One of the things that we love most about summer is taking the time to relax and enjoy our favorite BBQ dishes with family and friends!
No doubt about it: summertime and barbecues go hand in hand. But, how do you enjoy barbecue season when you’re also trying to improve your health?
Well, there’s no better season than summer to lighten things up! Summer is the perfect time to learn how to re-create your favorite recipes so they’re just a tad healthier!
That’s why we’re delighted to share how you can enjoy an All-American BBQ Classic – Sloppy Joes – by transforming them into a healthier dish, Healthy BBQ Sloppy Joe Sliders.
Healthy BBQ Sloppy Joe Sliders are the perfect dish for apartment dwellers to make because they do not require outdoor grills or expensive, space-consuming cookware.
First, let’s start with the star ingredient – the protein. Most Sloppy Joes are made with ground beef. But – if you substitute ground beef with ground turkey – did you know that you not only reduce saturated calories and fat, but also provide your body with a more easy-to-digest protein?
Now let’s add some veggies! We incorporated a rainbow of colorful red, green and yellow sweet bell peppers and purple onions into this recipe for a spectrum of flavor and health benefits!
Bell peppers are low in calories and add a variety of nutritional benefits to this dish, including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits – immune-boosting properties – and protection from certain types of cancers and eye diseases.
Purple onions – also known as red onions – contain flavonoids that act as antibiotics and antioxidants and may also offer health benefits for people with diabetes!
Don’t forget to add some flavor! Olive oil provides protection against a variety of diseases and can help lower blood pressure. Garlic powder helps reduce cholesterol and strengthens the immune system. And black pepper could help you lose weight and relieve your cough and cold symptoms!
Finally, we opted to serve our sandwiches as sliders rather than traditional-size sandwiches to help control the calories, the carbs, and the portion sizes. Sliders are also are the perfect serving size for young children!
When it comes time to serve your Healthy BBQ Sloppy Joe Sliders, you can mix and match slider rolls and add colorful toothpicks to hold your sandwiches together and add a festive touch. You can then serve them on plates that your guests can help themselves to – or dress them up! We served ours in pairs, topping one of the sliders with with extra peppers and adding a side of homemade mango salsa for extra nutritional benefits!
So, feel free to indulge in this delicious, health-conscious BBQ meal that both adults and children will love!
Recipe – Healthy BBQ Sloppy Joe Sliders
Ingredients
20 Ounces Ground Turkey
1 Large Brown Onions, Finely Chopped
½ Large Green Bell Peppers, Finely Chopped
½ Large Red Bell Peppers, Finely Chopped
½ Large Orange Bell Peppers, Finely Chopped
½ Large Yellow Bell Peppers, Finely Chopped
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
¾ Teaspoons Black Pepper
1 Tablespoons Garlic Powder
1 Teaspoon Lawry’s Seasoning Salt
1 Cup BBQ Sauce
Instructions
1. Combine everything except for the BBQ sauce in a pan.
2. Cook until the peppers are tender, the onions are translucent, and the ground turkey is brown – approximately 20 minutes.
3. Add the BBQ sauce and mix thoroughly.
4. Cook until you achieve the desired consistency – not too much liquid and not too dry
5. Plate using slider buns. Add additional sautéed peppers or onions as desired.
This recipe makes 20 servings at 174 calories per slider.
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Ground turkey is a great substitute for things like sloppy joes. You mainly are looking for the taste of the sauce in these so it just needs to be ground meat. Hope you have a great day!
Precisely Heidi – when you season your recipes just right, you really can’t tell the difference because of all of the delicious flavors!
Have a wonderful week and hope you have a chance to try this delicious and healthy recipe! 🙂
Pinned. Beautiful photography also. Linda Crafts a la Mode
Thanks Linda – my husband and I co-create these recipes and the plating / photography is often our biggest challenge! 🙂
I love the addition of the extra vegetables, much healthier!! My husband has diabetes so we have to cook healthy!
Thanks for sharing this week, have a great Labor Day!!
Karren
Oh My Heartsie Girl
I didn’t know your husband had diabetes, Karren. Hopefully, this is something the two of you can enjoy!
Thanks for visiting – hope you have a wonderful weekend as well!
