Mushroom + Beef Sloppy Joes

servings: 4 Sandwiches

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more if needed
8 ounces ground sirloin
1 pound portobello mushrooms, stems discarded, caps finely chopped
1 small green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and finely chopped
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
1½ teaspoons kosher salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
One 8-ounce can tomato sauce
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon sriracha or other hot sauce
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
4 hamburger buns
Finely chopped dill pickles, for serving
Sliced pickled banana peppers, for serving

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sirloin, breaking up with a spoon or spatula, and cook until it has browned, about 5 minutes. Then, if the skillet is too dry for sautéing the mushrooms, add a bit more oil. Stir in the mushrooms and cook until they are brown and tender, about 5 minutes.
Reduce the heat to medium. Add the bell peppers, onion, ½ teaspoon of the salt, and the black pepper to the skillet and stir to combine. Cook until all the veggies are tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk together the tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, molasses, vinegar, sriracha, and the remaining1 teaspoon salt in a small bowl.
Add the tomato paste and thyme to the mixture in the skillet and stir to combine. Cook for 2 minutes. Then stir in the tomato sauce mixture and cook until the sauce thickens and coats the veggies and meat and all the flavors come together, 5 to 7 minutes more.
To serve, spoon the sloppy Joe mixture onto the bottom half of each hamburger bun, dividing it equally, and dot with some pickles and banana peppers before adding the bun tops.

: @NikkiDinki

: @NikkiDinkiCooking

My daughter, Ivy, loves all carbs (I can’t imagine where she gets it from 😉).

She'll also gobble up anything that looks like a muffin.

And from a mom point-of-view, I know muffins are the perfect food to freeze and pull out as needed.

So I challenged myself to make a super healthy muffin that would taste just as delicious as a regular not-as-healthy one.

My goal was to make this muffin so tasty that not only would Ivy eat it, but the big kids in the house (my husband and I) would gobble it up as well.

The result is a muffin basically made of bananas, carrots, oats, and a touch of maple syrup. You puree all of these ingredients up and put the batter in the cups of a muffin tin.

These muffins couldn’t be easier to make and they actually taste like banana bread!

Whenever I’m eating one I have to remind myself how healthy they are because all I’m thinking is, I’m in muffin heaven.

Now don’t get me wrong, they're a little denser than a regular muffin (they're all oats instead of flour, so that's why that happens).

And they're a touch more moist than you might be used to (this makes them perfect when re-heated though!).

But the fact that you can eat ten of these and still feel like Healthy Eating Champion of the World makes it all worth it!

Banana Carrot Oat Muffins

makes: 36 mini muffins

Ingredients:

2½ cups rolled oats, more for a garnish
3 medium ripe bananas, sliced
2 cups grated carrots (about 6 ounces)
¼ cup maple syrup
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Add the oats, bananas, carrots, maple syrup, eggs, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt to the to a blender or food processor, then pulse until all ingredients are well-combined and the mixture is almost pureed, but not quite smooth. You may have to stop and stir the mixture a bit to make sure it doesn’t contain any large chunks.
Scoop the batter evenly into 36 cups of a mini muffin tin prepared with cooking spray, then top each muffin with a light sprinkle of the reserved oats.
Bake the muffins until a knife inserted into the center of one of the muffins comes out clean and dry —24 to 28 minutes.

: @NikkiDinki

: @NikkiDinkiCooking