Turkey Meatloaf Muffins

Yesterday I ventured into the meatloaf making world for the first time. I essentially combined two recipes. The original one where I got the idea from Jamie Eason here and the meatloaf recipe from our Cooking with Beer book by Paul Mercurio. Most recipes call for a cup of oats, but we don't have rolled oats in the house (just steel-cut), so I substituted short grain rice. 

Free form cooking is our general method and involves taking whatever veggies are in the fridge and spices that sound good and for the most part ignoring that part of the cookbook recipes. All of the ingredients below are approximate measurements and done to taste. Essentially this recipe is 2 pounds of ground meat, chopped veggies, and spices. Also, I suggest taking a bit of the mixture and frying it in a pan and adjusting the spices as you see fit. 

These turned out fantastic. I am glad I tested bits in the frying pan. I ended up adding more chipotle spice and some apple maple bbq sauce to balance the heat with sweet. They are pretty filling too. I had one for dinner last night and one for breakfast this morning. They heat up nicely in the microwave. [...]

Food education & shaved zucchini

For as much as we whine (or is it wine? both.) to each other about having to cook dinner when all we really want is to be lazy and throw a frozen pizza in the oven, we make good food. None of it is complicated and none of it resembles the canned veggies, iceberg lettuce, boiled corn, margarine, and baked chicken I was raised on (sorry, Mom!). 

First off, no veggies come from store bought cans except artichoke hearts, chickpeas, and stewed tomatoes. Our corn is always done on the grill with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper (quarter turns every 5 minutes, if you're wondering!). There is only real butter in the fridge and it gets used one or twice a year when I decide to bake something dessert-y. We rarely bake anything. It's steamed, grilled, sauteed, or seared. We haven't followed a recipe, except maybe the first time or two we made something new like chili, shepherd's pie, or curried noodles. Our general method is find a protein: fish, ground turkey, chicken, chicken sausage, shrimp, or on occasion, steak, grab whatever veggies are on hand, and a carb like pearl couscous, basmati rice, pasta, or quinoa and combine it via one or more of the previously stated cooking methods.

It's a challenge to eat this many vegetables in a week. Most of the time we don't succeed.

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hooray spring!!

the weather has picked up this week reaching nearly 80 degrees at one point- although it was cloudy and didnt really feel like it. it was sunny enough to sit out in shorts though! i took a break from the dark room with no windows (aka the office) to go outside and sit in the sun and listen to the birds chirping. and the frequent jets- hey i work near a major airport.