These look delicious!…and pretty easy! Will have to think about these for the weekend!
Hope you have a chance to try these Heather – they are SO delicious! 🙂
What a great idea for the holiday. Sure wish you would put your recipe on my linky for my readers to see… although I don’t think anyone is blogging today by me. Not a soul has visited 🙁 I must be doing something wrong 🙁
Marie – great minds think alike – while you were posting your comment here – I was actually posting my recipe on your blog and writing a comment there! How funny is that!
Nope, you aren’t alone – I’m here blogging too – but the rest of the world is probably getting ready for the long holiday weekend! 🙂
I love that these sliders are made with ground turkey! Looks and sounds yummy! I’m stopping by to say g’day – pinned this and followed you on Pinterest.
Wishing you a lovely weekend.
xoxo
Thank you so much Jennifer – appreciate the pin and look forward to connecting with you on Pinterest!
G’day and thanks for sharing at the #SayGdayParty! Looks very healthy indeed!
Please make sure to stop by if you haven’t already and visit some other people also attending the party and would be great if you could answer one of my questions or two! Thank you! Cheers! Joanne
Good idea to substitute the turkey – I’d probably use chicken since turkey is quite hard to get here. Cheers
I’ve never used ground chicken before but I”m sure that would be delicious too!
Thanks for dropping by – have a nice week!
Delicious, easy, and healthy works for me every time! Thanks for the recipe.
You’re welcome, JoAnn – enjoy!
Thanks for sharing at Foodie Friends Friday!
My pleasure Cindy – thanks for stopping by!
These sliders look delicious! Can’t wait to try this recipe. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for your visit Ritchil – hope you and the kids enjoy this recipe!
Yum! I love sliders and my family loves sloppy joes but I haven’t made them in forever because it always seems to greasy. I love the ground turkey substitution and the BBQ twist. I’ll definitely have to give this a try! Thanks for sharing!
The ground turkey substitution definitely makes this a less greasy sandwich – give it a try – would love your feedback!
These look wonderful! Great ingredients and I love the idea of sliders as a way to control portions.
Thanks Beth! Using sliders really does help with portion control!
Great idea to use ground turkey instead of beef. I shall be trying this! I’m a big BBQ sauce fan too 🙂 #recipeoftheweek
Awesome Hayley – this is one of our favorite dishes – no matter how much we make there never seems to be enough to please everyone! 🙂
Now this is a recipe after my own heart (now that I’ve written that it sounds a bit odd but you get the idea!). Lots of hidden veggies and small portion size ideal for kids. Definitely one to try. #recipeoftheweek
So glad you like the recipe Mandy – hope your family enjoys it as much as ours does! 🙂
These look and sound delicious. Making me hungry just reading about them! I love the use of elf turkey mince instead of the traditional beef.x #creative mondays
These look wonderful! And they sound great with the ground turkey instead of beef!
These sound (and look) absolutely delicious! I never think to swap out beef mince for turkey mince but it’s such a good idea. Pinning and stumbling this now to try out later.
#Recipeoftheweek
Thanks for sharing Sophie!
Delicious Sloppy joe sliders, thanks for sharing with Hearth and Soul blog hop. pinning it.
These look lovely and I love all the hidden veg. The pepper side looks lovely as well
Thanks Alison – this turned out SO good! 🙂
Hi Romona,
Your BBQ Sloppy Joe Sliders look delicious , just in time for the ballgames! Hope you have a great week and thanks so much for sharing your awesome recipe with Full Plate Thursday. Your post has been pinned with the party!
Come Back Soon!
Miz Helen
So glad you enjoyed the recipe Miz Helen – truly appreciate the pin! 🙂
Stopping by from SITs. LOVE a good slider. I’ll definitely be trying these out.
Thanks for stopping by Rhiana – enjoy!
Oh nummy! Now you know you have to share this on my recipe linky don’t you? hehehehehe Wait wasn’t this on my linky last week???? Oh no, I know you have more delicious ones, but you can Post this today too if you like… I was just kiddin! hehehe scrumptious mmmmm
Hi from Sharefest! This looks so yummy. I’ve pinned it for later 🙂
Awesome Emma – this is one of my family’s favorite recipes!
