Meatless Loaf

Recipe: Meatless Loaf Cupcakes with Butternut Squash Puree

Source: http://www.thesweetlifeonline.com/2012/10/22/meatless-loaf-cupcakes-with-butternut-squash-puree/

Time: 1 1/2 hrs

Ease: 7

Taste: 4

Leftover Value: 5

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Down the Drain

This is one of those recipes that after making it all I could think was: if you are going to choose to be a vegetarian, why on earth would you try to replicate something in which its very name involves meat?

Meatless meatloaf.  It just doesn't quite make sense.

I had bookmarked quite a file of recipes for my Daniel Fasting, before I punked out and went vegetarian.  I decided I still needed to sprinkle in a few of my pre-selected recipes and this stood out as one that I needed to give a try.*

*It also stood out because I had put it on my dinner calendar** and purchased all the ingredients necessary to make it.

**Yes, I have a dinner calendar.  Perhaps a post on that in the upcoming future?

I made this on a night that Hubby was working late.  The process is all rather tedious and time consuming.  Much more than I had hoped for, in fact, much more tedious and time consuming than any MEATloaf I have ever made has ever been.  To me it is such a waste of time in order to avoid using meat.  First, the lentils need to be boiled and the butternut squash baked.  That takes 45 minutes.  The lentils are then put in a food processor with an onion mixture, tomato paste, and a flour/walnut mixture.  

The butternut squash puree is also supposed to be made in the food processor.  I'll give it this: it made it very smooth.  However, unless you are independently wealthy and/or you collect food processors, it means you need to wash the food processor out in the midst of your cooking.

Not cool.

The recipe calls for something called "liquid smoke".  After investigating it a little, and learning that ultimately it is used to give a smoky flavor to food, I decided against purchasing it for the sole purpose of this meal.

I'm going to say it if you won't.  These mini meatless loaves look like throw up.

The butternut squash on top definitely gives it a cupcake look.  Now if only it had a cupcake taste.

At first I thought I could live with this recipe.  The outsides were crispy, and mixed with the butternut squash puree it had a familiarity of meatloaf.

Of course, it certainly was far from the real thing.  Especially since the real thing for me is coated in bacon and dripping with a delicious ketchup and brown sugar mixture.  Mmmmmm....

When I reached the center of the "cake" I was pretty much ready to be finished with my dinner.  Rather than the semi-appealing crunch that the outside had given, I was faced with a mushy warm center.  I tried to cover it up with more butternut squash puree and zucchini, but it was no use.

I managed to finish my dinner and, perhaps because I hadn't eaten anything of substance all day, told myself it hadn't been that bad.  I felt full, and I guess my stomach was satisfied.

Then Hubby came home and had some of it leftover.  I find I can only get an opinion from Hubby on dinners I make if they meet one of two extremes: 1. Really delicious or 2. Really disgusting.

You can guess which category he told me this recipe fell under.

Better Than Pumpkin Pie

Recipe: Better Than Pumpkin Pie
Source: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/better-than-pumpkin-pie/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=better%20than%20pumpkin%20pie&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page
Time: 1 hour 20 total
Ease: 3
Taste: 10
Leftover Value: 10
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

Not Pumpkin Pie, BETTER Than Pumpkin Pie!

I am not a pumpkin pie lover.  In fact, I can't remember the last Thanksgiving that I ate a slice of pumpkin pie.  I always find them to be too heavy and the consistency to be too thick that after one bite I've had my fill of pumpkin taste.  (Then it's on to the chocolate desserts...)

Therefore, I've never made a pumpkin pie before.  I hear that using real pumpkin to make it can be a bit of an ordeal.  The challenge of using a real pumpkin (rather than canned pumpkin) is the only thing that ever tempts me to try my hand at making pumpkin pie.

But now I don't have to.  My good friend, Amy, who I've known a bazillion years, has a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) membership.  This means that during certain months of the year she gets a share of the local farmers crops.  I'm pretty sure this is the most awesome thing in the world.  Whatever they have a lot of that week, she gets a lot of.  And when she gets a lot, I get to share in her bounty.  Did I mention that I love Amy?

She's brought over anything from kale to collard greens, from zucchini to cucumbers, from red kuri squash to this week's butternut squash.

Amy's mom, Wendy, who I also love very much, sent over a recipe to go with the butternut squash.  It's name: "Better than pumpkin pie" had me intrigued.  I had to make it immediately.

It was everything I have always wanted in a pumpkin pie.  Creamy and light, but not lacking any of the usual flavors of pumpkin pie.  The one exception was it doesn't use any pumpkin.  Not a lick of the orange beast.  As you might have guessed, the secret ingredient in this recipe is the butternut squash from Amy's CSA crop this week.

The squash was not very big, so I thought perhaps I wouldn't have enough for the one and a half cups that the recipe called for.  I was wrong.  It was absolutely perfect.

Peeling and chopping the squash up, on the other hand, was an interesting event, one I wish I had taken pictures of.  

After the squash was chopped, it boiled in water for a few minutes.  Then all the remaining ingredients needed to be blended together with the squash.

It wasn't until I poured my batter into the pre-made pie crust that I bought at Bottom Dollar Food just for this occasion that I remembered reading or hearing somewhere that pies like such should be placed on top of a baking sheet.  I remembered this tip when I tried to pick up the pie and the filling began to shake back and forth until it spilled drastically over the sides of the crust and onto my stove top burner.  (I guess I should mention here that I chose to do this on top of my stove....not a good life choice at all).

After the pie was placed on the baking sheet everything was coming up daisies.  It baked for 50 minutes and despite all that I spilled onto my stove top, the filling was perfect.

I am definitely adding this to my desserts to make for Thanksgiving breakfast*.

 
*I just realized, I've never written about Thanksgiving breakfast.  Look for it around Turkey Day.  You won't want to miss it.