I came home late from work the other night, and even though the temptation was great to order in pizza or take out Chinese, I resisted. I had just baked these light and fluffy burger rolls with the Soft Whole Wheat Bread dough recipe from Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, and was really eager to try them. So, in the interest of time – I was so hungry I could have chewed the arm off the couch – I grabbed some ground beef and some of my favorite cheats, and had supper on the table in literally, fifteen minutes! That’s less time than you can get a pizza – or even decide on your toppings!
This quickie meal blends the gentle heat of a favorite chili, the fun of a Sloppy Joe, and the goodness of whole wheat. By the way, this would make a great addition to your Super Bowl menu, too! Ready? Start your stopwatches:
Black Bean Chili Sloppy Joes
Ingredients:
2 Tbs corn oil
1 lb lean ground beef
1 16 oz jar Oxford Falls® Fried Green Tomato Salsa (or any tomatillo-based salsa)
1 15.5 oz can black beans (drained and rinsed)
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
8 whole wheat or whole grain hamburger buns (toasted, if you like)
Preparation:
Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Brown the ground beef. Add the jar of tomatillo salsa, stir, bring up to a simmer. Add the black beans and the diced tomatoes, including its liquid. Allow to simmer until most of the liquid has cooked off, about 5 minutes.
Serve over sliced burger buns. Serves 8.
Told you it was a cheat. A tasty, even pretty healthy cheat, at that. Want to make it even healthier? Change out the ground beef for ground turkey, or even ground chicken.
And those burger buns? They sprang from this edition of the HBin5 Challenge:
To review, Michelle over at Big Black Dog, organized a group to bake from the book by Dr. Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe François, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day.
The current challenge is to bake 3 different things using the Soft Whole Wheat Bread Recipe: a loaf of bread, hamburger or hotdog rolls, and Apple Strudel Bread.
First, the straight-up sandwich loaf:
This is actually the second loaf I made. The first one was made with the original recipe from HBin5, and was a great hit. So much so, that the loaf was eaten before I could photograph it! This is an excellent sandwich loaf – soft, tight texture, and holds together, even sliced very thin. But I couldn’t help but wonder if I couldn’t make it even healthier for my borderline-diabetic husband.
In this version, I substituted light agave nectar for the honey as the sweetener, and substituted an 8 ounce carton of Egg Beaters (roughly the equivalent of 4 eggs) for the 5 eggs called for in the recipe. I also added 1/4 cup of flax seed meal, and to lighten it up a bit more, substituted white whole wheat flour for half of the whole wheat flour. While MJ detected only the slightest difference in taste from the original, it wasn’t anything pronounced, and I was instructed, “Don’t lose this recipe!” The highest praise.
Next up, were the burger buns you met at the top of this post. I used my kitchen scale to make these buns all the same size. They baked up soft, beautifully textured, yet sturdy. Delicious!
Last, but not least, is the Apple Strudel Bread. The same whole wheat bread dough is rolled out and rolled up with chopped apple, walnut, and (in mine) dried blueberries instead of raisins, all mixed with raw sugar and cinnamon. Yum.
This was perfect for the Jewish holiday, Tu B’Shevat, essentially our Arbor Day. As the 3 of you regular readers should know by now, a Jewish holiday doesn’t exist that doesn’t have certain food traditions attached to it and this is no exception. Traditionally, foods that contain tree fruit and nuts are served on Tu B’Shevat, and the apples and walnuts in this, definitely qualify.
Check out the other participants in the HBin5 Bread Braid to see what everyone else came up with!
Come back Tuesday for my first sponsored giveaway! Here’s your hint: Whether you’re a man or a woman, gourmet cook or home cook, you need this, and I’m betting most of you don’t have one!
WOW…Renee! Your bread is drop dead gorgeou..just perfect!And the Apple Strudel Bread looks so good and the filling is so evenly distributed throughout the bread. Wonderful.But the hamburger buns and the Sloppy Joes with BlackBeans sounds out the charts incredible. Never thought to add black beans to Sloppy Joes before, sounds so good!
Ooops forgot to mention that I like the blueberries substituted for the raisins. Great choice!
I love the change up in the apple blueberry bread– love it! Your buns and bread could have come from a 5 star bakery.
my chin just dropped to the ground. your apple bread is gorgeous. How in the world did you distribute the filling so evenly. Not an easy task. I remember that my dough was rather sticky with the moisture the filling provided.
Wow! You have so succeeded in amazing me and leaving me flabbergasted! Gorgeous bread, buns and I LOVE the Tu B'Shevat bread. Mmmm those dried blueberries look fantastic with the apples. Your breads all came out fluffy perfect! The chilli looks scrumptious, too.
Whoa your chili is OVERPOWERING that bun. Looks amazing!I love both of your loaves as well. Your strudel turned out beautifully!
You really knocked it out of the park with this challenge;D I love the idea of black bean and beef sloppy joes! Your sandwich loaf looks gorgeous, but it is your apple strudel bread that I want. I love how the filling is so evenly distributed throughout the bread!
Oh my gosh, you just made me so hungry!! I love how you did the sloppy joe's chili-style with salsa. Must try this…Your breads are gorgeous, too! Love the buns. 🙂
What amazing looking bread! That loaf is amazing!
I will try to be civil, not sure about coherent. Strudel bread is beautiful. Chili Sloppy Joes look great.
I used my hamburger buns for Sloppy Joes too 🙂 I love your recipe with the beans – sounds great! What a beautiful strudel bread and your loaf looks professionally made it's so pretty!
wow your bread looks amazing love the way it swirls yummy chili as well
Your bread look great. I just love the apple strudel loaf. Its perfect!Mine fell apart and I had to save it. :)I agree though, the WW dough is a keeper.
Delicious! Your bread looks fabulous. I love the subs you made in the second loaf you made. Great job.
Now see, that's what I should've done and maybe my picky eaters would've eaten it! Yummy!
All your breads turned out so attractive. The sandwich loaf looks like it has perfect shape!~Jenny~
Yaaay, someone else who celebrated Tu B'Shevat! We thought the strudel bread was perfect for that. My hubby thought the bread would be great with chocolate chips. Great stories, great loaves, great pictures. I gotta try flaxseed for the bread, too!I wonder what you will make for Purim?
All of your breads look wonderful, but I especially like the apple strudel one. Yum!
your sandwich loaf looks perfect!! and your strudel….YUM!!!
Yum – sloppy joes. I hadn't thought of those to go with these buns but I bet they were great. Your strudel bread was beautiful. I'm shooting for the same quality on my next loaf.