Best Ever Meatloaf

I'm not so sure I should keep the title of "Best Ever". I have probably eaten 3 different meatloafs (loaves?) in my entire life....each one once. I am not a meatloaf person...unless you count the singer/actor, in which case, I'm a fan. I figured I'd give it a shot, since it's easy to make and I had two packs of ground beef to use. I just don't have enough comparison to really say this is the "best ever".

Let me start by saying that mixing the ingredients by hand is a must, and most of my ingredients were very cold! Just thought I'd give you a heads up. As I added my ingredients to the bowl, I ran my faucet to get warm water to rinse with while I mixed, and I'm glad I did. I left out the onions for this since Dan doesn't like them and I didn't have one anyways. I also had some wheat crackers instead of Ritz, and they worked just fine. It used just under a sleeve to make a cup of crumbs.

The topping/sauce is what makes this recipe, I think. I misread the directions, and added the sauce in the last 15 minutes of cooking, not halfway through. Halfway through would have been better. This is why you always read through the directions, twice, before starting your recipe. Dan is busy as usual, so I don't have his opinion on this yet as he will be heating his dinner up later, so I'm hoping he likes it. I served it with some mashed potatoes and steamed corn.

Best Ever Meatloaf
from Pip & Ebby

2 lbs. ground beef
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/2 cup ketchup
1/3 cup onion, finely chopped
1 cup buttery cracker crumbs (about 1 sleeve of crackers)
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic powder

For the topping:
3/4 cup ketchup
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup apricot preserves

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9x5 loaf pan.
2. I a large bowl combine all ingredients for the meatloaf and mix by hand until well combined.
3. Press into the loaf pan. Place loaf pan on a baking sheet to catch any juice that may boil over and drip in the oven. Bake for 90 minutes. Halfway through, you will top with sauce.
4. To prepare the sauce, in a small bowl combined the sauce ingredients until well mixed. Pour half the sauce over the meatloaf halfway through cooking. Reserve the remainder for dipping.
5. Let the meatloaf sit for 15 minutes before slicing and serving.

Forgot to take a pic before I sliced it to check for doneness.

Pesto Chicken Pasta

Here's the other dish I brought to our monthly dinner at my grandmother's house. I just randomly threw it together with things I had around the house. It turned out pretty good and most of it went quickly. For the pesto, I used a mix from Tastefully Simple that I had (and finally used the last of). You could use prepared pesto or find a recipe to make your own. I had about 1/4 cup of it, which is all the pasta needed. It wasn't too overwhelming. I also added in just under a 1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese to the pasta as well as I mixed everything together. I think this would be great as a cold pasta salad as well. Cold chicken sort of freaks me out, so I would substitute it with some cubed mozzarella or something if I were to serve it cold. Also, when I used the small jar of sun-dried tomatoes in oil, I rinsed them quickly. I didn't need all that oil in the pasta, since the pesto had some with it.

Pesto Chicken Pasta

1 package any pasta you choose, I used Farfalle
1/4 cup prepared pesto
about 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 chicken breasts, cooked and cut into bite-sized pieced
1 small jar sun-dried tomatoes in oil

1. Boil pasta and drain. Return to pot.
2. Add the chicken and tomatoes. Add the pesto and cheese and mix everything together until well mixed.

Boom, that's it! Easy peasy.

Lemon Parmesan Asparagus

Last night was our monthly family dinner at my grandmother's house. With temperatures in the 80s and the humidity being thick and nearly unbearable, you may wonder why I would choose to roast something. First, I have central air in my house, and second, I craved roasted asparagus. Cravings always win...

I bought two bundles of asparagus and one bundle was pretty large, so I chose to make one and save the other. I should have made both, the asparagus went faster than I had expected it to. This recipe is simple. It's slightly time consuming to dip each stalk in the egg mix and then in the bread crumbs, but 10 extra minutes is hardly time-consuming to me. I made the lemon vinaigrette that goes with this, but found it far too lemony for me. I don't think anyone else used it at dinner either. If you want to make it, click the link for the original recipe.

Tonight, I used the bundle of asparagus I saved and just roasted it with olive oil, sea salt and some cracked black pepper. That was my dinner...a bunch of asparagus. Pregnancy has created some pretty weird meals for me. I eat more smaller meals to prevent heartburn (good Lord, the heartburn!) and because most of the time I just crave one thing at a time a few hours apart. So in about an hour, I'll have dinner part 2, which will consist of who knows what. Maybe the semi-homemade ice cream cake in my freezer...

Lemon Parmesan Asparagus
from Cinnamon, Spice & Everything Nice

1 bunch of asparagus, woody ends snapped off, peeled if desired
2 eggs
2 tbsp. milk
salt and pepper
1/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp. lemon zest

1. Preheat oven to 400 and grease a baking sheet.
2. In a shallow dish mix together the egg, milk, salt and pepper.
3. In a separate shallow dish, mix together the bread crumbs, cheese and lemon zest.
4. Working a few at a time, dip the asparagus stalks in the egg, then roll in the bread crumbs to coat. Place on the baking sheet.
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until they come out fork tender.

Chicken, Bacon, and Ranch Crescents

For anyone who follows my blog, you know that I love making food with crescent rolls. It's just such an easy ingredient to use and any recipe that uses it is just as easy. Dan and I just spent 4th of July weekend camping with friends at my family's hunting camp, so coming home and having to cook just seemed so tiring. I had written the ingredients really quick on a piece of paper weeks ago on a shopping list that I found on my coffee table yesterday. I don't remember the original source, but I just improvised with what I had. My list looked like this...

Chix. tenders
Ranch
Colby slices
Bacon
Crescent dough, cut into 4 squares

That's it. So I went off to the store with the rest of my list. I remembered that I had 2 extra cans of the seamless crescent roll dough in my fridge, so I grabbed one, just in case I wanted to make extra. Turns out, I did not remember using those cans 2 weeks ago for my Sloppy Joe Bake. Pregnancy brain strikes again. Luckily, Dan grabbed some for me. I also completely forgot to get the sliced Colby jack cheese. I also forgot we brought our bacon camping and used it.

Aye aye aye.

So, I improvised even more. Luckily I keep a pretty ridiculous stock of shredded cheese in the fridge. Seriously, as of Sunday I had a bag of shredded Swiss, 2 bags of shredded cheddar, a bag of shredded mozzarella and a bag of shredded pizza blend. Cheddar it was for these. I also had a bag of bacon bits in the cupboard, so all was well. Real slices of bacon would have been better, but oh well. And what did I serve as a side? Kraft mac & cheese. Not my healthiest pregnancy meal, but the baby can use a few extra calories, right???

Chicken, Bacon, and Ranch Crescents
makes 8

2 cans seamless crescent dough
8 frozen pre-cooked chicken tenders
Ranch dressing
8 slices of bacon or bacon bits
8 slices of Colby jack cheese or shredded cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with some foil for easy clean up.
2. Roll out your dough and cut into 4 rectangles.
3. Spread some ranch on each square. Place a slice of cheese on top, of sprinkle with shredded cheese. Top with a slice of bacon cut in half to make 2 pieces or some bacon bits.
4. Place a chicken tender on that and roll up the long way, making a seal with the edges.
5. Place seam side down on the baking sheet and repeat with remaining pieces.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until chicken is heated through. I baked mine for 20, then covered them with foil for the last 5 minutes to stop them from browning more. The dough will cook faster than the chicken.

Dan absolutely loved these, and they were so easy! My chicken tenders were rather large. If you use smaller ones, you could cut your dough into 6 pieces and make more. They would be great as party appetizers!