Let me start out by saying that this didn’t go as I had originally planned.   Of course, when you become a mom, most all of your well laid plans seem to go out the window.

Lately, I’ve had issues with getting Davey to eat.   I have to find ways to squeeze food into his daily routines and to do it healthy.   He’s more concerned with playing as opposed to eating, so I usually try to keep things out for him to snack on during the day.   Dinner time is a different story.

I grew up with my parents, brother, and I always eating dinner around the kitchen table.   During the summer it was usually transported out to the table on the back porch, but we always ate dinner as a family without the interruption of television.   I’m pretty determined to do the same with my family, but once again the problem these days is Davey.   And since I’m also pretty determined to not have a finicky eater and to not have to make multiple meals, I’m trying to find new and fun ways to get him involved while also getting him to eat.

Tonight I made what I was originally going to call my Sloppy Joe empanadas.  I first should admit that the idea wasn’t all my own.  I did get the recipe from the Grands! biscuit website and will post a link to it on this blog.   I had a few variations on it since I wanted to find a way to get some vegetables in for Davey.

The recipe states that you should take Grands! biscuits and flatten them out into six inch circles on a non-greased cookie sheet.   I greased the cookie sheet since I’ve had issues in the past with following directions like that only to have what I’m baking stick to the pan.  I started the oven on 375 degrees before moving on.

Next I was to place Sloppy Joe mixture on each round.   Before making the mixture, I decided to add in some carrots and green pepper.   While the carrots were steaming, I diced up a quarter of a green pepper and started sautéing it in the pan.   Once the peppers were done, I put in a pound of lean ground turkey, browned it along with the peppers, drained it (I have learned to do this) and then added the carrots and a can of Sloppy Joe sauce.   Now, here’s where I encountered my problem.

When placing the Sloppy Joe mixture onto the first round, I found that I was either putting too much sauce or I didn’t have the biscuit round big enough.   The recipe states that you should fold over the rounds to make what looks like a dumpling or an empanada.   I couldn’t do that.   So, I covered the entire round with Sloppy Joe sauce, placed some shredded sharp cheddar cheese on top and then opened another can of Grands! biscuits, flattened them out and then placed them on top.   I ended up with eight Sloppy Joes.

I placed them in the preheated oven for approximately 12 minutes.   When they came out, this was the finished look:

They were not as pretty as I’d hoped, but were more delicious than I’d ever imagined.   My son ate two of these at one sitting!   And what he doesn’t know is that I managed to sneak in some vegetables as well.

The website states that it takes 45 minutes of prep and cook time total.  It took me a half an hour from start to finish INCLUDING dicing up and steaming carrots.    And the end result was fabulous.   My husband has asked that I make these again.   Perhaps next time I’ll try to make them look like actual empanadas.

Here’s the link to the recipe.

http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/grands-unsloppy-joes/3203cf0c-74bb-4e68-a038-2a43eae76087#

Try it out and add your own variations to it.   Get your little ones involved.   Davey loves to add the diced vegetables into the mixture and emptying out the can of Sloppy Joe sauce.   It seemed fun for him.   Enjoy!