Sloppy Joe Casserole

[prosodic]

girlfromsouth asked for the recipe, so I thought I would share. Super deliciousness! I served this with baked beans and a pile of caramelized onions...mixed everything up together, and devoured. Really filling and satisfying.

This comes from some Betty Crocker casserole & slow cooker recipes magazine that came out in the fall of 2006.

1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup diced onion (or sub 1 TBSP. onion powder)
15 oz. can of tomato sauce
1 TBSP. packed light brown sugar
2 TBSP. worchestershire sauce
1 TBSP. yellow mustard (I used honey mustard and it was fine)

Cook beef and onion until meat is browned, about 6-7 minutes. Drain off fat. Add remaining ingredients and cook until mixture is boiling, stirring frequently.

While meat is cooking, mix together one pouch Betty Crocker cornbread mix (6.5 ounce packet), 1/3 cup milk, 2 TBSP. vegetable oil and one egg.

When meat mixture is done, spread into 8 inch square pan. Top with 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese. Top with cornbread mixture, being sure to spread it evenly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes. Five minutes before cooking time is up, sprinkle another 1/4 cup cheese on top and put back in the oven to melt the cheese.

(Note: I used reduced fat ingredients for this wherever possible, as well as the leanest ground beef I could find. The result is something that tastes completely sinful, but actually isn't all that bad in terms of fat and calories).

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Karyn's Baked Beans

I don't really measure ingredients, but if you give this a quick taste before you put it in the oven, you'll be able to judge if it needs anything additional.

1 can Van Camp's pork and beans, liquid mostly drained
Heinz 57 sauce (somewhere around 1/4 cup)
1 TBSP. onion powder
squirt of mustard
1 TBSP. packed light brown sugar
several dashes of worchestershire

Mix up in a baking dish. Cover and bake on about 250 degrees for a couple of hours. If you bake something else with it, it can withstand the heat being turned up, but check it periodically to make sure the beans don't get dry.