Recipe: spooky sloppy joes

Ingredients

• 1 pound Ground Beef
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped orange bell pepper
• 1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup chili sauce
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 4 Kaiser rolls, split
• TOPPINGS
• black olive and orange bell pepper spider
• Cheddar cheese jack-o-lantern faces
• Cheese curl devil horns
• Green onion broomsticks (see instructions in Cook's Notes below)

Directions

Heat large nonstick skillet over medium heat until hot. Add ground beef, onion and bell pepper; cook 8 to 10 minutes, breaking into 3/4-inch crumbles and stirring occasionally. Remove drippings. Stir in tomato sauce, chili sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Cook an additional 3 minutes or until heated through; stirring occasionally.

Spoon equal amounts of beef mixture on bottom half of each roll. Decorate beef mixture or roll tops with vegetable decorations, as desired (see Cook’s Notes). Close with top half of each roll.

Cook's Notes: To make one spider, cut pitted black olive in half lengthwise and place each side slightly overlapping in center of ground beef mixture or on center of roll top. Slice red bell pepper into eight 1/4 inch strips. Place strips into spoke like fashion around olive to make legs. Cut two small pepper pieces to make antenna. Place above olive slices.

To make Jack-o-lantern faces, cut out pumpkin shape from Cheddar cheese slide with cookie cutter. Using small thin blade knife, cut out mouth, nose and eyes from pumpkin shape. Place cheese cutouts on top of ground beef mixture or on roll top.

To make olive bats, cut sliced black olives in half. Arrange halves on top of bun to resemble bat wings.

To make ghosts, use cookie cutters to cut ghost shapes from cheese slices.

To make green onion broomsticks, cut off the root end of a green onion with small thin-bladed knife. Carefully cut thin slits 1/2 inch deep lengthwise into the white part of the onion. Soak sliced part of onion in cold water so ends curl up. Place on plate with Spooky Sloppy Joe.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMAITON
Nutrition information per serving: 468 calories; 17 g fat; 76 mg cholesterol; 1986 mg sodium; 47 g carbohydrate; 3 g protein; 7.5 mg niacin; 0.5 mg vitamin B6; 2.4 mcg vitamin B12; 4.9 mg iron; 6 mg zinc.

This recipe is an excellent source of niacin, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, iron and zinc.