Meatloaf: Mexican Style

Hello to those of you who have found my blog! I'm so excited to know there are real people out there who might see this! :)

As promised, here is the recipe for Mexican Style Meatloaf.

Meatloaf: Mexican Style

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef (I used a mixture of ground chuck and extra lean ground beef)
1 jar salsa (I used mild, but use whatever you like)
1 can black beans (you'll only use 1/2 the can)
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste
shredded Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Drain and rinse the black beans. You'll only need 1/2 of the can for this. I like using the leftover beans in scrambled eggs or omelets.

Mix the beef, 1/2 can black beans, 1/2 cup salsa and egg in a large bowl. Salt and pepper to taste, and add any other seasoning you might like. I added onion powder and seasoning salt.

Shape the meat mixture into a loaf-shape in the baking dish of your choice.

Once shaped into a loaf, make a channel or indentation on the top of the loaf, down the middle, for the salsa. Pour 1/2 cup of salsa on top. Sprinkle the top with grated Cheddar.

Bake for 35-45 minutes.

This recipe should give you 4 nice sized servings. If you are cooking for more you could easily double this recipe, though I would recommend cooking it as two loaves.

This is a slightly different twist on traditional meatloaf. I served it with brown rice and veggies.

Meatloaf: Italian style

I apologize in advance for not having any pictures to go with these recipes. Meatloaf, or at least my meatloaf, doesn't make for pretty pictures. Besides, dinner was later than usual and I was hungry. :)

Last night I made two meatloaves: Italian and Mexican. I do not use breadcrumbs in my meatloaf, and I'm only cooking for two, so I tend to make small, dense meatloaf.

Meatloaf: Italian Style

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef (I used a mixture of ground chuck and extra lean ground beef)
1 small can chopped mushrooms
1 can Italian diced tomatoes, divided (sometimes these are labeled "Italian", or just look for diced tomatoes with basil, oregano, etc)
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste
shredded Mozzarella cheese (or use Parmesan from the green can in a pinch)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix* the beef, mushrooms, egg and half of the diced tomatoes in a large bowl. Salt and pepper to taste, and add any other seasoning you might like. Last night I added onion powder, seasoning salt and McCormick's All Purpose Seasoning Blend (which is a variety of dried herbs).

*By mix what I really mean is "Take your rings off, wash your hands, stick your hands in the bowl and get it all together"

Shape the meat mixture into a loaf-shape in the baking dish of your choice. Since I was making two loaves I used a large glass baking dish that would hold both with room to spare.

Once shaped into a loaf, make a channel or indentation on the top of the loaf, down the middle, for the tomatoes. Pour the remaining half of the diced tomatoes into this channel. This keeps the tomatoes from running down the sides of the meatloaf and ending up in the bottom of your pan. Sprinkle the top with grated Mozzarella. I was out of Mozzarella so I used green can Parmesan instead.

Bake for 35-45 minutes.

This recipe should give you 4 nice sized servings. Or, if you are feeding a hungry man, as I was last night, one hungry man serving and 2 other servings. If you are cooking for more you could easily double this recipe, though I would recommend cooking it as two loaves.

Results: This is my standard meatloaf recipe, and we liked it as usual. This is the first time I've used grated Parmesan, and it was good. The Parmesan went well with the other flavors (of course!).

I'll post the companion, Meatloaf: Mexican Style soon.

Crustless Broccoli and Mushroom Quiche

While searching for an idea for dinner, I ran across a recipe for Crustless Asparagus and Mushroom Quiche in the April 2005 issue of Shape magazine. I read through the ingredients list, decided to substitute broccoli for the asparagus, and headed to the grocery store.

Later in the afternoon I started really reading the recipe, and it called for starting the quiche in a frying pan, then transferring it to a glass baking dish and finishing it in the microwave. The microwave? I've never made a quiche before, but I've had quiche, I am aware of the concept of quiche, and I've never heard of making it in the microwave. That's when I abandoned the recipe. I searched the internet and found generic instructions for crustless quiche, and decided to follow the recommended baking method. This is what I came up with:

Crustless Brocooli and Mushroom Quiche

Ingredients:
cooking spray
butter
1 1/2 cup broccoli florets
1 cup coarsely chopped white mushrooms
6 large eggs
1/2 cup milk (I used 2%)
1/2 cup lowfat sour cream
1/4 teaspoon paprika
3 slices lowfat Swiss cheese, coarsely chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375

I briefly steamed the broccoli and sauteed the mushrooms in a tiny bit of butter. I sprayed a 10 inch glass quiche pan with a quick coat of cooking spray, then spread the cooked broccoli and mushrooms in the bottom. In a separate bowl I whisked together the eggs, milk, sour cream, paprika, salt and pepper. I poured the egg mixture over the vegetables, then sprinkled the chopped Swiss cheese on top of everything.

The generic recipe calls for baking it from 30-45 minutes, beginning to check on it after 30 minutes. I started checking on it at 30 minutes, and pulled it from the oven after 38 minutes. I let it rest on the counter for 5 minutes, then we dug in. It was perfectly delicious. I ate 1/4 of it. My husband went back for seconds and ate close to half of it.

This was fantastic, and I will definitely be making other variations of this. As an added bonus, my "You're putting meat in that, right?" husband ate it without complaint. In fact, he raved about it and declared it one of his new favorites. This further proves my theory that he doesn't miss the meat if a dish is hearty enough.

Here is the nutritional info provided by Shape for their version: 250 calories, 15g fat (7 saturated), 8g carbs, 20 g protein per serving. One serving is 1/4 of the quiche. Substituting broccoli for asparagus shouldn't make much of a calorie difference. I did add a tiny pat of butter to the mushrooms, but without the butter those numbers should be pretty close.