Crock Pot italian sloppy joe

Another meal from the Skinnytaste website and another wonderful experience. There would be a few things I would change next time I made this but overall, the concept was good and most definitely something I will fix again -- maybe next time with spaghetti. The original recipe can be found here. 

Review: If you go into this meal thinking it will be just like the sloppy joe you buy in a can you will be disappointed. From the pictures on the website I thought it might be extremely close but after making it, the look of it left me disheartened. Still, the taste of it was good and as close to the can as making it from scratch with healthy ingredients can be. I followed the main concept of the recipe but there were a couple things I changed and a few things I might change when I do it again. First, the recipe calls for turkey sausage but I used two pounds of 93% lean ground beef. It also called for 1/2 cup chopped onions and 1 1/3 cups crushed tomatoes but I just used a whole white onion and used two cans of diced tomatoes with green chilis (mild). On the website, the picture made it look like the meat should be smothered in sauce (similar to what you'd get if you used a can) but after mixing all the ingredients together mine looked nothing like it. Any sauce that was in the Crock Pot was liquid and the beef was not smothered. So, I added a can of tomato sauce. Next time I might use a can or two of tomato paste instead that way it'll be thicker. Now maybe had I used the crushed tomatoes it would have been thicker and looked more like the picture but I had the diced tomatoes in my pantry so that's what I used. Also I think the next time I make this instead of putting it in a Crock Pot and waiting four hours I'll just mix everything and cook it in a skillet for about 30 minutes or so. This might also help with thickening the sauce. Still, it was a great, healthy substitute for canned sloppy joe and would be an excellent meat sauce for spaghetti if you wanted to make it for that instead of for sloppy joe.

Recipe:

• 1 lb Italian turkey sausage, removed from casing (or use lean ground beef)
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped in 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped in 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 1/3 cups crushed tomatoes (Tutorosso) (or substitute with diced tomatoes and add tomato sauce and/or paste)
• 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
• salt and fresh cracked pepper, to taste

In a medium non-stick skillet cook the sausage over medium-high heat, breaking it up as it cooks into small bits until cooked through, about 5-6 minutes. Add onions and garlic, and cook another 2 minutes. Transfer to the slow cooker and add the bell peppers, crushed tomatoes, rosemary, salt and fresh cracked pepper (and tomato sauce and/or paste if you want to add that too). Cover and cook on low for 4 hours. Makes about 3 1/2 cups (of course the more meat you use the more servings it'll make).