Revisited

One of the drawbacks of having posted over 100 recipes is that I've shared with you most of the stuff I make on a regular basis. Last week I made nothing new. Not one thing. So I thought I would share what I made and maybe you will find a recipe you never read about before or one that you forgot about. I remembered to take new pictures of some of them.

Every two weeks I make my granola bars. They are healthy, delicious, and great treats in my kids' (and hubby's) lunch sacks. Sometimes the girls will even have a second one as an after school snack. I love that I know every ingredient that does into these bars.




One of my all-time favorite dinners is Lemon Chicken. I love it so much that we ate it all before I could take a picture. If you haven't tried it yet, give it a shot!

For dinner one night we had Meatloaf and Roasted Green Beans. Both sooooo good. Sometimes I like to change it up and use orange, yellow, or red peppers instead of green in the meatloaf. I didn't put any of it into muffin cups this time, though.



Friday night I made Whole Wheat Pizza. Except this time I used all white whole wheat and I think it's even better than my original recipe! We decorated the pizzas with pepperoni, red peppers, and lots of mozzarella. Bubba added banana peppers to his. The posted recipe makes four individual pizza crusts. Try it this weekend!

I also made my Healthier Banana Bread and Zucchini Muffins. Again I used all white whole wheat. I almost never use even the smallest amount of white flour anymore. The girls have state-wide standardized testing this week. Banana bread and zucchini muffins made with whole wheat, low fat, healthy ingredients are the perfect breakfast food to keep them full until lunch. Have you ever tried to take a test while your stomach is rumbling? It's so hard to concentrate! I load them up with bread and a glass of sugar-free Carnation Instant Breakfast for the protein.



March is strawberry season in Florida and last Saturday we made our annual trek to the Plant City Strawberry Festival.





From 11am to 5pm on Sunday Tink and I washed, hulled, sliced, and mashed three full flats of strawberries!



Yep, three of those. We made enough low-sugar jam to last until next year.




We also put away in the freezer a few containers of strawberries ready for shortcake. And we ate A LOT of strawberries. Tink was such a huge help!! But the best thing about making jam with her was the talking. She talked about school, politics, religion, boys *shudder*, her friends, you name it we talked about it. It was, in every sense of the word, awesome.

Of course for dessert that night we had to have Strawberry Shortcake with real whipped cream. No chemical whip will ever sully my shortcake! It was also awesome. :) (Oh, and I used all white whole wheat in the shortcakes.)



But first, for dinner Sunday we had Sunday Roast.

Give one of these recipes a try!

Enjoy!!

Fun With Meatloaf

Growing up I hated meatloaf. But you're supposed to as kid, right? Like on The Christmas Story when Randy says, "Meatloaf, smeatloaf, double-beatloaf. I hate meatloaf." Recently I stumbled on an amazing food blog Bake Me More and saw an idea for making meatloaf fun for kids. You'll need to make some mashed potatoes for the fun part of this idea. But first, the meatloaf recipe:
2 lbs lean ground beef
1 large green pepper
1 large onion
1 egg
1 cup oats (quick or old-fashioned)
3/4 cup ketchup

I use two pounds of meat so that we will have leftovers, but if you want to use one pound of meat just use smaller veggies, 1 egg, 1/2 cup each of ketchup and oats. Also, you can substitute the ketchup with tomato sauce or even tomato soup. I'm allergic to tomatoes. One touch and I look like I have a chemical burn. Thankfully, all of the acids (or whatever tries to kill me when I touch or eat them) has been cooked away in ketchup.

Mix all the ingredients, except the meat, in a large bowl.







Add the meat and mix thoroughly. I use disposable gloves and mix with my hands. Or let Tinker Bell do it. She loves mixing meatloaf! Sometimes I press the meat into an 8x8 pan, other times a loaf pan. Last night I lined a 6-cup muffin tin with aluminum cupcake liners and pressed a spoonful of meatloaf mixture into each one. I put the rest of the meatloaf into a loaf pan. I like to spread a little more ketchup on the top of the meatloaf. It gives it a nice crust and a prettier color than grey cooked meat.



After baking at 400 degrees for 60 minutes for the loaf and 30 minutes for the cupcakes, allow the meatloaf to sit for 10 minutes. If you use lean ground beef the moisture you see in the pan after baking won't contain much fat. I made the mistake once of draining the moisture immediately and the meatloaf was dry, dry, dry.


Now for the fun! Eyeball enough mashed potatoes to cover the 6 meatloaf "cupcakes" and put the potatoes into a small bowl. Add two drops of liquid food coloring, any color, and mix. Then frost your cupcakes! Bake Me More got creative and used a pastry bag and made the prettiest meatloaf cupcakes. I just spread the potatoes like frosting. Either way the kiddies will be tickled with their meal.






Even my picky eater ate her meatloaf!