Ever since I can remember, we have made our Sloppy Jo's from scratch. We don't like the stuff you buy in a can. The stuff my mom always made was good, but I like taking what I learn from her and improving upon it to make it my own. I came up with this recipe over this last summer while experimenting with different ingredients. The first time I made it, it was for a family get together picnic. There were people there I didn't even know. After we were done eating, everyone was complimenting it and said that they wouldn't change a thing. That it tasted so so good. I haven't made it any other way since. So I hope you give it a try and like it.

***The name came about because of my second oldest, JoAnn (we call her JoJo). My oldest, Branden, when he wanted Sloppy Jo's for dinner, he would always ask if we could eat JoAnn for dinner. He was about 3 or 4 years old when he started doing this, he is now almost 11. The name just kinda stuck from there.

Step 1: Gathering Your Ingredients.

First you need to gather the ingredients.

Two pounds ground beef.
Two cups Ketchup.
One Tablespoon mustard.
One teaspoon brown sugar.
1/2 medium onion, diced.
1/2 large green pepper, diced.
2/3 cup banana peppers, diced.
One tablespoon minced garlic.
Sea salt. (you can use regular salt, if you prefer)
Ground peppercorn. (you can use regular pepper, if you would prefer)

Step 2: Mixing the Ingredients Together.

Put your two pounds of ground beef into a skillet and brown it up. As beef is browning stir often. You want to make sure the beef is chopped up finely (This will give you more of an even flavor in every bite).

When your beef is browned, take and drain off the fat (I also rinse in hot water to eliminate as much fat as I can). Return back to skillet.

Add in your chopped onions, green peppers and banana peppers, minced garlic and stir. Add ketchup, mustard, and brown sugar and stir. Now add in your salt and pepper. Stir until everything completely mixed together. Cover and let simmer on very low heat for about 15 to 20 minutes to give all the flavors time to absorb together. Stir often.

Step 3: The Final Product.

The final step is to serve it up on a bun with your favorite side dishes.

Our pic shows it served with fresh butternut squash (straight out of my garden), corn on the cob, cherry tomatoes (from the garden) and some of my yummy Grandma's Homemade Dill Pickles (There is an instructable to make these as well).

Yummy. I hope you enjoy.