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Reduced-Fat Sloppy Joes

From

October/November 2009

Reduced-Fat Sloppy Joes

Substituting ground beef with chewy wheat berries, ground vegetable protein, or tofu for our Reduced-Fat Sloppy Joes fooled nobody. Sautéed mushrooms were the answer. We replaced more than a third of the beef with mushrooms before anyone noticed a difference. We didn’t need cups of ketchup to make a great Sloppy Joe sauce. We drastically reduced calories by adding canned tomatoes to a bit of ketchup.

Using lean ground beef helped us cut down on fat and calories, but the meat dried out easily. Simmering the meat in the cooked sauce for just a few minutes kept it tender. Traditional recipes have 570 calories, 30 grams of fat, and 10 grams of saturated fat per serving. Our changes brought the numbers down to 300 calories, 9 grams of fat, and 3 grams of saturated fat.

Serves 4

If the mixture becomes too dry during cooking, add water a tablespoon at a time to reach the desired consistency.

Ingredients

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