Margs for Mommy's Kid Friendly Meat Loaf Recipe |
I've just joined a wonderful online community called voiceBoks. It's a meeting place for moms doing the blog thing! All genres of blogging are represented in this invitation only group.
Last week while looking through the voiceBoks forum, one very funny mom caught my eye. Andrea from Margs for Mommy. Andreas blog is filled with humorous anecdotes from her everyday life of mommy-dom. Genius at drawing humor from life's particularly stressful moments, Andrea is a breath of fresh air!
I know you'll enjoy Andrea's humor as much as I do so stop by her blog for a visit and make sure to leave a comment letting her know you were there!
I have to be honest, when Rebecka asked me to guest post a story about a child friendly recipe my first response was, “you know I don’t cook right?” Literally just three weeks ago I made a tomato zucchini soup neither my husband nor my son would touch. It was that night that I declared I was retiring my apron. But Rebecka was smart with her request and threw in the phrase “I challenge you.” Well I’ve never been one to turn down a challenge, so back to my recipe stash I went!
Oddly enough for someone who hates to cook, I absolutely LOVE to find recipes I’d like to try. Try eating that is, not cooking. I have a shelf full of cookbooks and three foodie magazine subscriptions that I am constantly pulling ideas from to hand over to my husband. Luckily he actually enjoys cooking and is quite good at it. Which is a good thing, otherwise our children would be growing up solely on chicken nuggets and pizza.
So for my challenge I hit the latest issue of Cooking Light and pulled out a “kid-friendly” meat loaf recipe which you can find below. I got home from work early enough to get the onion cutting and cooking out of the way before my husband showed up with the kids. There is nothing more frustrating that trying to cut and cook with two kids crawling under your feet.
Upon their arrival I was moving on to the assembly of my ingredients in the mixing bowl. My 3-year old son Jackson immediately ran to get his stool so that he could help. I literally turned around from grabbing the ketchup just in time to find his daycare covered hands on their way into the bowl to “help.” One scream, scoop up, and hand wash later we were back in business!
I did the mold onto the baking pan and then let Jackson do the final ketchup topping. He had a ball making lines and circles and basically a big mess. Then off in the oven our little creation went!
Dinner was served with a side of applesauce and potato salad (store bought of course, I can only take a challenge so far). Upon his first bite of meatloaf Jackson exclaimed, “this is really yummy mommy.” Upon my husband’s first bite of meatloaf he exclaimed, “good job honey, this is great.” And upon my first bite of meatloaf I exclaimed, “how utterly boring.” But hey, it worked! And guess who is having leftovers tonight!
Ingredients
Cooking spray
½ cup chopped onion
6 tablespoons ketchup, divided
½ cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
¾ teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound ground sirloin
1 large egg white
Preheat oven to 350°
Method
Heat a small skillet over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion to pan; cook 6 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; cool slightly. Combine onion, 3 tablespoons ketchup, and remaining ingredients in a bowl, and gently stir just until combined.
Place meat mixture on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray; shape into an 8 x 4-inch loaf. Brush top of loaf with remaining 3 tablespoons ketchup. Bake at 350° for 35 minutes or until a thermometer registers 160°. Let stand 10 minutes; cut into 8 slices.
Andrea
Thanks for the feedback. I actually had fun with the "challenge." Although I think the apron will be staying on its hook for a while!
Rebecka
Biren, Thank you for the lovely awards!! SMOOCH!!
Biren @ Roti n Rice
Nice to meet you Andrea. You cracked me up 🙂 I think your meatloaf looks and sounds really tasty!Rebecka, I have somw awards waiting for you on my blog http://www.rotinrice.com/2011/10/beef-and-bean-stew-and-awards/. Have a lovely weekend!
Rebecka
Hi Amber, thanks for checking our Andreas feature today! It was funny that she picked meat loaf...I love it and my family wont touch the stuff!
Amber @JadeLouise Designs
Margs! You crack me up! I love reading your posts! You did great! Congrats on trying to cook one more time! I'm the same way, I have TONs of recipes I've collected; and would like to try...EAT not cook. lol. You did great!