The Best Meatloaf I've Ever Made

I made this for dinner tonight. I doubled the recipe because I had two sets of missionaries and another couple come over. We only had a little left for leftovers tomorrow. Everyone loved it and I really liked it too. This is probably the recipe for meatloaf that I' going to stick with for now on.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/4 cup minced onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 2 pounds extra-lean ground beef
• 3 slices bread, toasted and crumbled
• 7 buttery round crackers, crushed
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 3 1/2 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce, divided
• 1/4 cup milk
• 3 tablespoons ketchup

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat, and cook the onion and garlic 5 minutes, until onion is tender. Remove from heat, and season with salt and pepper.
3. In a large bowl, mix the onion and garlic, beef, crumbled bread, crushed crackers, egg, sour cream, Worcestershire sauce, and 1/2 can tomato sauce. Gradually stir in the milk 1 teaspoon at a time until mixture is moist, but not soggy. Transfer the mixture to a 5x9 inch loaf pan.
4. Bake uncovered in the preheated oven 40 minutes. Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C), and continue baking 15 minutes, to an internal temperature of 160 degrees F (70 degrees C).
5. In a small bowl, mix the remaining tomato sauce and ketchup. Pour over the top of the meatloaf, and continue baking 10 minutes.

New Cards

So I joined a card making group. There are 8 people in the group. What this group does is we make 8 cards and then meet together and just talk and swap cards. Here are the ones I made today in a mad rush because it's tomorrow and I hadn't even started until 1:00 today.


Mckenzie helped by painting.

Pumpkin Crunch

This is kinda like a pumpkin cobbler. After serving this no one will be unhappy, unless they are allergic to pumpkin or something.

1 C pumpkin puree (not the pumpkin pie filling w/ spices)
1 Yellow Cake Mix
1 Can evaporated milk
3 eggs
1/2 C sugar
4 t pumpkin pie spice
1/2 t salt
1 C chopped pecans
1 C melted butter

Mix pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and salt together. Pour in a greased 9 x 13 pan. Sprinkle all the yellow cake mix over the mixture, melt the butter and sprinkle over the mix. Then, spread pecans over that. Preheat the oven to 350 and bake for 50-60 min. It's makes the house smell soooooo good! Serve either hot or room temp. Great w/ vanilla ice cream or just whipped cream.

Also, I've only had this w/o the pecans. I'm sure it's good with them too.

Café Rio Sweet Pulled Pork

2 1/2 pounds pork
1/3 cup water
1/8 tsp garlic salt
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 cup green chili sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar

Put pork, 1/3 cup water, garlic salt, salt, and pepper, in the crock pot.

Cover and cook on high for 4 hours.

Drain, shred pork, stir in 1/2 cup green chili sauce and 1/2 cup brown sugar.

Café Rio Rice

3 c water
4 t chicken bouillon
4 t garlic –minced
½ bunch cilantro
1 can green chiles—or equivalent fresh
¾ t salt
1 T butter
½ onion
3 c rice (see note)

Blend cilantro, green chiles and onion together in food processor. Bring water to a boil and add all ingredients, simmer covered 30 minutes.

Cafe Rio Chicken

1 small bottle Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing
1 T chili powder
1 T cumin
3 cloves garlic—minced
5 lbs chicken breast

Cook all together in a crock pot for 4 hours, shred meat and cook 1 additional hour.

Cafe Rio Dressing

Café Rio Dressing
1 buttermilk ranch dressing packet (make as per recipe)
2 tomatillos (tomato like vegetable with a husk around them)
½ bunch of cilantro
1 clove garlic
Juice of 1 lime
1 jalapeño (Use the seeds too if you like it spicy. You could substitute a few drops of green tobasco for the jalapeno.)

Use a food processor to blend all the ingredients well. Refrigerate.

Super Soft Sugar Cookies

1 c butter
2 C sugar
2 eggs
1 C sour cream
1 t vanilla
1/2 t baking soda
4 t baking powder
pinch of salt
5 c flour

Cream together butter, sugar, eggs, sour cream and vanilla. Add remaining ingredients. Chill for 1 hour. Roll and cut into desired shapes. Bake 350 for 8-10 min. Do not over bake.

I made these today and they were quite good. I don't know who's recipe it was, but they were handing it out at Relief Society today. I added some craisens to some and chocolate chips to another.

Yummy scrambled eggs

I jsut made this up, but I liked it so much that I want to make it again.

2 eggs
1 egg white

scramble with 1 overflowing tablespoon of fat free ricotta cheese.

2 tablespoons of onion finely chopped

spray the pan with butter flavored pam and sautéed the onions till soft.

add egg mixture

add salt and pepper to taste

add 1 heaping tablespoon of feta cheese

and add small pieces of what ever cheese you have left over. I had muenster and Colby (the muenster makes it very stringy.

cook till done and enjoy

We have a new quilting interest group. We call ourselves the Piece Makers. Anyway, this was our first project. We all had to make 6 pink shoo-fly squares and 6 blue squares. So far, it's a lot of fun learning all the techniques. The blocks I did close ups on were mine.

Avocado Egg Salad Sandwich

This recipe is from Martha Stewart. It's quite good. I had it today on homemade toasted wheat bread.


