Thursday, February 25, 2010

Mmmm Mmmm Good Meatloaf

Meatloaf is a classic and definite family favorite. Last week I served it up with mashed sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli.


Start with two packages of Genesis' ground beef (if you have light eaters you can probably half this, but our hearty growing kids love this meal and this also gives our family of four plenty of leftovers, which Matthew loves having for lunchtime meatloaf sandwiches).

Mix in:
About 1 cup of chopped onion
1 to 2 cloves of crushed garlic
2 free range eggs
1 can of diced tomatoes (I use Muir Glen Organic Fire Roasted)
About 2 Tbs of Worcestershire sauce
Couple tsps of course ground black pepper
Couple pinches of salt
Couple tsps of basil (or Italian herb blend)
Crumble about 3/4 cup of crackers or bread crumbs (I often take heels of bread and dry out in my toaster oven on a low heat bake setting)

Mix all of this together by hand... yes, your nice clean hands!
Form into two loves, about 2 x 8 inches each. I place both loaves in 9 x 13 glass baking dish.
Bake at 350 for 35 - 45 minutes, until meat reaches an internal temperature of 160 degrees. If you don't have a meat thermometer, I highly recommend investing in one, they're cheap!

Do not be alarmed by the amount of juice that cooks out of the meatloaves. This is NOT a bunch of grease, it is mostly water from the meat and other ingredients (mainly tomatoes).

Serve it up with a super food - sweet potatoes!  If you have not learned to love them, start trying!!  My favorite way to have sweet potatoes is baked, but this is time consuming.  So, I've started peeling them, cutting in chunks and steaming them.  Make sure you continually check the water when steaming, I made the mistake of letting the water run low one time and the moisture that seeped from the potatoes made a nice sticky scorched mess on the bottom of my pan! I typically cook 3 medium potatoes.  Add about 2 tbs of butter. Real butter from real milk, no fake stuff is ever allowed in my kitchen - it's bad for you!  Also add a couple tsps of cinnamon! I could eat these for dessert and they're incredibly good for you.  Well.... that is if you don't ruin their goodness loading them up with too much butter and marshmallows, brown sugar, red hots or whatever other crazy stuff people add to them.  They are sweet by design, God made them that way, just allow yourself to savor their natural sweetness and resist the urge to make them into a candied mess.

Happy cooking!!

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