Once upon a time, there was a girl who had a food blog. And she would make recipes and take pictures and write about the things she was learning how to make. She would even post about these things on her blog on a semi-regular basis! But then she joined weight watchers and a roller derby team… and she stopped cooking new things and stopped taking the time to write on her blog!

Anyway, life is still busy and stressful, but this week is DERBY BREAK, and the point of DERBY BREAK in my world is to take the time to do the things you have neglected. For me, that means hanging out with non-derby friends, cleaning my apartment, and updating my woefully neglected blogs.

I have posted about sloppy joes here before… way back when, I wrote about Quick Sloppy Joes that just make a small batch in one pan, for a couple of people. I call them cheater sloppy joes. Today is sloppy joes made in the crock pot, perfect for taking along to a pot luck! Which is exactly what I made them for.

You’ll need: 3 lbs ground beef, celery, onions, green pepper, 15 oz. can tomato sauce, worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, mustard, ketchup, sloppy joe mix.

Start by finely chopping your celery, onion and green pepper. You won’t need quite this much, but I chopped it all and set some aside for other uses.

Next, brown up your three pounds of ground beef with the celery/onion/green pepper mixture. When it’s all done, drain off the excess fat.

Then add a 15 oz. can of tomato sauce

2 T. Worchestershire sauce

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup yellow mustard

1/4 cup ketchup

and 1 packet of sloppy joe mix.

Stir it all up until it’s well combined

Then transfer it over to a crock pot, set on low and cook alllll day. I started mine first thing in the morning for a shindig that started at 5 or 6pm (I don’t remember for sure). My mom suggested buying 24 buns for this amount of sloppy joes… it was pretty close.

I have to apologize for the lack of pictures of the finished product on a bun, ready to consume. The day I made these, I was also attempting to make a pan-fried onion dip… I burnt the first set of onions, and when I went to make a second attempt, I sliced open my thumb and ended up in the ER for 3 stitches and a tetanus shot. Needless to say, I made it to the party with my sloppy joes in tow, but was not necessarily in the right frame of mind to remember to take finished product pictures. Or even take my camera to the party. Ah well. They were delicious either way!

Crockpot Sloppy Joes
Source: Mom’s recipe box

3 lb hamburger
Celery
Onion
and Green pepper, chopped fine
15 oz. tomato sauce
2 T. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup yellow mustard
1/4 cup ketchup
1 pkg sloppy joe mix

Brown hamburger with celery, onion and green pepper. Drain off excessive fat. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Transfer to crock pot and cook on low for several hours.