Lately I find myself taking late afternoon walks to stretch my legs and catch a breath of fresh air. The weather in Florida has been unseasonably cool with low humidity and many of my neighbors have their homes open to the coastal breeze. Sometimes on these walks I catch whiffs of what’s for dinner and boy does it bring a smile to my face! People in my neighborhood have returned to making nightly family dinners and I can smell them on the daily. I love to try and guess what everyone is cooking each night! Yesterday, with the cool wind blowing and the neighborhood windows open, I caught a smell of my childhood. It took me a hot minute to place my finger on the exact dish, but I finally figured it out. Spaghetti sauce, no...chilli? No it’s too hot for that. Finally I said aloud “sloppy joe’s”! Memories of my early childhood came flooding back me sitting at the dinner table at either my mother’s or grandmother’s house with the mere thought of this meal.
Now when you think of sloppy joe’s you may think of hungry man canned sauce, ground beef and buns right? There can be variation of course; my mother added diced green peppers and onions to hers. The beautiful thing about home cooked meals is the freedom to be as creative as you’d like with finessing the original recipe. Without any other reason than nostalgia, I suddenly decided I wanted sloppy joe’s, a meal that hasn't even been a thought since I was probably 12. I do remember this being a favorite for both my sister and I, but why now?
This got me to thinking that over the past month or so I have made meals that took me right back to being my grandmother’s cooking assistant. Comfort foods have been the name of the game! My grandmother was Polish and married into an Italian family, so there was always this eclectic blend of both heritages in her kitchen. Now they are in mine, but with a fitness perspective. I’ve been recreating these meals Paleo or whole30 style. With all the stresses of COVID-19 , somewhere in my being I have been reaching for nostalgic meals while still being true to my commitment to health.
A quick google search for a sloppy joe recipe resulted in basically the same list of ingredients across the board including tomato paste, yellow mustard, brown sugar, green peppers, garlic powder, Worcestershire sauce and ketchup. KETCHUP?!? I have been known to be accused of being a food snob, but the one condiment that I absolutely loathe is typical processed ketchup. Gross. This must change. I’ll make my own thank you, perhaps a little on the spicy, smokey side. Another quick google search and bam, I now have a homemade ketchup recipe. My updated sloppy joe meal is in the brainstorming stage now. The next step is to gather the ingredients and experiment. This is by far my favorite part of the cooking process.
The moral of this little anecdote is that even in tough times, reaching for comfort foods can be healthy as long as you make the appropriate modifications. My sister frequently makes paleo chicken pot pies and beef stroganoff using coconut milk. There is always an alternative, always another way to accomplish the same outcome. In this instance, the desired outcome is a delicious, modernized home cooked meal that you can pass along to your family.
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