* 10 hard-boiled egg whites
* 2 hard-boiled egg yolks
* 2 to 3 tablespoons light mayo (I used 2 T fat free yogurt and 1 T Light Mayo)
* 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
* 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
* 1/2 avocado, mashed, plus 1/2 avocado roughly chopped
* Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

How I put it together is as I was boiling the eggs I cut up the avocado, put the lemon juice over it. Then, added the other ingredients and added the eggs last.

Yummy Berry Trifle

This is a recipe from my friend Kim. She brought it over one night we had them over for dinner. Then, Ryan made it for a school get together (I would of made it, but I was very ill at the time) Anyway, it is excellent! I am making it tonight and just doing strawberry shortcake with it.

1 Yellow Cake Mix
1 Cup Sour Cream
1 Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix
1/2 Cup Oil
4 Eggs

Mix together and spread over a jelly roll. Bake at 300 for 30 min.

Filling

1 Can Sweet Condensed Milk
1/2 Cup Cold Water
1 Sm Box Instant Vanilla Pudding.

Mix together for 2 min and refrigerate till cake is done.

2 Cups of Heavy Cream Whipped till Still.

Fold heavy cream into filling mixture.

Any kind of fresh berry (Blueberry, Black Berry, Strawberry, Raspberry)

Once the cake is done cut up into 1 inch squares.

Layer Trifle

Cake
Filling
Berries

Do this till at the top you have berries.

Note: There are many ways to save on the calories. I use fat free sour cream, fat free pudding mix, 2 whole eggs and 2 egg whites, fat free sweet condensed milk....you see where I'm going with this. It makes up for the heavy cream. Although, I'm planning on trying this with the fat free whipped topping. I think it would taste just as good with that.

Waldorf Tuna Salad

INGREDIENTS

* 1/4 cup mayonnaise
* 1/4 cup of yogurt
* 1 tablespoon prepared Dijon-style mustard
* 1/4 teaspoon curry powder
* salt and pepper to taste
* 1 (6 ounce) can oil-packed tuna
* 1 shallot, finely chopped
* 1 Granny Smith apple, cored and diced
* 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
* 1/2 cup raisins
* 1 teaspoon sweet pickle relish
* 1 Tablespoon Lemon juice
* 4 large croissants
* 4 leaves lettuce
* 4 slices Swiss cheese

DIRECTIONS

In a medium bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, mustard, curry powder, salt and pepper. Add tuna, shallot, apple, walnuts, celery and pickle relish and toss until all ingredients are coated with dressing.

I served this with my homemade wheat bread. Very good!

The whole things comes to about 9 points. When I made this for me and Ryan and it made about 2 1/2 servings.

Bean Salad

I made this up because I need more fiber and it's only 1 point for weight watchers. Well, maybe two. Here is what I did.


1 Can Garbanzo Beans
1 Can Kidney Beans
1/2 Cup of Frozen Corn
1 Green Bell Pepper Diced
1 Cucumber Diced
1 Green Onion chopped
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
4 Tablespoons White Vinegar
Seasoned Salt and Pepper to taste
1 Tablespoon of Ranch powder

1/2 cup is one point

Cards

Sushi

We made avocado and cucumber rolls. spicy tuna rolls and, seasoned fish rolls. the seasoned fish was that fish they sell in a bag now over by the tuna. It was quite good and very healthy. Eventually we will buy some sushi plates.

Tater Tot Casserole (Revised)

O.K. This is not the best picture, but I made this tonight and Paula wanted some more recipes. By the way you can send me some recipes in the comments:) I Love New Recipes!!!

So, I kinda threw this all together and it actually taste pretty good (as you can see by the picture) Oh, and keep in mind that I only cook for 2 and a half people so you could double this recipe for the 9 x 13 or 8 x 11 pans.

brown 1/2 pound of Turkey Burger. Add a package of onion soup mix while browning.

In a separate bowl combine one can of cream of mushroom soup, about 3 cups of shredded frozen hash browns, a tablespoon of melted butter, 3 tablespoons of cream cheese, and a big spoonful of sour cream.

When the hamburger is done spread it on the bottom of a casserole dish. then, spoon the hash brown mixture over the top and then spread. For the topping I tried to mix some hash browns and melted butter in a bag and then spread them over the top. Hopping for a crunchy texture.

I baked this for 30 min at 350 degrees, then for the last 3 min I broiled it so the top would get crunchy. As you can see in the picture I needed to broil it for a little bit longer.

White Chocolate Popcorn

I don't even like white chocolate but this is so good.

All you do is melt a brick of white chocolate and pour it over fresh popped popcorn that has some butter flavored pam sprayed on it and some popcorn salt. Stir it up and let it dry on parchment paper.

It's awesome!

Crock Pot Burrito Meat

This I found in 101 things to do with your slow cooker. We had it tonight and it was quite good. I had it over tortilla chips and with cheese, lettuce, salsa, sour cream, and ranch dressing......so good.


1 lb of cooked and drained hamburger (I used Turkey Burger)
2 cans of refried beans
1 pkg of taco seasoning
1 sm can of tomato sauce (I just used some salsa)
1/2c water

Heat on low for 4-6 hours or high for 2 hours.