Meatloaf at Midnight

Pictures and recipe-ish like I promised!                          

First I started with chopping up an onion and two green peppers from our garden. I sautéed the onions in butter first because, a) onions take longer to cook and b) they make the kitchen smell AWESOME.

 

After the onions were smooshy, I tossed in the green peppers. Then I decided that I need to make fajita’s more often because peppers and onions are my new favorite smell.

Cook these until the green peppers are mushy as well but be careful not to burn them. Keep the heat on medium.

Now it’s time for mixing! When I started making meatloaf I was so worried about mixing thing together and whether I had the right amounts. Now I don’t even measure. I just toss stuff into the bowl. This night I was making two loafs, one with a box mix from the store and one with my pseudo-recipe. The box called for a pound of meat, an egg and 1/3 cup of water; then I just added some of the sautéed  veggies on top. Easy peasy.

My recipe is equally as easy and 3 times as fun. Add one egg, two handfuls of oatmeal, spoonful of minced garlic, pepper, salt, a few squirts of ketchup, some BBQ sauce and of course Louisiana Hot Sauce. Not too much, but it really helps the flavor stand out. And of course, it has to be this brand. Yum.

Store brand is on the left, Jen’s recipe is on the right. Mine is covered in BBQ sauce. Besides adding to the tastiness, I think it helps keep the meatloaf moist.

Now you stick the loafs in the oven 350° for 1 1/2 hours. I spent this time surfing Youtube videos and playing spider solitaire. You can feel free to do other things.

Finally…there is meatloaf!

The box mix meatloaf looks…ill. It also has a weird smell to it. I tossed the box last night but it makes me wonder if it’s got soup mix or something added to it. The smell reminds me of soup somehow. It’s also rather dry, so if I use it again (which I probably won’t) I’d add maybe a can of tomato sauce to make it juicer. On the other hand, my meatloaf looks tasty and the BBQ sauce is nice and brown in places. It’s moist on the inside and the sautéed green peppers and onions are delicious. Now I just need to slice them up and freeze them for meals later!