Meatloaf

Last week I made a meatloaf and it turned out so great. I don't use recipes and am bad about measuring so laugh all you want at my recipe to follow! Sorry I forgot to take a picture.

1 lb ground beef
1/2 Belll pepper
1 small onion
1/2 can rotel (drained well)
Cheddar Cheese
Breadcrumbs
Egg
Worcestershire Sauce
Ketchup

OK, so I diced up the bell pepper and onion, and placed them in a pan to sweat them out. I cooked them until the onion got ALMOST translucent.  I set them aside to cool slightly before adding to beef mixture.
In a bowl combine beef, rotel, onion/pepper mixture, couple lugs of Worcestershire sauce, and a light squeeze of ketchup. Add 1 large egg (or 2 small) and a palm-ish full of breadcrumbs.  After this is mixed together, sprinkle in cheddar cheese and mix lightly. DO NOT OVER WORK THE GROUND BEEF!
I have a meatloaf pan that drains off excess fat but I really like the "crust" just leaving it on a cookie sheet or pan makes. So I split into two smaller loaves and let cook on a sheet lined with foil for 30 minutes at 400. Check at 15 minutes and you may want to rotate the pan also add ketchup on top at this point and it will carmelize on the top as the loaf finishes. Remember, ALL OVENS ARE DIFFERENT!

Serve with salad, corn, mashed potatoes and brown gravy.

Best part is that you will possibly have leftovers and they make a great sandwich the next day!

Calzones

Nathan was hunting tonight so I needed a fairly quick dinner idea and wanted something different than usual. I was also home for the day and when i get stuck at home it seems like I always want to make homemade bread! So I stumbled upon a pizza dough recipe in a cookbook and then googled things to do with pizza dough! Calzones seemed like a great idea when I saw them so I tried it out.
Filling:

• Whatever your favorite pizza fillings are.
• I used
• Sauted onions and bell peppers
• Sausage
• Pepperoni
• Moz. Cheese

Pizza Dough

1 pkg. reg. or quick-acting active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp if you have a jar instead of packets)
1 c. warm water
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. salt
2 3/4 to 3 1/4 c. all-purpose flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water in a bowl. Stir in sugar, oil, salt and 1 cup of flour. Beat until smooth. Mix in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place in greased bowl; turn greased side up. Cover and let rise in warm place until almost double, about 30 minutes. (I actually let mine sit longer because Nathan and I had to run an errand.)

After the dough has been able to rest, punch down dough; divide into 6 equal parts. Roll each part into approx 7 inch circle on lightly floured surface. Take the spaghetti sauce and spread over half of each circle to within 1 inch of edge; top with fillings of your choice and cheese. Be careful not to over fill them or your dough will stretch out and bust! Carefully fold dough over filling; pinch edges to seal securely ( I used a fork along the edges to crimp them together). Place on greased cookie sheet; let rest 15 minutes. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Brush with egg. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Yield: 6 sandwiches, 355 calories per sandwich.

Nothing to Hard

Starting the new year a little healthier? Tonight Nathan and I had a super easy, balanced meal.

Grilled Porks Chops

• Salt/Pepper
• Outdoor Grill or George Foreman Grill

Risotto

• I used a boxed risotto. It was really good!

Greebeans

• Warmed through, nothing special!

A garden salad!


It was nothing major but came together really nice! I also had made some vanilla pudding for dessert!

Orange Pork Loin Roast

1 2-3 lb roast

1 med. onion

1/2 c. orange juice

orange marmalade

Preheat oven to 325.

Slice onion in rings. Divide rings and place in the bottom of a 8x11 baking dish. Pour orange juice over the onions. Place the roast on top of the onions and the juice. Spoon out some Marmalade onto the roast. Spread evenly as a glaze. Cover pan with fiol (make sure the foil does NOT touch the roast) for the first hour. Remove the foil for last 30 min. Roast should be 155 degees.