Ketchup: A New Hope for Loose Soy Sandwiches

Being completely screwed financially, sometimes you have to make stuff from scratch (well this is as "from scratch" as I get anyway). I have the best thing to make that takes like no time at all. I made it a couple nights ago. Oh, and it's more healthy than unhealthy: Sloppy Joes or "Loose Soy Sandwiches."



I just thought of the name Loose Soy right now because I was trying to think of where I came up with this recipe and it was basically the TV show Roseanne. Man, I love that show so much, in so many ways. You don't see TV shows these days that are so honest. I always felt like I could go over to the Connor family house and make cracks at Jackie, like the rest of them. And as a kid, I really related to Darlene. But I digress. Remember on Roseanne the infamous Loose Meat Sandwiches served at the Lunch Box? As gross as those sandwiches looked, they also stimulated my salivary glands. The episode where Roseanne teaches Darlene's home economics class how to make meatloaf inspired my mom to make it (rather, it inspired my brother and I to nag my mom to make it). It wasn't too good. And that was my first and last meatloaf: Cornflakes and ketchup. Actually, it was the ketchup that saved it.



Ketchup saved this recipe too.



For the Sloppy part:
Hamburger buns (you can get creative with the bun, but I kept it simple with a white generic brand
One package of Yves Original Veggie Ground Round
1 quarter of an Onion, chopped
1 cup of Ketchup
1 cup of Water
1 tsp Chili Flakes
1 tsp Chili Powder
1 clove of Garlic
pinch of each: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme
Salt (to taste)
2 tablespoons Vegetable oil.

Cook the onions in the oil with the chili flakes on medium heat. Add the soy. Let it cook for a minute. Add everything else and bring it to a bubble and lower the temperature. Stir it occasionally. You can add more or less ketchup and water, depending on how sloppy you want things to get.

Ladle the slop onto the bun.

Maximum cook time is 10mins.

If you aren't salivating at this point, and you have a more time, put slop covered side of the bun in the toaster over and cover it with grated cheese or sliced Havarti. I've done it in the past, but it's unnecessary.

I used ketchup because I forgot to buy tomato paste, but it really works the same way. It thickens and creates a yummy sauce.

On top of this, you are bound to have leftovers. Last night, I used the rest of the slop as a sauce to accompany some penne pasta. (side note: the penne pasta was swiped along with three other bags of pasta from my parents pantry when I was in Ottawa last month). Cha-ching!

Also because I am not using beef and using Yves veggie ground round, it's a helluva lot healthier than Loose Meat.

I kinda want to experiment with veggie meatloaf now. I just don't know much about meatloaf. Bleh. If I didn't like the meat version, I guess the vegetarian one still would suck.