I love sloppy joes in summer. It cooks up quickly on the stovetop, no oven needed and doesn’t take long either. It goes well with summertime side dishes such as coleslaw. Total cost per plate – 87 cents! I forgot to take a pic of the finished product – I was too busy shoving it down my gullet.
Ingredients
Sloppy Joes – $6.24, makes at least 8 and more like 10
1 pound ground beef {$2.99}
14 oz. canned crushed tomatoes {.75}
1/2 white or sweet onion, diced {.25}
1 green bell pepper, diced {.75}
6 oz. tomato paste {.50}
Garlic powder, salt and pepper
Hamburger buns {$1}
Start the onions in a little bit of oil, and cook until they start to sweat. Add the ground beef, and chopped bell pepper. The onions should be sweet by the time you’re done, if not, cook a little longer until they are translucent and starting to caramelize. My family doesn’t. Brown the ground beef, and drain off any fat. Add the tomatoes and tomato paste, season to taste (I love plenty of garlic), and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes to blend the flavors. Serve on hamburger buns or onion rolls.
I usually add a dash of Worcestershire sauce, but it’s not necessary and that’s a personal preference. If you’re used to Manwich, you might want to add a pinch of brown sugar to make it sweeter.
Out of crushed tomatoes? Make your own!
Coleslaw – .70
half a head green cabbage {.50}
2 carrots, peeled and shredded {.20}
chopped red cabbage, if you have some
Mayo, rice wine vinegar, salt and pepper.
Shred the lettuce and grate the carrots. You know, so it looks coleslawish. Plop a dollop of mayo right on top, splash with rice wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Mix it around. Taste, and add more mayo/vinegar depending on how saucy, tangy, or creamy you like it. A little bit of grated apple will perk the slaw up if you have one!
** A note about the ground beef. I buy all natural, hormone and antibiotic free ground beef that is ground fresh in the store, not at the slaughterhouse. It usually costs $5 a pound but I stocked up when they had a sale for $2.99. BUT… I’ve learned how the butcher marks down meat, and usually if I show up at 7:45 pm (the deli closes at 8:00) I can get ground beef for half price and they almost always have some organic ground beef left. So I usually don’t pay more than $3 per pound. **
Make it cheaper! Use lentils and rice instead of ground beef, fresh tomatoes from your garden, or make your own hamburger buns.
Make it faster! Use bagged coleslaw mix and bottled dressing.
Tip: Stock up on hamburger buns around Memorial Day and Independence Day. They go on sale all over town, and I use coupons to get the good one – whole wheat or onion flavored- for super cheap! They’ll keep in your freezer, just let them thaw on the counter in the bag.
Tip: You can shred carrots into the sauce for an extra veggie boost.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m probably going to sound like we are all pigs here at my house, but do you guys just all eat 1 sandwich when you have sloppy joes? My husband eats at least two, and at least one of my two kids will eat 1 1/2, if not both of them, and sometimes even I do. I do always serve a side or two with it, but we would have maybe one serving left over from this meal for my family of 4. My husband is 6′ 3″ and 170 pounds, so he definitely isn’t overeating. I’m the biggest of the family at a size 6, so I don’t think we are overeating in general. We also snack. Is my family just weird?
I do know that we are a very active family, so that’s at least part of it, but it surprises me to think that we eat so much more than other families. I’ve been reading your blog long enough to be certain that you aren’t stretching what you say it will serve. When I read other blogs, sometimes I think their kids are just small and don’t eat much, but you have a wide range of kids, so now I’m starting to think that we just do eat a lot. 
When I cook here, I double the recipe which makes about 20 sloppy joes, depending on how much filling you add. My two littlest will eat 1/2 each, most of the kids will eat 1 or 1 1/2, and My big boys (11 and 12) will probably eat 2 or 3. I’ll eat 1 or 2, usually. My husband is on Atkins and he won’t eat the bun, just the filling, he’d eat the equivalent of 3 sandwiches of the filling, rounding it out with frozen veggies. He doesn’t like coleslaw. I’ve found that having lots of sides helps round out the plate and helps the kids get all their veggie servings. I’d actually serve this with coleslaw and green beans. In the summer, we like to eat frozen green beans like bean popsicles. Or a raw veggie platter with celery and bell pepper strips.
So, adults and big boys (4)- 10-11 sandwiches, total.
Babies (2) – 1 sandwich between them
Kids (4) – 1 sandwich each, maybe 1 1/2.
which is a total of 16-18, giving me leftovers. When I serve them, I use a big spoonful of filling but nothing like the giant plop that’s on the Manwich can. The kids would never be able to eat that, it would just run out all over their shirts. (Helpful sloppy joe hint- put the bun upside down, so the fat part holds the filling and the skinny part is on top.)
That still gives me leftovers. If you have four teenagers, than 1 pound of hamburger probably isn’t going to stretch. You could double the recipe, or add shredded carrots or rice/bulgur/other filler to the mix and still keep it very, very inexpensive yet full of nutrition.
I don’t think you’re weird, just remember that YOU are the expert on YOUR family and cook accordingly! The official serving size, I think, would be one sandwich (thinking of what you’d get in a cafeteria) which, no way would my big boys be satisfied, and I probably wouldn’t either. My serving sizes probably look different from yours because my family is different – we still have lots of little kids who don’t eat as much. I put that it serves 8, going off the “recommended serving size” of 1 bun, 2 oz. of meat with mixins. But at our house, doubling the recipe (12.50) makes at least 20 sandwiches, and will feed 12 people total (10 the first day, 2 people with leftovers) putting it at just over $1 for generous portions – still pretty cheap!
I make mine much as you make yours. The exception is that I use ground turkey rather than ground beef. I grate carrots and zucchini into mine as well.
I wasn’t questioning that it was an economical recipe, but just the serving sizes, and your answer helps a lot. I enjoy $5 Dinners and when Money Saving Mom posts recipes, but I had assumed that the reason I would have to double meal they post is because my kids were older and my husband does eat more than a lot of men. A $10 dinner for the 4 of us isn’t quite what I’m hoping for in terms of huge savings (referring to doubling a $5 Dinner meal). That you for the explanation! I hope you will post more recipes!
As a genuine lunchlady I can tell you that our district standard serving is one whole grain bun with 4oz of meat filling. this is meant to be served with 4oz of vegetables and 4 oz of fruit and a box of milk.
That’s what I thought, though I think my 2 oz. of meat (1#, divided by
plus filling might be more than 4 oz, total. I just have a wooden spoon, not a nifty lunch lady loaded scoop!
I often make my sloppy joes just like this. Other times I add all sorts of veggies and beans to it – depends on what I have and the mood I am in. I always pull a little of the breading out of the top bun to make a little well into which I put the sloppy joe mix- keeps the sandwich so much neater!
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