Tag: meatloaf

Beef and Lentil/Mushroom Meatloaf

~ Dad's Turn To Cook ~ Leave a comment

I forgot to take a picture, but I’m sure you can imagine what a hearty slab of meatloaf looks like.

I’m also not entirely sure about the title of the dish.  It’s a very earthy, hearty dish.  I essentially wanted to figure out something to do with a can of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup that I had kicking around – without resorting to the ol’ standby of pork chops.

Enter…

Campbell’s Best Meatloaf Recipe

And of course, because I can’t leave well enough alone, I decided to make a few changes.  First, I went with Cream of Mushroom soup rather than Tomato (for reasons listed above).  I also decided that rather than go with 2 lbs of ground beef, I’d do a swap and make it a 50/50 beef and lentil split.  So, I started the entire process by cooking some green lentils.  A little bit of googling gave me the info I needed.  1 cup of dry uncooked lentils is the equivalent of 1 lb of ground beef.  Once cooked of course.  That means you put cups of water in a large pot, get the water boiling while you rinse off your lentils and strain the water out.  Once the water is boiling, put them in, get the water boiling again, cover things up and reduce your heat down to a low boil and walk away for about 20 minutes or so.  You want to keep the steam and water in the pot and absorbing into the lentils.  I still wound up straining things after they were cooked to get rid of some excess water, but it all worked out.

For the rest of the recipe I following along surprisingly well.  Onion soup mix, check.  Half a can of soup (cream of mushroom), check.  I used panko crumbs for the bread crumbs.  Mixing the beef and lentils together was surprisingly easy.  Made a real nice loaf in the pan.  PRO TIP!  Let the lentils cool for a while before you mix them in with the beef!  Having recently been in a pot of boiling water, that was rather warm on the hands!  Whoops.

Aside from that, it was a nice easy bake.  The moisture from the cooked lentils cooked out for the most part during the bake.  I also learned a very valuable lesson.  My loaf took a bit longer to bake than I anticipated, mostly as somehow my meat thermometer had been swapped from F to C.  So as I was waiting things getting to 160 degrees…it was, no surprise, taking longer than expected.  Doublecheck that next time!  Lucky for me meatloaf is pretty forgiving.

On a side note, I’m heading back to work tomorrow morning for a temp term.  I’m hoping to keep up the blogging, but we’re still going to be sorting out how the cooking duties will be divvied up.  At the very least there may be some more ‘quick fix’ meals in the coming weeks.  Or slow cooker stuff!  That’s an idea there too.  Hmmm.  Time will tell!

-g

Blueberry & Lentil Meatloaf

~ Dad's Turn To Cook ~ 2 Comments

I might just be getting a little too ‘artsy’ with these photos.  Have no fear, my wife and kids all rightfully bust my chops every time I break out my phone to snap a picture of my plate.  I can take it.

You know what else I can take?  When I try out a new recipe that blows my mind.  Straight up, not many in the family were gung-ho about this one, but MAN, I loved it.

Blueberry & Lentil Meatloaf

I followed the linked recipe pretty close to the letter.  Putting fruit in a meat dish, I didn’t want to take many chances.  That said, I used regular mustard instead of dijon and white vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar.  It’s what I had on hand.  I also subbed out the ‘chipotle pepper in abodo sauce’ (what is THAT?) for some pepper flakes I had kicking around.

Aside from that, this is your regular ordinary meatloaf in sauce.  Keep the blueberries frozen when you’re mixing up the loaf, it’ll save you from having them get all smushed up and blue handed.  The other thing of note.  This took WAAAAAAY longer in the oven then their recommended cook times.  Like, twice as long.  If you have a meat thermometer handy, this is definitely the time to use it now and again to get a core temperature.  Remember, you want to stick the probe into the middle of the loaf, don’t take a temperature too close to the pan or the edge as that won’t give you an accurate reading.

Again, I really liked this one.  It’s sweet with heat.  I really want to try this again sometime with saskatoon berries.  Combined with lentils and beef, this could be a fantastic ‘taste of the prairies’ trifecta.

-g

 

 

Nana’s Meatloaf

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I had to google a picture.  The ONE time I forget to break out my camera and take a shot, is the most staple of staple meals around our place.  We call this one Nana’s Meatloaf.  The recipe, I believe, came from the Once A Month Cooking cookbook I have previously mentioned.  There’s a difference though.  In that cookbook, this recipe as actually made up of flaked ham I do believe.  We’ve made it with ham (which I typically don’t eat), we’ve made it with ground pork, but for best flavour/texture/results…I recommend good ol’ fashioned lean ground Saskatchewan or Alberta beef (call me a homer, that’s fine).

This recipe winds up with plenty of sauce to spoon over rice (which works great as a side with this one), we will also typically pair it with some corn or green peas (or both if we’re down to the dregs of the bags in the freezer!)

Nana’s Meatloaf

Loaf

  • 1 lb lean ground beef
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp mustard
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup breadcrumbs or crunch up some crackers

Sauce

  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tb mustard
  • 1 tb white vinegar
  • 2 tsp water

Mix up all the loaf ingredients – shape it into a loaf pan and the cover it with tinfoil.  Bake at 325 degrees F for 30 minutes.  Take out of the over, take off the foil and drain off the liquids that have formed.  Once drained, pour the sauce over the loaf.  Put back in the oven for another 30 minutes, this time uncovered.  Enjoy!

It’s a pretty simple recipe.  Only problem I ran into making this myself was that we’re still trying to sort out the oven in our new place.  It seems to take a bit longer to bake things than did our previous stove.  I’ve been getting good use from my digital cooking thermometer.  As I discovered…when using one of those, make sure you’re measuring the temperature in the middle of the loaf (I pushed it in too far so it was on the outer edge of the loaf near the pan where it is hotter than in the middle.  Ooops – lesson learned).  I’m debating turning our oven a bit hotter, or just leaving things in for another 5 minutes or so beyond the suggested cooking time.  We’ll get it sussed.

This one is 5 stars across the board, everybody including our picky eater loves it.

As for budget?  If you get it on sale, your pound of beef is $3.  An egg and crackers and the brown sugar are the next most pricy elements.  I’d guess that between everything else in the loaf itself, combined with the rice and corn on the side you’re looking at…$7 all in for this one.  It usually gives us 6 decent sized slices (or 2 ‘Daddy sized slices and 4 medium sized ones for everybody else…) so it feeds all 5 of us, and there’s usually 1 slice for leftovers.  Boom!

-g