Meatloaf Muffins

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Its so gorgeous these days!
I have never noticed the effects of weather on my mood up until recently… I feel wonderful on beautiful days. Maybe I am just getting older. But for whatever its worth- I am in a great mood.
My allergies on the other hand are a mess. I am a sneezy sniffly puffy-eyed mess. And not even the expensive prescription allergy meds are providing much relief. I was the sneezy sniffly girl on the train today. I was the woman that people were tweeting about
“I swear if this chick blows her nose one more time…”
LOL
But it will all be over soon.
I went to visit momma the other day, and as always, when i leave moms house, i leave with groceries. Its going on 3 years that I have been living on my own and mom still shops like shes feeding an army. But why should i complain? She throws bags of kale, broccoli, and other random things that ROT in her fridge whenever i go there. Recently, she gave me some ground turkey and mushrooms.
I was thinking of using them separately but after much consideration I felt like meatloaf was in order. Meatloaf because i havent had meatloaf in a LONG time and the thought of chili in this weather is just not comforting (maybe in the winter). And the mushrooms? A mushroom sauce of course!
I preheated the oven to 350*. In the only mixing bowl in my house (its also my popcorn bowl), I combined the meat with an egg, a handful of italian breadcrumbs, 1 small chopped onion, onion powder, salt, pepper, and a little bit of garlic powder. I then folded all the ingredients together to get all the ingredients acquainted with one another.
Stealing this idea from heather, i decided to use my muffin tin to bake the meatloaf. Normally i would make it the traditional way but now that im trying to get swim suit ready (HA!) i thought i would go for portion control.

I sprayed each cooking spray to avoid stickage and baked for about 30 mins. Since the meatloaf is portioned into smaller servings it will cook faster. While the meatloaf was cooking (and making my apartment smell OH SO NICE) I got to the mushroom gravy. Mom gave me like a pound of mushrooms! Once i cleaned them up, i sliced them and sauteed them in a little bit of olive oil. I kept them over a low flame and as they cooked, i sprinkled them with salt which helped draw out the natural liquids. I sprinkled some flour and whisked it into the mushroom “juice” to create a roux and i seasoned it with onion and garlic. I kept tweaking it by adding a little more water here and a little more flour there till the consistency was right enough for it to simmer.

SIMMER ACTION! OOOOOH.

I also needed some Greens… the number of greens in my diet have been few. An asparagus is in season so i trimmed off the woody ends and steamed some asparagus. I sprinkled them with salt, pepper and a little parm cheese.

I split a meatloaf muffin in half and poured my mushroom sauce over it alongside my steamed veggies.

I thoroughly enjoyed the meatloaf… the problem with making the meatloaf muffins, there are cute little servings readily available. I hate to admit but i went back for another one shortly after i consumed the plate above.

But i blame my mom for all of that! After all, if she didnt throw the chopped meat and mushrooms my way NONE of this would have happened.

So thanks mom!
Only one more day left to enter the Mini Herb Garden Giveaway! Now all three of my specimens are starting to sprout! If this City Girl can make this happen so can you! Enter here!

Clean out the Pantry Day!

“I must Not Waste Food!”
“I must Not Waste Food!”
“I must Not Waste Food!”
I am sure with these stupid economic times we all are making an effort to NOT be wasteful, right? I hate throwing away food, So when i start to see the white shelves in myfridge, I know its time to reorder some groceries and use up some of the old.
Kale. I bought a HUGE bunch of kale to make green monsters. But I came to realize after the first day of a real green monster that I don’t care for bits of kale in my breakfast. So there went that. But on one particular day I really wanted something salty, like fries and crispy like chips. So I decided on kale chips! Rinse your kale really well and cut up into big chunks being sure to remove the spines (they turn to twigs in the roasting process). Preheat oven to 425*.

I also had some “meatloaf” meat from the butcher. Its a mix of ground beef, pork and veal. I figured since I was making Kale chips, I could make some burgers too. But my pantry was also looking kind of bare so I threw in some Montreal Steak Seasoning and Country Bobs sauce. I figured I could be experimental since I was trying to use up the last of the meat. I also ran out of bread so these burgers were going to be big suckas!

Mixed it all up and then noticed something in my fridge that might be nearing is death.

Cheese. When Henry’s fam went to ecuador some weeks back, they came back with some cheese. I dont know what its called… but it stinks and tastes really good. If I learned anything from Andrew Zimmern its that you shouldn’t smell your food first if you are easily influenced by smells. On smells alone this cheese would have went right to the trash. But I love cheese- stinky ones and all! This is considered a fresh cheese. Its a cross between fresh mozzarella and cream cheese. It has a great flavor thats pungent and creamy and I thought would make a great contrast with my tangy burgers.

grabbed a patty.

Put some stinky cheese on it.

then put the other half of the burger on top. MMM. Cheese pockets! I didn’t feel guilty since I was omitting the bread. this sort of became a low carb dinner.

I grilled these babies on a screamin hot grill pan. And whle these were cooking, I threw in the kale. I let the kale roast for 10 minutes. i checked on them and wanted them a lil more crisp. I like mine a little burnt. 🙂 Must be the puerto rican in me.

Look whats ready!!! When the burgers cooked up the cheese oozed out. The stinky cheese tastes FANTASTIC when its melted. I think I will be trying this cheese in a soup!

Naturally, everything was ready at different times and because I was so friggin hungry, I ate the kale chips first. SO YUM! If you can get over the green part you really wouldnt know this was a roasted green! If you are a chip addict i dare you to try these! they make great low cal, low carb and fat free substitute for french fries and chips… a bit of a warning tho- these should only be eaten fresh- they dont hold over well testure-wise over night.

I scooped up all the melted cheese in the pan and put it on top of the burger. It was juicy and I was impressed with the seasoning. I usually add so much stuff but since i was out of damn near everything I improvised and it came out great. I love the contrast with the cheese and beef. And i enjoyed the 2nd burger even more the following day!