Good grief almost a month has passed and I've not blogged - what’s up with that you ask - a lot but honestly nothing noteworthy. I have been cooking some wonderful new dishes - just not making it to the blogging part.
For my Minnesota readers, if you are not sick of the daily snow dump by now, you must be vacationing somewhere warm. I finally embraced yesterdays snow (about 4 inches) and went snowshoeing. I haven’t been in a while and I gotta say it was a great workout but my legs were tired afterward. We have a great little trail behind our house that leads to the park it was fun. And I was not the only person embracing the snow, kids and adults alike were sledding down the hill at the park and everyone was laughing and having a great time.
So to catch you up, we did no alcohol January as a reset. It seems the holidays are filled with parties and celebrations I needed a break form all of that and losing a couple pounds was a nice side benefit. We’re in the middle of a bathroom remodel - it’s a small one and it’s the basement bathroom so I don’t see the mess and the inconvenience isn’t like going through a 15 week kitchen remodel.
I am also taking a knitting class - it’s the second one and I am almost done with my mittens, which just so happen to match the hat I made in the first class! Dan says it's a good thing since you know winter is almost over - obviously he hasn't looked out the window lately - although I have it on good authority it will get up to 26 today so perhaps some of the white fluffies will melt.
Lately I’ve been trying to not buy more food than we will actually eat in a week - well fresh food that is - I always have staples in the pantry and the tomato sauce and apple pies we made last fall. My favorite dish lately was a chickpea “meatloaf” that I made at the last movie night. I’ve been shying away from making them because the last few I did make didn’t turn out - they were too mushy and I hate mushy. I got rave reviews from the moviegoers and there was enough left for one night of leftovers :-)
Ingredients -
For the meatloaf
3 1/3 cups cooked chickpeas
1 onion, diced
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 carrots, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups panko breadcrumbs
1/2 cup unflavored soy or almond milk
3 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp. soy sauce or tamari
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 egg
2 tbsp. tomato paste
1 tsp. liquid smoke
1/4 tsp ground pepper
For the glaze
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 tbsp. maple syrup
2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp. soy sauce or tamari
1 tsp. paprika
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375°. Lightly oil a 9 inch loaf pan and arrange a 2 strips of parchment paper width and length wise along the center, with just a bit hanging over the sides.
Working in batches if needed, place all meatloaf ingredients into food processor bowl and pulse until chickpeas are broken up and ingredients are well mixed, stopping to scrape down sides of bowl as needed. Do not overblend. If working in batches, transfer each batch to a large mixing bowl when complete and then mix by hand. This is critical if you over mix it - it will become mushy and there is nothing worse than mushy meatloaf - believe me I know.
Press mixture into prepared loaf pan and bake 30 minutes. While meatloaf bakes, stir glaze ingredients together in a small bowl. Remove loaf from oven after 30 minutes and spoon glaze overtop of loaf. Bake another 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool at least 10 minutes before cutting.
And just to prove we have been cooking I'll put photos of our Veggie Stir fry , Southwest Sweet Potatoes, and Veggie Taco Salad.
