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Source: Australia Women's Weekly Mince Favourites cookbook, p25; ISBN 186396490-8; (c) ACP Magazines Ltd 2006.
This one is another old favourite which I tend to pull out when I'm bored, when I'm just wanting something easy to cook, and when I'm wanting something sharp and sweet to eat.
The recipe basically tells you to make the wedges from scratch (chop a spud per person into eight wedges, grease with a bit of oil, and bake for about 30 - 40 minutes (or until done). You can cheat and substitute store-bought oven-bake potato wedges (follow the directions on the package), or you can substitute any other kind of carbohydrate substrate you fancy with the mince. I've tried rice on one occasion (with leftovers - worked out quite nice); served it up with garlic bread for my partner; and it would probably work quite nicely with some of the more chunky sorts of pasta, or even just plain old hot bread rolls.
Also, sprinkling a little cajun seasoning mix on the wedges turns out nice, although it did tend to get shouted down by the vinegar of the sloppy joe sauce.
The sauce itself can generally do with about half an hour of simmering time, just to make sure the flavours combine nicely. It's a pretty easy one to have the ingredients handy for - onion, garlic, celery, green capsicum, mince, a cup of tomato sauce (tomato ketchup, for my readers in the Americas), mild American mustard, cider vinegar, and some grated cheese to top it at the end (and that's pretty much optional, too).
If you have to pay attention to standing time, or you have upper arm issues, this recipe does require the fine chopping of the various vegetables (plus crushing of garlic), and it'll require a certain amount of standing and stirring while you're browning the vegetables and the mince. However, once you've added the tomato sauce, mustard and vinegar, and stirred everything together, it can be left to simmer on its own. It is possible to time-shift this recipe, by pre-making the sloppy joe sauce and re-heating it around dinner time, and cooking up the carbohydrate substrate at the point where you're re-heating things.
Difficulty: 1 out of 5
Spoons/Fuss and Bother: 1 - 3 out of 5. Really, this depends a lot on whether, like me, you're the type of person who tends to run through all their spoons in the morning, or if you're the type of person who has a bit of energy during the evening. If you're the first, then it's 3 out of 5, if only because it's one of those recipes where you either have to do some pre-cooking in order to have everything ready, or you have to reserve spoons for the evening. Otherwise, probably 1 out of 5, possibly 2 out of 5 if you're needing to consider standing times or chopping times.
Overall: 4 out of 5. This is a bit of a favourite in our household, because it's nice and easy, and it can be eaten with just about anything.
Considerations: Well, definitely don't feed this to a vegan unless you're replacing the beef mince with some other form of vegetable protein (in which case, hold the cheese on top as well). Check the ingredients on your mustard, tomato sauce and cider vinegar if you have allergies (not that you're not already doing this anyway), and choose substrate according to gluten tolerance specifications. Choose mince carefully to comply with Kosher and Halal standards, and for kosher, skip the cheese at the end.
This one is another old favourite which I tend to pull out when I'm bored, when I'm just wanting something easy to cook, and when I'm wanting something sharp and sweet to eat.
The recipe basically tells you to make the wedges from scratch (chop a spud per person into eight wedges, grease with a bit of oil, and bake for about 30 - 40 minutes (or until done). You can cheat and substitute store-bought oven-bake potato wedges (follow the directions on the package), or you can substitute any other kind of carbohydrate substrate you fancy with the mince. I've tried rice on one occasion (with leftovers - worked out quite nice); served it up with garlic bread for my partner; and it would probably work quite nicely with some of the more chunky sorts of pasta, or even just plain old hot bread rolls.
Also, sprinkling a little cajun seasoning mix on the wedges turns out nice, although it did tend to get shouted down by the vinegar of the sloppy joe sauce.
The sauce itself can generally do with about half an hour of simmering time, just to make sure the flavours combine nicely. It's a pretty easy one to have the ingredients handy for - onion, garlic, celery, green capsicum, mince, a cup of tomato sauce (tomato ketchup, for my readers in the Americas), mild American mustard, cider vinegar, and some grated cheese to top it at the end (and that's pretty much optional, too).
If you have to pay attention to standing time, or you have upper arm issues, this recipe does require the fine chopping of the various vegetables (plus crushing of garlic), and it'll require a certain amount of standing and stirring while you're browning the vegetables and the mince. However, once you've added the tomato sauce, mustard and vinegar, and stirred everything together, it can be left to simmer on its own. It is possible to time-shift this recipe, by pre-making the sloppy joe sauce and re-heating it around dinner time, and cooking up the carbohydrate substrate at the point where you're re-heating things.
Difficulty: 1 out of 5
Spoons/Fuss and Bother: 1 - 3 out of 5. Really, this depends a lot on whether, like me, you're the type of person who tends to run through all their spoons in the morning, or if you're the type of person who has a bit of energy during the evening. If you're the first, then it's 3 out of 5, if only because it's one of those recipes where you either have to do some pre-cooking in order to have everything ready, or you have to reserve spoons for the evening. Otherwise, probably 1 out of 5, possibly 2 out of 5 if you're needing to consider standing times or chopping times.
Overall: 4 out of 5. This is a bit of a favourite in our household, because it's nice and easy, and it can be eaten with just about anything.
Considerations: Well, definitely don't feed this to a vegan unless you're replacing the beef mince with some other form of vegetable protein (in which case, hold the cheese on top as well). Check the ingredients on your mustard, tomato sauce and cider vinegar if you have allergies (not that you're not already doing this anyway), and choose substrate according to gluten tolerance specifications. Choose mince carefully to comply with Kosher and Halal standards, and for kosher, skip the cheese at the end.
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I do look at recipes and consider how long & how much effort they would take, but that's mostly to decide if they're a viable weeknight recipe or if they'd be better off doing at the weekend where there is a lot less time pressure. I've not considered them explicitly in spoons cost.
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