Meatloaf and Potatoes

This week I was reminded of a joke I've heard frequently among author friends -

My favorite thing to make for dinner is ... reservations.

Clearly that is not the gang of authors who hang out here.  But even those of us who love to cook sometimes have to just give it up and admit you just can't. It might be deadlines, or family issues, or in my case - a long recovery of my energy after being sick.

One of the weird things about this illness has been that I had absolutely no sense of taste and no interest in eating anything. I knew I was feeling better on Saturday when I really wanted to eat something. But I still didn't have the energy to cook.

Enter Whole Foods.

My husband is head over heels for the meatloaf that Whole Foods sells in the butcher department. I'm pretty fond of it myself. It's usually $6.99 a pound, but since a decent ground beef here would be over $5.50 a pound, I consider the extra couple of dollars well worth it because someone else has done all the work!

All I had to do was put it in a pan and cook. The rest was simple -  peel, boil, and mash some potatoes and roast some broccoli.

That was it. The meal was so delicious I almost forgot to take a picture! It looks kind of pathetic because I'd already eaten some. But sooooo good.












I did manage to go out for a walk the other day.

The trees say autumn,

but the flowers in our church yard still say summer.

Delicious Meatloaf

It's been a while since we've had a gratuitous
Corgi picture, hasn't it?

I've been making meatloaf for years. Haven't we all? I mean, it's a staple of the American diet, isn't it?

Face it, even if you don't eat meat, you've seen dozens of recipes for "meat"loaf, right?

And we all have our tried and true favorite. The one our family always thinks of when we tell them we're having meatloaf for dinner.

BUT - when I tried this recipe Carrie came up with (or found - I'm not sure which), my meatloaf recipe world was instantly altered.

This might not be a new concept for some of you, but I had never heard of cooking the onions before mixing them with the meat!

So here's my new meatloaf recipe. Since I make it without breadcrumbs to keep it in the low-carb world, I listed them as optional. Feel free to make this either way!


Delicious Meatloaf

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1 to 1 1/4  pounds ground beef or ground turkey
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (optional)
1 egg
1/4 cup ketchup
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Melt the butter in a skillet, and then cook the onions and garlic in the butter until they're soft and fragrant - about five minutes.

Put the onions/garlic/butter mixture in a mixing bowl and let it cool.

Add the other ingredients and mix well. I always use my hands for this step. Just remember to wash them well before and after.

Shape the mixture into a loaf shape, place in a baking dish (I line mine with foil), and bake at 350° for about 50-60 minutes.

I know you're asking yourself where the grease went! After all, part of cooking meatloaf is dealing with the tons of grease that cooks out of the meat.

Two things - one is that the meat I used is very low fat. Some of our good South Dakota grass fed beef :)

The other is that I cheated. I cooked the meatloaf, but then the family was eating at different times. So I transferred it to a different dish (to get it out of the grease that was there - yes, even with low fat meat), covered it tightly with foil, and put it back in the oven at 170° to keep it hot.


While we're enjoying the meatloaf, let's visit about what else is happening here in the Midwest.

The biggest thing is that spring is coming! Very slowly, of course, but surely. Winter never lasts forever, even if it seems that way.

This bull was a BIG guy. But do you notice that you can see
his ribs? The bison aren't starving, but they can hardly
wait for green grass.

We had several beautiful days last week, so on Saturday we went to Custer State Park to enjoy the weather and sunshine.

We could hear the prairies calling out His name....

What Makes A Man (or at least ManO) Happy and Healthy

Poor ManO. We get back from his business trip to Hawaii just in time for his birthday and for him to have skin cancer surgery.  PSA: USE SUNSCREEN and check any strange bumps or moles. Head to the doc ASAP.

This baby face has had it rough over the years.

Yep, it's been a fun month, a fun year. So I decided I needed to make him an extra special birthday dinner. I even planned ahead. But it had to be a healthier version. No excuses.

The main dish: ManO loves meatloaf but it had to be healthier.

But meat loaf and healthy don't go together! Yes they can.

Going low carb? Substitute in sauteed celery and onions for bread crumbs. I use about a half onion and a half of a bunch of celery. Put it in the food processor and pulse down. Be sure to saute it with a little olive oil and let cool before adding to your other ingredients. Cooking the veggies will keep them from drawing moisture away from the meat. The things you learn!


Dropping that cholesterol count? Use lean meat and substitute half of your beef with turkey.

Watching out for heart stress and bloating? Don't use a lot of salt. Put a little bit bacon on top. Bacon makes everything better. We didn't even miss the salt. You can also use any number of spices.

And most of all, serve smaller portions!



The side: ManO loves scalloped potatoes but they had to be quick and less fattening.

Going low carb?  I went with Yukon potatoes this one birthday celebration. This foods to reconsider article in our local paper made me feel better about a not so orange potato being served.


Dropping that cholesterol count? Instead of cream, I used lowfat milk with one pat of butter and a dash of salt for flavor.

Strapped for time? I discovered pre-cooking in the microwave saves a lot of time. I just cooked my yukon taters, sliced them and laid them in my baking dish. I just baked them the last thirty minutes while the meatloaf was cooking.

Again, serve smaller portions. 

Veggie: ManO loves green veggies. A shocking turn of events. So sauteed spinach it was! 

Dessert?  Jetlag sent me down the street to our French bakery. I got their brownies, made of Ghardelli chocolate and very little flour but cut them into small bites. No whole brownies for us any more.  Again, per that newspaper story, the infamous they have shown that folks who cut out indulgences totally are doomed to failure. And smaller portions are plain and simple cheaper!!!

So, we've talked a lot about programs and ideas that lead us to healthier eating. What is the once a year indulgence you can't give up? Have you had success with remade recipes and your family's reaction to them?