Meatloaf

I always loved when my mother made meatloaf when I was growing up, mostly likely because she covered the top in cheese. And I have always loved baked cheese. I think my mother wasn't a fan of traditional meatloaf, so she added several things to lighten it up. She would also sometimes hard boil eggs and place them in the middle of it. I, of course, am never this on top of things and always forget to boil the eggs. However, this week I had some extra turkey lying around (or taking up space in my freezer) and I thought it would be an easy meal to make. I haven't been cooking much lately. The baby penguin doesn't nap much during the day and by the end of a day of refereeing the two older ones and walking while patting the baby, I just don't have much energy or enough hands to cook. So meatloaf it was.



1 1/2 lb ground beef or ground turkey
1 egg
1 scant cup oatmeal
1 small can tomato sauce
1 tbl Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 c grated cheese

Beat egg in medium bowl. Add ground meat, oatmeal, Worcestershire sauce, spices, 1/2 c grated cheese and tomato sauce minus 2 tbl and combine. Place in loaf pan and top with reserved tomato sauce and cheese. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.


I loved it. My husband loved it. The older penguin took one look at it and said, "Nasty!" But don't take that opinion for too much; every thing I've made in the last three weeks has elicited that comment or "gross-y." It's amazing he's still alive with how little he eats at dinner.

Porcupine Meatballs

A million years ago my dad found out he had high colesteral and my mother started feeding us all a bunch of weird foods. The diet didn't last too long (I guess it wasn't working), but this recipe was one she found somewhere that we all actually liked and asked for again.


Meatballs
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 - 1 package Italian Good Seasons salad dressing mix
1 c cooked rice

Sauce
V8 juice
1/4 - 1/2 c chopped bell pepper
1 tsp garlic salt
pepper


Mix turkey, dressing mix and rice together and form into balls. Place on broiling pan and broil each side of meatballs for five minutes. Place balls into large frying pan. Mix enough sauce to half cover meatballs and simmer until warm. Spoon sauce over meatballs when serving.


You can also freeze these quite nicely after the meatballs have been broiled but not added to the sauce. Then you just need to thaw and make the sauce!

Gyoza

My husband lived in Japan for a lot of his life, so he and his family eat a lot of Japanese food (go figure on that one). My son asked for this the other day and I actually made it despite it taking forever to make. Well, it doesn't take forever, unless you have to keep refereeing or you make a million of them.


1 lb ground turkey or pork (I always use turkey, I've never found ground pork here)
7-9 leaves Chinese cabbage minced
3 green onions minced
1-2 cloves garlic minced
1/4 tsp grated ginger (you can use powdered also or leave it out entirely)
1 tbl soy sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp oil
50 gyoza wrapper
oil for frying


Mix ingredients in a bowl. Place spoonful of mixture into center of each wrapper. Seal by damping half of the wrapper edge, folding over and pressing down. Cook in batches in approximately 2 tbl hot oil until brown on both side. The pour small amount of water into pan, cover and cook until water has boiled off.

Use equal parts vinegar and soy sauce for dipping.


My son then decided that he only wanted to eat the wrappers and told me the filling wasn't so good. Sigh, at least it was a good try.