In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink. Drain thoroughly.

Return ground beef to pan, add green pepper, the tomato sauce, brown sugar, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, ground mustard, chili powder, and garlic salt.

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover, leaving lid slightly ajar and simmer very slowly for one hour, stirring occasionally, especially towards the end. Sloppy Joes are finished when this becomes one cohesive mixture with no juices separating out. 

If desired, once finished, add 1/2 cup of milk and slowly reduce until the mixture is again cohesive with no juices separating out.

Taste and adjust seasonings. Serve on buns with dill pickles.

• Feel free to omit milk.
• Adjust spices and seasoning to your taste.
• Up the heat level if serving adults. More chili powder, a bit of cayenne, perhaps some hot sauce or jalapeno juice. Hot peppers may be added with the Bell Peppers.
• If you’re adventurous, a glug or two of beer gives an interesting flavor.

Nutritional Information:

Sloppy Joe, only, per serving, based on 25, made with ground beef:

cal 187; tot fat 10g; sat fat 6g; chol 64mg; sod 357mg; pot 219mg; carb 12g; fib 1g; sug 9g; prot 16g; vit A 28%; vit C 19%; calc 4%; iron 11%

Just for fun, nutritional information on a premade beef patty:

cal 209; tot fat 14g; sat fat 5.1g; chol 73mg; sod 71 mg; pot 284mg; carb 0g; fib 0g; sug 0g; prot 20g; vit A 0%; vit C 0%; calc 2%; iron 12%