Tag: meatloaf

Pineapple infused meatloaf and roasted vegetables

It’s all about keeping things simple right now and this recipe is just that simple, and delicious. Dinner is served!

I love love love pineapple, it’s fresh, and light and super versatile for using in sweet and savory dishes. It makes food fell island inspired and let’s face it we would all love to be on a refreshing island get away right about now! Tonight I combine it with a simple pork meatloaf and some rustic spicy roasted vegetables.

Here is what you need:

1lb ground pork unseasoned not sausage

1 slice of bread

1 bunch scallions sliced separate greens and whites

1 yellow bell pepper diced

2 small sweet potatoes peeled and diced

1 small chili pepper diced from the middle to the tip discard the stem end and seeds

1 small can of pineapple wedges in juice not syrup

3 tbsp hoisin sauce or teriyaki sauce

Olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425°F grease a large baking sheet with olive oil and set aside.

Place bread in a large bowl. Open pineapple, reserve 2 Tbsp of pineapple juice for sauce and drain the remaining juice over the bread. Set pineapple pieces aside.

Using your hands mash the bread into a paste and add scallion whites and ground pork. Blend together with your hands add salt and pepper. Form into 3-4 small “loaves” about 1in thick, they do not need to be perfect. Place on the greased baking sheet and wash your hands.

In a small bowl combine hoisin sauce and reserved pineapple juice mix well and baste over top of the meat loaves. Reserve enough for one more coating after initial baking time. Take pineapple pieces and place on baking sheet with the meatloaf.

In a large bowl combine diced sweet potatoes, bell pepper, half of green scallions and chili pepper coat with olive oil and pepper to taste and place in a small roasting pan.

Place veggies on the middle shelf and meatloaf on the top shelf of the oven and bake for 20 min. Remove veggies from the oven check for doneness of the potatoes. Remove meatloaf and apply a new coating of sauce, remove pineapple from pan and place back in the oven for another 10min make sure meat is cooked to correct temp. Top meatloaf with toasted pineapple pieces and remaining scallion greens. Serve hot with a side of roasted veggies! Enjoy!

And So It Begins!

​Amber and I started our Betty Crocker’s BFF challenge this past Saturday night and to kick it off we prepared roasted garlic, easy grilled vegetables, and a Betty Crocker Heirloom Recipe, Meatloaf. We saw this as a nice comfort food fit, and a great way to kick off our adventure with a few familiar recipes that we were pretty sure we couldn’t screw up.

Now, I had heard of roasting garlic and using it as a spread on french bread, but have never attempted it. Seem easy enough though, cut off the top of the garlic bulb apply two teaspoons of olive oil, salt and pepper. Wrap in foil and voila! garlic spread in 1 hour. Except that I cut, oiled, and wrapped the first two bulbs before I remembered the salt and pepper! Oops!

The easy grilled vegetables were just that too, very easy. Chopped in large pieces red bell pepper, green bell pepper, onion, and the recipe calls for “pattypan” squash…never heard of it… so, we substituted with zucchini. For the record though I did make an effort to find the pattypan squash, even googled what it looked like so I had some clue, but no luck at my local grocer. Once chopped add Italian dressing and refrigerated for about an hour to marinate. Which worked out perfectly as the meatloaf and the roasted garlic both required about an hour to cook.

pattypan squash

Amber prepared the meatloaf, and we learned that her chopping skills are pretty good, she speaks with an accent when she cooks lol, and when a recipe calls for you to tear the bread into “small pieces” that this is a very subjective description. We decided smaller was better.

As the meatloaf and roasted garlic were wrapping up in the oven we heated our grill, and got the veggies out of the fridge…

Now, I know what you’re thinking this should be the easiest step in the whole process right! Put the veggies in the grill basket and let them cook. But no… the recipe states to place the squash, and peppers in the basket first and then add the onion and reserved italian dressing after the other veggies have cooked for about ten minutes. Again not difficult or so you would think… the veggies were all mixed together, and so I had to pick them out with tongs and the italian dressing was making them slippery! I literally wrestled the peppers into the basket and finally off and grilling! Whew! Who knew that would be the challenge here.

Finally meal time and the family was starving. The boys (our husbands) liked the meatloaf and the garlic spread but decided to toast their french bread. All and all a great meal and reasonable caloric counts as well. A total meal for around 500 calories, very filling, and leftovers to boot!

 

Next weekend’s menu:

Tomato Basil Crostini

Chicken Piccata

Parmesan Rice and Peas with Bacon

and German Chocolate Cake (Yay Baking!)