Turkey, extra veggies, portion control–all great ideas to take a not-so-healthy family favorite and make it better for you. Portion control is usually my family’s biggest downfall. I need to remember sliders!
Thank you for sharing with See Ya in the Gumbo this week!
These look so tasty, I could just eat one or 2 🙂
Thanks for sharing over at Creative Mondays, pinned and featuring later on the blog hop..
Thanks for pinning and featuring Claire!
Appreciate all that you do!
These sliders look delicious!
Thanks Theresa!
Woops! Thanks for sharing @DearCreatives BTW love having you pop by!! Happy Fall Ramona!
Happy Fall to you too!
Congratulations!
Your recipe is featured on Full Plate Thursday this week. Hope you are having a great day and enjoy your new Red Plate!
Miz Helen
Thank you so much for the feature, Miz Helen – truly an honor!
Always a pleasure to share my recipes at your fabulous party!
Those look so yummy! Perfect for football this week! I’d love it if you could share this at My Favorite Things: http://timeforseason.blogspot.com/2014/09/my-favorite-things-saturdays-43-913.html
Thank you so much for the invitation Step – have linked up and added your party to my list! 🙂
I love all the whole food goodness in this recipe. My garden is overflowing with peppers, going to have to give this one a try. Thanks for sharing.
Blessings
Shari
You’ll love this recipe Shari – it’s amazing!
Hi from SNL Link party. I love little sliders so had to come over for a look. Your cat is beautiful. I have one that looks a lot like that, a Maine Coon. Is yours a Maine Coone or Norwegian Forest Cat? Anyway, pinning this one to my group Slider board. It has a decent following so hope if will send visitors your way. Let me know if you’d like an invite to pin to that board.
Hi Lea, my cats are purebred Maine Coons and they are loves!
Thanks for pinning – hope to see you again soon!
You are so right about the swap the beef for ground turkey. Yum. I love how you use the summer bell peppers and red onions. I can literally taste these flavors in my mouth. Great post and creation here. Thanks so much for sharing it with us at the Creative Style Linkup!
Coming from the SITS Sharefest and let me say I probably shouldn’t have been scrolling through posts before I ate lunch! Oh my goodness I love sloppy joes and this is a nice twist to them rather than just the ground turkey and seasoning. Thank you for this, now I need to go eat something…wish it were these!
Saying G’day (a little late)
great idea a nice healthy version also a bit lighter for our warmer weather thanks for sharingx
LOVE sneaking those vegetables in!!!! Sounds and looks delicious!
Oo turkey meat is so good! Love this easy to do sliders! Your right this is a great way to enjoy BBQ ( I live in an apartment and can’t grill out!)
We don’t have access to an outdoor grill either – so we’ve learned to replicate the great taste of outdoor bbq-ing indoors!
Thanks for visiting and always being such a great party participant Suzie! 🙂
This is a very good healthy burger. we seldom not have turkey meat hear though 🙁
You could always adapt it to other types of meat or pick up the ground turkey and give this a try! 🙂
Yum!!! This recipe looks delicious! I’m saving it to try later this week.
xoxo
Lisa
oh my love it have swapped ground turkey for ground beef several times I love how you have dressed them up they looks really delicious
come see us at http://shopannies.blogspot.com
Sound delicious! I love creating healthier versions of things. 🙂
Love how simple and easy this is! Need to try!
You’ll love it Morgan – delicious AND healthy!
Yum! Looks like a great twist on sloppy joes to make them a little more healthy! Thanks for sharing at #SmallVictories linkup!
This looks great. I love sloppy Joes so this will be perfect.
Leigh Hines
Co-Host Small Victories Linkup/HinesSightBlog
These are adorable! I use ground turkey instead of ground beef all the time. It’s cheaper and healthier! I’m actually making Sloppy Joes next week; next time I’ll have to add a bunch of diced veggies.
This looks delicious for sure. Added to Yummy! Now I better go run out and buy some bell peppers!
These look delicious! Thank you so much for sharing the recipe!
We make sloppy joes using turkey too! I like to serve them on flatbread wraps instead of buns since I’m trying to cut down a bit on my carb intake. These sound delicious!
Yum! Sounds delicious as well as healthy!