to the vinegar it calls for.

I found a recipe online and adapted it to our tastes.
Ok, so it was a little more complicated than ripping open a packet of pre-blended flavorings/spices full of salt or opening a can of premade sauce from the grocery store full of HFCS.....but not by much!

Here is my recipe for Sloppy Joes with homemade Sauce

* Brown 1.5-2 lbs. of ground beef/chicken/turkey/pork or any combination thereof.

* Add 1 med. chopped onion and 1/2 a bell pepper to the pan.(I used a 1/4 of a red and a yellow pepper instead.)

* When all veggies are soft, drain the grease from the pan.

* Add to the meat mixture the following ingredients and stir until mixed--

   *  3 TB Vinegar
   *  3 TB Brown Sugar
   *  2 TB Prepared Mustard
   *  1/2 tsp Garlic(minced or powdered)
   *  1 tsp Chili Powder
   *  1 TB Worcestershire Sauce
   *  1 3 oz. can of Tomato Paste
   *  3/4 can of Water(fill the now empty tomato paste can)

* Let simmer for 5 minutes and serve on rolls and with side dishes of your choice.

Mmm, Mmm, Good!

Sluggy

The World Needs More Math Nerds

No explanation needed......

 

If you prefer rap......




Or maybe you lean toward pop music.....




Sluggy

He Gets It!

To proof that there are some highly places black people in govt. who "get it", listen to Senator Elbert Guillory.  He made a tiny ripple in the news recently(but you can count on the media to ignore this long and hard since it's anti-liberal agenda). He and Dr. Ben Carson bring much common sense to the political table......though I can't get behind Sen. Guillory's love of that federalist A. Lincoln. ;-)

While I applaud Sen. Guillory for standing up to the Democrat party, I do think throwing his allegiance in with the Republicans is folly.
Both political sides have major problems and the majority of bigwigs in both parties are in the game for power and control, with "we the people" being the losers no matter which "flavor of the year" is in control.

Sen. Elbert should have thrown his hat in with the Libertarians or one of the other 3rd parties, because we, the people standing on the outside of the 2 party monopoly, are the future of this country.


 

Sluggy

Thursday Ramblings

So what has Sluggy been up to today you ask?

Well......I finally got all that food I can no longer eat on FreeCycle earlier this week on Monday.
I had 7 people respond by Wednesday. 
Of those 7,  I emailed back the 3 who weren't demanding or belligerent to offer the food to them.
Yes, even when you are giving away things for free people get nasty with you.  Don't ask me why they feel that someone would give them something if they coped an attitude with the giver.

Only 1of the 3 has responded as of late last night.
If the other two don't respond before she comes tomorrow morning to pick the items up, she will get it all.  Trust me, it's 6 boxes and 3 plastic bags of food, enough for 3 different families.  But she will hit the jackpot and take it all as things look now. ;-)

I got up later than usual and did a load of white clothes.  I had to take a pain pill last night, as my legs were bothering me(they do that sometimes)plus I couldn't sleep due to some "things" going on here, which I'll get into tomorrow in my next blog post.

Then I took #2 Son with me and I spent the early afternoon looking for dead people.....

Found most of them.
Go me!
In the last couple weeks I've added 152 new memorials to this cemetery on F.A.G. plus another couple dozen photos onto memorials already posted by other members.  I've had a few members contact me to thank me for posting photos of their relative headstones even though they hadn't requested a volunteer take a photo for the memorial.  I also fulfilled about 10 of the 30+ photo requests for this cemetery.
I've got another 100 or so photos from today's batch to edit and post, among them some photo requests.  I also transferred the ownership of 8 memorials I created into the care of a family member who wished to have them.  I love when a relative asks for their peeps and gladly surrender them.  Family should be with family....
It amazes me what bad manners some of these people asking for ownership have though.  Not a please or a thank you.  I have started a list of these ill-mannered folks and should they ask for anyone else I maintain, they'll get a cold shoulder from me until they learn some decent etiquette. 8-(

After I stopped at Wendy's and bought #2 Son lunch as thanks for helping me at the cemetery, I came home so I could meet a lady who bought some packs of diapers off of me.   These have been sitting around in my garage and were part of the stuff I got for FREE at Rite-Aid over the last couple of years.
The lady took this clutter out of my life and handed me this.
Say hello to my little friend, Mr. Hamilton!

