I love sloppy joes. They are a no frills, delicious food that is pretty fun to eat since the whole purpose of it is to get sloppy with it 😉

Another huge benefit of it is that you can hide any veggie you want in it. Have a picky eater, such as a child or a husband? Then don’t fret, you can hide a lot of goodness in here and your fussy eater will never find out, neither will your child. This recipe in particular has a lot of vegetables so I renamed it “Healthy Joe.”

Bento Components

• Healthy Joe
• Strawberries
• Tamagoyaki

Healthy Joe —

-1 package ground beef

-3 carrots shredded or grated

-1/2 zucchini diced

-1/2 onion diced

-1 small squash diced

-1/2 red bell pepper diced

-2 garlic cloves minced

-1 cup ketchup

-1 cup tomato sauce

-1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

-1 dash hot sauce

-1 Tbsp lemon juice

-1 Tbsp brown sugar

-1 tsp garlic powder

-1 tsp onion powder

-1 tsp cumin

-salt and pepper to taste

In a pan add enough oil to coat the bottom. Add meat and onions, saute for a few minutes. Add the garlic, carrot, zucchini, squash, and bell pepper and let saute. Meanwhile in a mixing bowl add ketchup, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, hot sauce, brown sugar and mix thoroughly. Add the onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, salt and pepper to the meat and vegetable mixture. Stir until all the seasonings have combined with the meat. Let cook for another five minutes. Finally add the sauce mixture and stir. Let cook until the sauce has reduced by one third and all the vegetables are soft.

Serve on your favorite bun with some green onions for garnish (if you can get away with it add some carrots also, it gives it a nice crunch). Serve hot or room temperature.

 

For the rest of the bento just add some fruits as a side such as strawberries, feel free to drizzle them with honey and then they can double as a dessert!