I'm baaaaaack!

I needed to spend some more time with BFF. It was great to spend a lot of time with her, even if our kids were acting like crazed wildebeests most of the time. When someone suffers a great and sudden loss there isn't much you can do except be there and I was honored and pleased to be there for my friend and her family. Shout-out to my other BFF KC who spent the whole week with our mutual BFF in between my two weekend visits.

Menu for the Week:

Meatless Monday -- Asparagus and white bean puree soup
Tuesday-- Meatloaf cupcakes, pressure cooker garlic mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli
Wacky Wednesday -- White bean and asparagus lasagna
Thursday -- Baked chicken breasts in a orange demi-glaze, pineapple brown rice, sauteed bell peppers and onion
Fish Friday -- Got to put in an order with my fish guy (plus an interview with the Fish Guy coming soon!)

Got home late on Monday night and the Hubby had made an AMAZING white bean and asparagus soup that he found on the blog Lisa's Kitchen. It was super tasty and just the thing you wanted after a 5 hour car trip, light but hearty, filling but not heavy. My husband actually kind of hates asparagus but has recently come around on accepting them when they are mixed in with other things. It was great to see him buy and prepare the asparagus on his own. Moms of fussy eaters take note, sometimes they DO come around, even if it is 37 years later. You laid the ground work, their spouses will thank you.

Tonight's dinner was supposed to be a super fast meal due to softball practice, but softball practice was cancelled. But here is a really fast way to make meatloaf nonetheless. Mix up 1 pound of ground meat (your choice of turkey, beef, chicken, pork or any combo you like) with half a cup of oatmeal, chopped fresh tomato, chopped half of bell pepper (any color), chopped half an onion, 1 grated zucchini, 1 egg, 2 tsp of House Blend, and enough of any ketchup, BBQ sauce, A-1 sauce, worcestershire sauce you like (your choice) to get ingredients nice and flavorful. Mix well in a mixing bowl and then take individual 1/4 C scoops of the meat mixture and place them in a lightly greased muffin tin. This makes 1 dozen mini-meatloaves. REALLY pack the mixture into the measuring cup, leaving no air pockets, so that meat stays together when serving. Cook at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until cooked through.

Meanwhile, chop and steam broccoli in the microwave by placing florets in a glass bowl, adding 1 TB of butter, 2 TB of water, and some salt to the florets and steaming until softened but still bright green. I usually cook them for about 3-5 minutes depending on amount of broccoli.

I made the garlic mashed potatoes in my Cuisinart brand pressure cooker by slicing Yukon Gold potatoes into slices, plus peeling 6 cloves of garlic, adding 2 C of chicken broth (I had an open container of broth that needed using up) and 1 TB of salt and 1 tsp of white vinegar (to keep color bright). I cooked the potatoes and garlic on high pressure for 7 minutes and then immediately released the pressure. I drained the potatoes and added them to a pan on the stove with milk, half and half and butter and mashed them. I added salt, pepper and Italian spices to taste.

This is a really fast meal, if you have defrosted meat you can make everything in the time it takes the meatloaves to bake, so a true 30 minute meal! Everything tasted great too and the kids even had seconds on their broccoli.

Let Them Eat Cake!

So my kid has a long history of asking for crazy things for dinner when she makes good grades on her report card. One time she requested a cupcake frosted with macaroni and cheese with propellers on top. I made a meatloaf cupcake, with extra sticky mac and cheese and then crisply fried bacon propellors. Bacon propellors... it's what's for dinner. Today she requested a cake for dinner. So I decided to go with the meatloaf thing, as it had worked before. It is a sort of shepherd's pie actually, I baked a meatloaf in my 8" round cake pan, taking care to pack it firmly into the pan. What I did NOT do, but SHOULD have done was grease the pan! Whoops. It took about 40 minutes for my "cake" to bake, but pulling it out of the pan was a challenge. It stuck all around the edges and sort of fell apart. There might have been a mild swearing and spatula flinging break at this point, I can't quite remember. Anyhow I managed to peel some of the meatloaf out of the pan and plug it into the broken spots and then I frosted it all over with cheesy mashed potatoes. I added a cup (maybe a cup and half) of shredded cheese to the hot potatoes, a little bit of butter, but no milk to make it thick and sticky and spreadable. I sort of "spackled" the cake together. Then I scraped a carrot clean and made some carrot curl "rosettes" for the top. This wasn't the prettiest experiment I have ever made, but the Girl of Honor ate two helpings, so I am sure it was all fine.

I also made a box mix of chocolate cake for dessert. I baked it in two round 8 inch pans. I need to go make some vanilla buttercream frosting to finish it now that it is cool. Have a good weekend everyone!