What a handsome fella.....though a tad 2 dimensional as far as personality goes.....lol

Then I started dinner.....

The pan of asparagus is ready for the oven(once I put a little lemon pepper Mrs. Dash's on it).
The Portabella caps are awaiting some pan sautéing, leftover homemade spaghetti sauce and mozzarella/provolone cheese and then popping it into the oven for 20 mins.

But eating dinner will have to wait a bit, as we have a guy coming within the hour from Sears home improvements to check our house out for the feasibility of installing one of these.....

A mini-split a/c unit or a/c and heating unit.
Too bad hubs and I don't look like the couple in the picture, huh?
Nah, I'd look dreadful with blonde hair......but I wouldn't mind if Hubs looked like that guy..... ;-)

We are going with Sears(probably)because if we buy the unit(s) through our daughter who sells appliances at Sears, she gets a nice little commission.
Sorry Sears guy....

After dinner I get to finish the laundry and download and start editing the 100+ photos I took today.
Then play a little Bubble Land and read blogs before turning in for the night.

So how's your day been?
Anything exciting on tonight's agenda??

Sluggy

 

More Money Running Through Our Hands

Ok.
I lied the other day when I said we hadn't eaten out/gotten take-out all week.
Mea culpa.

It's  heck getting old and not being able to remember stuff.....
Hubs & I did go out for lunch on Saturday after viewing the "shit hole" property and taking some headstone photos at the cemetery nearby.

I took him out for Father's Day to Friendly's in a town south of here.  They are usually crowded big time on weekends as they are across from the town's mall, but not last Saturday they were not.
It was a lovely meal.  I blew my sodium restrictions but not by much and I took half my sandwich home to eat for dinner.
And then we had ice cream.
And we spent $30 with a $5+ tip.
Yeah, I was bad...... ;-)

We went down to this town after our earlier adventures to possibly buy a pressure washer.  Kmart had one on sale last week and we need to pressure washer our house and the deck.   I figured if this one was heavy duty enough for these needs it would pay for itself(vs. the cost of a rental)in a few years plus it was almost Father's Day and what guy doesn't appreciate a new "toy" in his work shed?
But Hubs didn't seem too thrilled with a PW for a gift(go figure!lol)plus though buying a new PW would be the frugal thing in the long run vs. renting each time we wanted to PW something, who needs more crap in the garage or work shed taking up space?  For something that would get so little use, it makes more sense for us at this point to rent or borrow one from someone we know, when we need one.

So quick on my feet(or should that be brain?), I told Hubs I would take him to Boscov's(the regional/local hoity toity dept. store)across the street and buy him some new work clothes.  I knew he wanted to pick up a few summer type shirts as his were getting ratty.  They also had a great sale on nice belts(of which Hubs could use a couple)for $3.99 and a killer deal on dress socks(.99¢ a pr.).
Hubs hardly ever buys new clothes so it was nice to help him pick out some things.
We left with an armload full and a new bill of $118 + change charged to the c/c bill(which will be paid off this month).

Hubs and I hardly ever go shopping together anymore.  That use to be one of our main entertainments(well, sort of entertainments)when we were younger.....and usually we had kids along with us so not so enjoyable and Hubs wasn't the one enjoying the experience anyway back then, because he's a guy and isn't "in to" shopping.  The only shopping I use to enjoy was buying other family members stuff or going discount store or clearance sale shopping.  Give me a rathole store with low prices or a sea of clearance racks and I am in my element.
But that all went by the wayside about 7-8 years ago when I joined The Compact. (It helped to that my kids had gotten older and didn't need as much in the way of clothing/weren't outgrowing stuff as quickly/had gotten part time jobs to pay for their own "wants".......)

So there.....
I feel better having come clean on all my non-grocery spending (about $150)last week. 

It would make the spending we will be doing on the house coming up this summer not seem as bad.
8-))

So did you get any presents or do something special for your Hubs/Father/SO last week?

Sluggy