Recipe #22: Meatloaf

Recipe: Meatloaf
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 1 hr 15 min
Ease: 2
Taste: 10
Leftover Value: 10
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

I want you to take all your preconceived notions about meatloaf and throw them to the wind.

I have never taken issue with meatloaf.  This is probably because my mom always served it with mashed potatoes.  There was a certain point in time where I only wanted to eat mashed potatoes.  Thank goodness my second grade teacher convinced me that eating only mashed potatoes all the time wouldn't be a very intelligent choice.

Otherwise, I would have turned into a potato.

I still serve meatloaf with mashed potatoes because there will never be another way in my mind to serve meatloaf.*  

I knew this meatloaf was a winner when Hubby raved about it.  Until I made PW's meatloaf, Hubby wasn't as excited as I was for meatloaf dinner.  But now, well, it is in his top five favorite meal list.

*Except maybe with macaroni and cheese?  Oh boy, wouldn't that be adventurous?

First, and of utmost importance, is that you line the broiler pan (because everyone cooks their meatloaf on broiler pans, right?) with tin foil.  This will save on clean up later.

Another reason I love meatloaf---it's an easy meal.  I love a dish that can be made in one bowl.  That saves my head from spinning rapidly out of control as I look around my disheveled kitchen once dinner is finished.

Here is why I think Hubby really likes this meatloaf.  Are you ready?

Bacon!  How could any man resist a meatloaf laced with bacon?

Hubby, however, will claim the reason he loves this meatloaf is that the consistency is moister than most meatloaf.  He chalks this up to the fact that Parmesan is mixed in with the ground beef and breadcrumbs.

Here is my favorite part:

Perhaps a close second to my love for mashed potatoes growing up would be my love for ketchup (butter being the other condiment fighting for second place).  This ketchupy sauce has all the right things in it: ketchup, brown sugar, dry mustard, and hot sauce!  I love it.

Ketchup was a part of my meatloaf growing up, too.  At the last fifteen minutes of bake time my mom would pull the meatloaf out of the oven and slather it with ketchup. 

You might remember PW's Comfort Meatballs and how I said they reminded me of meatloaf.  This meatloaf is what came to mind as I ate the surprisingly delicious comfort meatballs.

This meatloaf is special to me, not only because it is delicious, not only because my Hubby loves it, but because I made it on the day I met my third sister-in-law.  My brother, Joel, brought Mallory over my house to introduce her to me just as Hubby and I had finished eating dinner.  I can't resist feeding people, so naturally, I offered her some of our leftovers.  She ate two servings and then we talked for three hours straight.  So, for now and always, I associate this meal with her.

Is that weird or heartwarming?  I'm not sure.

Recipe #7 and #8: Mashed Potatoes and Comfort Meatballs

Recipe: PW's Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Time: 1 hr 50 min

Ease: 4

Taste: 7

Leftover Value: 6 

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

Recipe: Comfort Meatballs

Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Time: 1 hr 35 min

Ease: 4

Taste: 10

Leftover Value: No leftovers!

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

In order to serve mashed potatoes with meatballs, I had to convince myself that these were not meatballs.

They are not meatballs.

They are not meatballs.

They are not meatballs.

I may or may not have had to recite this again and again.

I also may or may not have said the word meatloaf again and again to convince myself they were meatloaf meatballs rather than Italian meatballs.

I knew that if I allowed myself to be confused, I would want to make pasta instead of mashed potatoes to go along with these 'meatballs', not meatloaf meatballs.*

*Note: Though PW pictures the comfort meatballs being served with mashed potatoes, she also says you can serve them with egg noodles tossed with butter.  Yum!

These recipes share a similar trait: they both take a lot of time to make.  The positive about the mashed potatoes is that you can make them ahead of time and save the final step of baking them for 30 minutes for later.  I haven't tried to do this yet, but Pioneer Woman says it can be done.  So I take a little comfort in that.

Up to the baking point, these guys are a lot of work.  Mashed potatoes usually are.  All the peeling, the chopping, the time to boil...it's quite a process.

For these, she has you hand mash the potatoes.  Ugh.  I have been spoiled by using my immersion blender every time that I make mashed potatoes.  They are the smoothest, most delicious potatoes ever and whenever I serve them to friends they marvel at their consistency.

So, needless to say, mashing potatoes by hand was not something I wanted to do.

Especially considering it was five pounds of potatoes.

But then when I put the butter and cream cheese in, everything was right in the world.

It's a little over the top, I'll admit, but since PW said to do it, I did it.

I topped the potatoes with hunks of butter.

This is decadence like none other.

I recommend serving these potatoes when you are feeding large crowds (think Thanksgiving), but not for an ordinary weeknight meal.

The comfort meatballs were fantastic.  But just like the mashed potatoes, they required a lot of time and even more work.

After mixing all the ingredients, the meatballs are refrigerated for 30 to 45 minutes to set.  I like to do this sometimes with my Italian meatballs, but these meatballs were so moist that they needed it.  It was difficult to shape them perfectly because of how wet they were.  Next time I would either use a little more beef or use an ice cream scoop to shape them.

After the meatballs have set, they are to be dredged in flour, browned in a skillet, placed in a baking dish, covered in sauce*, and baked for 45 minutes.**

*The sauce was sweet, the sauce was delicious, and the sauce reminded me of meatloaf.  Perfect.

**Yes, this is real life.  I wanted to curse the day Pioneer Woman was born, but as soon as I tasted them I wanted to sing her praises.

I did not make such a massive meal only for Hubby and myself.  

Jon was the first to try it and, of course, loved it.  Then my brother, Justin, and his wife came over to help us eat the rest.

These two recipes are perfect for each other.  I would recommend making the mashed potatoes ahead of time so that they can be thrown into the oven when the meatballs go in.  This way, when it is closer to dinner time you can focus solely on making the meatballs.

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.