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. [...]

Chalkboard Paint Labels

This is a repost of sorts. I originally had this on a different blog, but decided to copy it here. It's saturday night and I'm watching the Walking Dead by myself. I have nothing better to do.

For some time I've been collecting and cleaning up used wine bottles and glass jars. I recycled a bunch of them when we moved here so I'm starting over again. I use the wine bottles for smaller grains like quinoa, soft white wheat berries, bulgur, flax seeds, etc. and pasta sauce jars are perfect for dried beans.

I debated on printing out cute labels for the jars, but I don't like being committed to only using them for one item. What if I want to put something different in there next time? I had this idea to use the chalkboard paint to create labels on my food storage. I still have the quart of paint and supplies from my deck table adventure. I searched the internet for any tips on painting glass and found another woman who'd had the same idea for her kitchen.

I started with the masking tape to mark of the area, but the tape is a real pain to work with. And like she discovered you really need to take it off after the first coat. By doing 3 coats in varying directions you can get the same uneven edge effect without the hassle of tape. I also decided to paint a large swatch onto my laundry soap bucket because the permanent marker was, well, not so permanent as it turns out.

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.

[...]