Sunday Supper

Blame in on Pioneer Woman (PDub for short) she did it again. She made me cook.  On the menu: Meatloaf, Steamed Green Beans and Baked Potato. Super simple but great food. Here's my take on meatloaf.  Normally, I use oatmeal instead of breadcrumbs but when I saw how PDub used milk-soaked white bread for her meatloaf I had to try it.  I adapted my recipe by substituting 1/2 of the oatmeal I normally use w/2 slices of bread (she used white, I used wwheat because its what I had in stock).  I never thought of doing this and it looked moist... so I tried it.

Liz's Famous Meatloaf (secret ingredient revealed)

All amounts are approx. and to taste~
Click on any pix to enlarge for details

2lbs of lean ground beef (or more if you have an army to feed)

1 pkg of Lipton onion soup mix (secret ingredient)

1 big handful of fresh parsely chopped (pictured below is from my herb garden)

1/4 cup of parmesan cheese

1-2 eggs (I used one)

1 tsp fresh garlic

1/4 cup oatmeal or slices of bread (soaked in milk) I used 2 slices.

1-2 tbls worchestershire sauce

Salt and pepper to taste
1 small can tomato sauce (pour over top last 10 minutes)

Firstly a pix of my herb garden (right outside my kitchen window/door).  We are getting a jump on things.  That's how we roll in SoCal.  The parsley is the largest plant in the lower right hand corner of the pix. It's what I used in the meatloaf.  It's the oldest plant that's why its bigger then the rest.  It did really well over the winter (cough cough) with all the rain we've been having.  The smaller ones you see were just planted this week.  In the planter, fresh lavender.  We even have two tomato plants in already (back along the fence.  My mint is coming in nicely too (far left).

Cast of characters.  I have really little counter space that's why its all jammed into this tiny little corner with everything else (appliances etc).  What you see in the pix is about the extent of my working countertop space.  I get claustrophobic cooking in here at times.  I've gotten really efficient at conserving space too.  

See the bread crumbs? I thought they turned out so great. I soaked them in milk and then wrung the milk out and crumbled the bread slices into meatloaf mixture. The texture was perfect.

Ready for the oven. I thought the parsley was so pretty.  Wow did it smell good too (the parsley).  I never knew it smelled so strong.  I thought it was kind of neutral.  Not this stuff, it was FRESH.

During the last 10 minutes or so I pour tomato sauce over the top covering the entire loaf. No after pix.  No plate-up.  Just a few random pix of the process.  It turned out yummo!

Home cook extraordinaire Tip of the Week:  I spray the loaf tin with non-stick spray like Pam.  I also cover this with tin-foil until last ten minutes.  Tip alert!!! Spray the inside of the tin-foil with non-stick spray also.