Smoked Meatloaf And Mashed Cauliflower...

It's been a while since my last post. My apologies...

Meatloaf is one of my wife's favorite meals. She it requested for her birthday recently, being a great husband how could I say no? We have been watching our carb intake in an effort to get a little healthier and more creative in our meals; so instead of making some kind of potato dish, I decided to do some mashed cauliflower. The meatloaf was cooked on my Big Green Egg, set up for indirect, and cooked at about 400 with some hickory chunks until the internal temp was 160.

I am always looking for new ways to try making old staples; and meatloaf is no exception. I did a little searching on Google and found several mentions of using a mixture of saltine crackers and milk to the meatloaf to keep it moist. There where also tips on the how finely ground the meat was before being mixed. Sauteing the veggies until they are tender before using them in the mix was also something I hadn't done before. Well, here we go...

Ingredient List

For the meatloaf...

• 3lbs of 80/20 ground beef
• 2 medium onions diced small
• 1 large green pepper diced small
• 4 slices of bacon
• 2 cups of crackers (didn't have saltines, so I used some Cheese Nips)
• 1/2 cup of milk
• About a 1/3 of cup of seasoned bread crumbs

For the mashed cauliflower...

• 1 head of cauliflower cut into florets
• Butter
• Milk
• Salt & Pepper
• Garlic ( to taste, it doesn't  take much) 

Now for the pictures...
Saute the bacon for a few minutes; once it renders a little fat into the pan, add the peppers and onion. Cook on medium heat until they are tender. Add a little salt & pepper.

 While the veggies where on the stove top, I began to prep the rest of the meatloaf. Here is my crackers and milk mixture. In hindsight; I think I would continue to use these instead of saltine crackers. The cheese crackers added some really good flavor to the meat.

 Once the cheese nips and milk were blended well in the food processor; I began adding the ground beef to the mix of crackers in the processor. The meat was originally a courser grind, and as I was going for better texture, I decided to blend the meat in the processor with the cracker mixture.

 Then it was time to add the rest of the ingredients. Once I had it all mixed up; I placed the mixture in an aluminum loaf pan and set it in the fridge for a few hours.

 When the egg was up to temp; I took the loaf pan and turned it upside down in a baking dish so that when cooking the meatloaf, it could get more of crust over more of the meatloaf. I have it a quick coating of Dizzy Pig's Dizzy Dust as well...

Once the meatloaf was on it's way, I started to make the side dish. I simply cut the cauliflower up and cooked it until tender in the microwave. Then into the food processor with some milk, salt, pepper, melted butter, and garlic. Process just like if you were making potatoes...

 

Once the meatloaf reached an internal temperature of 160, I pulled it off the egg and set it aside to rest.

 

Here is the finished meal...

My wife loved the meatloaf; saying the taste with the addition of the cheese crackers out it over the top. My family also like the texture of the meat, saying it was unlike any meatloaf they'd had before. The cauliflower was a big hit...

I will have to continue practicing making meatloaf, while this tasted very good, it didn't stay together as much as I wold have liked.

Please let me know if you try a meatloaf of your own; what worked and what didn't...

Enjoy,

Ed

Another Good Weeknight Meal... Pork

Like my last post; this one is another meal that's possible to get to the table without too much fuss and will leave leftovers for lunches.
 Pork tenderloins are are great source of protein and are low in fat (if you're worried about that sort of thing)... The veggies in this dish are pretty straight forward as well.
  The tenderloins are usually packed in packs of 2; so I would recommend cooking them both. Again, I did these direct on my egg; you can use the grill or method that works best for you. Just a side note; the more I cook outside, the less there is to clean up inside which can make dinner (at least the prep and clean up part) go much faster and leave more time for the important part which is sitting down with your family.
The veggies this time were cauliflower and eggplant. I grilled both on the egg. Cauliflower was a yes, the eggplant? Not so much. Never been a big fan of eggplant, and this cook didn't help. I am going to have to keep trying to find a way to prepare it that will work for me...

 The tenderloins are pretty easy to make. As you can see; when I grill tenderloins, I double back and tie the thin end so it is about the same thickness as the rest of the loin. This allows the entire length to cook more evenly so you don't wind up with the overcooked and burnt thin end. Cooked over direct coals, the dome temperature on my eggs was around 350 with the grid at normal level.

 Here they are on the fire... seasoned them simply with some Wegmans Basting Oil, sea salt, pepper, and garlic salt.

 The cauliflower was tossed with some basting oil as well and dusted with some Dizzy Pig Dizzy Dust BBQ rub. I cooked them on the egg in a grill basket once the pork was done. Cooked them until they were fork tender and had a slight char on them. Tossed them in a bowl with some shredded cheese.

And here is the plated meal... was very good (except for the eggplant).

Success on the pork and cauliflower... Fail on the eggplant. But that's what this blog is about; what works and sometimes what doesn't.

Enjoy!

Ed

Good Weeknight Meal...

Like most people; my wife and I can be pressed for time at the end of the day to get something healthy on the table for dinner. Luckily for us; our daughter Elise is pretty adventuresome when it comes to food for a 9 year old, so we can try more things for dinner without having to always have a plate of chicken nuggets nearby (not that's there anything wrong with that)...

This is just a classic meal of chicken, veggies, and potatoes with a paleo twist... The potatoes are actually cauliflower!

This meal is easy and quick to prepare...

The organic chicken breasts can be cooked any way you normally do your chicken. My preferred and recommended method of course is to do them on your Egg or whatever grill you happen to have. Cooking over fire is always better than cooking inside. Another thing I recommend is buying the chicken in bulk and then cooking the entire batch. For me in this case it was 10 breasts. Left over breasts can be sliced up for salad and used in other recipes in the following nights to take care of the protein component of your meals.

The veggies are even easier...

First the strings beans. I used a bag of organic string beans and simply steamed them right in the bag using the microwave. When they were done, tossed them in a bowl with some garlic infused olive oil and some sea salt.

The cauliflower was pretty easy too and turned out to be the star on this plate. I used two heads of organic cauliflower, stemmed and cut up into little chunks, removing any of the tougher stem parts. Cooked them in microwave until tender and then turned them into "potatoes". Used my blender and pureed the cauliflower, adding melted butter, sea salt,  fresh ground pepper, and a little garlic salt. Blended them until everything was smooth and about the same consistency as normal mashed potatoes. They turned out great.

If you want to make this healthy meal even quicker, use chicken from an early cook and just reheat along with the fresh veggies...

Here is the plated meal...

Enjoy!

Ed