Sloppy Joe recipe

In my house we try to make our meals from scratch as much as possible.  One day I had a taste for sloppy joes and knew that the can mess would be too high in sodium and calories.  So I went on a search for a sloppy joe recipe.  I found Spencer's Sloppy Joes on the Food Networks website.  I've made a Gina and Pat Neely recipe before, so I decide to give it a try.  This has now my go to recipe for when we want sloppy joe's for dinner.


(Please excuse the picture quality.  I don't have a professional camera, these pictures were taken with my iPhone.)

I pretty much stuck to their recipe with a few tweaks here and there.  I have highlighted the changes I made in red.  If you would like the original recipe click on the link above.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, chopped (I love garlic, you can use the recommended 2 cloves or less depending on your preference)

1 family pack lean ground turkey

Seasoning salt, garlic powder, onion powder and ground black pepper
1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
3 tablespoons tomato paste (you can omit if you don't have it)
1 cup barbecue sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 

 

Directions

Heat oil in a large skillet with straight sides. Add the bell peppers and garlic. Saute until tender, about 3 minutes. 

 

Season ground turkey with seasoning all, garlic powder, onion powder and ground pepper.  Add the ground turkey to the vegetables. Stir and cook about 8 minutes, until the meat is no longer pink and fully cooked.

Add tomato sauce, tomato paste, barbecue sauce, Worcestershire, into the skillet. Stir. Simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes. Serve on hamburger bun with extra sauce.

Making time for friends

I'm guilty of not making time to hang out with my friends.  Life changed, I had kids and became a wife, in that order (some of us are backwards).  What was once an active social life became sitting in the house or running the kids around or trying to date my husband. Being laid off of work also paid a huge part in not hanging out. 

Now I look on IG, Facebook, Twitter, etc and see my friends going out to dinner, lounges, and/or on vacation.  I sit back looking at their pictures thinking 1) why wasn't I invited and 2) I'm so hating right now.  I randomly had a convo with one of my girlfriends and she told me "you're never able to make any events so we stopped inviting you." That stung but it also made me think.   Why should they make an effort to keep inviting me out if I never make an effort to attend?  Why can't I go out with my friends at least once a month?

It doesn't have to always be going out to a restaurant or club.  We can meet up at someone's house and have a potluck style dinner.  There is nothing like having a group of girlfriends you can slip wine with, share your accomplishments with, who are your support system and who you could just generally have a good time with.  I miss that.

It's summer and it's a lot easier for me to get out without having to worry about my kids schedules.  So I vow to make a better effort to hang out with my friends.  Winter may be hard but I plan to at least meet up with them at least once a month.

How do you manage a busy schedule and still make time for your girlfriends? 

Get it together girl!

On Saturday I attended the Jump into Summer with the DC Lady Bloggers event at Puro Cafe in Georgetown. The premise of the event was to bring together bloggers in the DMV area and have them network and get more exposure for their blogs. The atmosphere and vibes were great!   Everyone there was really nice and the food and drinks were awesome.

Attending the event made me realize I need to put more time and afford into my own blog.  When I was asked if I blogged, my response was somewhat.  It shouldn't have been somewhat considering I usually have a lot to say so I should be using this blog as my outlet.  The reason for starting this blog was to share my opinion on all things beauty related.  Those who know me, know I am generally all over the place and if you follow this blog you will see what I mean.  However, I think a lot of people will be able to relate to my posts. So from now on I will make sure I give this blog (my 4th baby) the time that she needs to flourish.  

Shoutout to Franky J and friends for putting together the Jump Into Summer event.  I can't wait to attend more of your functions.

Thank you all for reading!