Paleo in PDX

Recently, I made Robb Wolf’s sloppy Joe recipe from his book, The Paleo Solution, but because I made it with ground turkey breast instead of ground beef, the meal becomes a Jane rather than a Joe. Apparently, turkey is female?

Anyway, other than the protein switch, I made a couple other changes as well. The recipe calls for two tablespoons of cocoa powder, but because I have to comply to the SCD, I can not eat cocoa, so out it went. It’s an ‘illegal’ food on the SCD. I upped the quantity of tomato puree by roughly a 1/2 cup or so (I like ’em saucy). I threw in about 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, a few extra dashes of mustard powder and a swizzle of honey. Yes, swizzle … it’s an accurate measurement, right? I guess I could say to taste. It was probably about one teaspoons worth. I made these changes because I thought the mixture tasted too much like taco meat. Granted, I love the flavors of taco meat, but that’s not what I was going for. Here’s the recipe with my modifications:

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground turkey breast
• 1 cup onion, chopped
• 1 -1/2 cups tomato puree (I like Bionaturae’s strained tomatoes)
• 1 Tbsp chili powder
• 3/4 tsp yellow mustard powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1-2 tsp raw honey

Directions:

1. Cook ground turkey and onion in a large skillet over medium heat for 10-15 minutes, or until the meat is browned.
2. Stir in the remaining ingredients and heat for another 10-15 minutes. Serve with vegetable(s) of choice.

With my modifications, these turned out pretty darn good. I mean it’s no Manwich, but I think that’s probably a good thing. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever even eaten Manwich in my life. Luckily for me, my mom always made homemade sloppy Joes. I used to love eating hers with potato chips on top. Oh, how things have changed!

The first time around, Jesse and I ate these open face on top of portobello caps that I browned in the skillet. The second night, we ate the mixture on top of my homemade biscuits with avocado garnish. Both ways were delicious and it’s surprising how tasty it is to use a portobello cap as a bun (we were both a little skeptical). I’d do it again, for sure.