MP Night #3: Comfort food, Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes

Wednesday was a dreary evening.  It was very dark, cloudy, and on the verge of raining....this however made it a perfect night for some warm comfort food! On the menu for Wednesday was meatloaf and mashed taters (I also had a wedge salad).  I hadn't picked out a recipe for meatloaf so I got some ideas from my co-worker Sherry (who is a wonderful cook) and the kind of just threw some other stuff in and voila! a meatloaf was made!  Spencer gave high praises and I enjoyed it myself!  I am going to have to work on my photography skills in posting the meal pics, they don't look nearly as good as they taste!  Recipes below picture.....

Meatloaf

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of ground beef (I used 85/15)
• 2/3 cup of bread crumbs
• 1 egg (whisked before adding)
• couple splashes of milk
• 1 small onion (finely chopped)
• 1 tbs of Worcestershire sauce (I eyeballed it)
• 1 tbs mustard (Eyeballed it)
• Salt, pepper, garlic salt (just added some dashes of these, whatever your preference)
• SAUCE: For tonight I only used ketchup, but a mustard, ketchup, brown sugar mix would be yummy as well! 

Combine all these together in a bowl with your hands (it's much easier than a utensil), form into a loaf and place in a loaf pan.  Bake on 350 for 1 hour (After 30 min take out and add on sauce)

Mashed Taters

Ingredients:

• 2 potatoes (This was the perfect amount for just Spencer and I, add more if you want to serve more than 2)
• Milk
• Garlic Salt
• Butter
• Salt & Pepper

Wash and peel potatoes, quarter, then boil (with lid) potatoes for 45 minutes in salted water.  Drain and add milk, butter, and seasonings.  Now the amount of these depends on personal preference.  For example, milk makes it creamy, but the more you add the less thick the potatoes.  I usually do about 1/4 cup milk and 2-3 tbs of butter.  Add sparingly, you can ALWAYS add more if you'd like but you can never take away!  Once everything is added you can mash with a masher or use a hand-held mixer (if I'm making a lot then I use my hand-held).  For my sour cream lovers out there, sour cream would taste great in this! (I just don't use it because hubby hates it!)

I also made my yummy Ms Fields cookies and they were/are delicious!!! 

T

Meal Planning Night 2: Pasta alla Vodka

Yet another recipe from Pioneer Woman was in the works for Tuesday night.  Pasta alla Vodka is something that I've made, but looked yummy when I saw it on an episode of Pioneer Woman (yes I record them and watch them when I get home from work).  I mean who doesn't love marinara and heavy cream?!  And vodka of course, but since I can't currently drink it I can resort to cooking with it.  This meal turned out pretty decent, Spencer of course wished it would have had meat but loved it otherwise.  My only qualm was that there were too many onions! Onions lovers you would be fine with the recipe as it stand, but I just am not a fan.  Next time I would only use about half an onion and maybe use a grater to make the onion into a less bulky consistency.....

Spencer had a football game, so this was thrown together quickly after and served by itself! Some chicken in the mix would probably be yummy! Here's the recipe......

Ingredients

• 1 pound Pasta

• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

• 2 Tablespoons Butter

• 1 whole Medium Onion, Chopped Finely

• 2 cloves (to 3 Cloves) Garlic, Chopped

• 3/4 cups (to 1 Cup) Vodka

• 1 can (About 14 Oz.) Tomato Puree

• 1 cup Heavy Cream

• 1 pinch Red Pepper Flakes

• 1/4 teaspoon (to 1/2 Teaspoon) Salt

•  Freshly Ground Black Pepper, To Taste

• 1 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese

Preparation Instructions

Cook pasta according to package directions, being careful not to overcook.

In a large skillet over medium heat, add olive oil and butter. When butter is melted, add in chopped onion and garlic. Stir and allow to cook for two minutes. Pour in vodka. Stir and cook for three minutes. Add in tomato puree and stir.

Reduce heat to low and stir in cream. Allow to simmer, being careful not to overheat. Stir in red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.

Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of pasta water in case sauce is too thick. Add cooked pasta to the sauce, tossing to combine. Splash in a little water if it needs it. Stir in Parmesan cheese.

Pour mixture into large serving bowl. Garnish with more Parmesan cheese.

T

Meal Planning: Beginning with the Basics

I have decided that I want to start meal planning so that I'm able to (hopefully) only hit up the grocery store once or twice a month.  Sunday I sat down and planned out our dinner meals for the next 2 weeks and made a grocery list.  I only planned dinners because we typically have cereal/waffles/bagels for breakfast and sandwiches/leftovers for lunch, so there was no need for me to cook meals at those times (not that I would even have time to do that ha!).

Last night was Fried Round Steak from my favorite The Pioneer Woman...I had planned to do a potato dish as a side, but ended up just going with macaroni because I was in a time crunch...It turned out to be pretty tasty and most of all VERY simple! Although next time I think will use some cream of mushroom and milk to make a gravy, then simmer steaks for about 30 min in the gravy so they are nice and tender.

Recipe below (macaroni was from a box)

Ingredients

• 3 pounds Cube Steak (round Steak That's Been Extra Tenderized)
• 1 cup All-purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon Seasoned Salt
• 3 teaspoons Ground Black Pepper, Or To Taste
•  Salt, For Seasoning Meat
• 1/2 cup Canola Oil (more If Needed)
• 2 Tablespoons Butter

Preparation Instructions

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

Mix together flour, seasoned salt, and pepper.

Season both sides of steaks with salt and pepper. Dredge each piece in flour mixture, pressing to coat with as much flour as possible.

Add butter to pan right before frying.

When butter is melted, fry pieces of steak in butter/oil mixture. Flip when sides are deep golden brown and cook about 1 minute on the other side.

Remove to a paper towel-lined plate. Serve immediately

For tonight, Pasta alla Vodka....also from The Pioneer Woman (if you can't tell, I LOVE her!)

T

A Street Surprise!

It's been announced on FB but haven't updated the blog! The Street's will soon be a family of 3! Spencer and I our expecting Sawyer Ellen Street (It's a girl) on December 31, 2013!

Cool Running's: How My First Half Marathon Quickly Came and Went!

Lazy blogger as I am, of course it has taken me a couple months to write this post! But here goes....

As I stated in previous posts, I have been training for a half marathon.  As the week of April 27th closed in I was starting to get excited, a bit nervous, but mostly in awe of the fact that I had actually paid money to run 13.1 miles (Who does that right?).  I left work early Friday the 26th, ran by the house to pick up Spencer and then we headed to Nashville.  I had to pick up my packet by 7pm that night so I wanted to make sure I was able to do that! When we finally got to Nashville it was MUCH busier than I thought it would be, but with over 30,000 people signed up for this race I guess the high traffic makes sense!  We found a parking garage within walking distance of the Convention Center and paid $15 to park (We only parked for about an hour, Boo!) and headed in to pick up my gear.  After we got my bib and t-shirt we meandered around the expo checking out all the nifty running items and picking up some free swag!  The expo was great and I found out about a ton of cool running accessories! One of the products I really loved was called Huma Gel.  You runners know the importance of refueling during long runs and this stuff does the trick!  Most importantly it's ALL natural and it doesn't make you want to gag! You can check them out here http://www.humagel.com/ (Apple Cinnamon is delish!).  We tried to quickly be on our way since we still had to drive to my friend Mandi's condo where we were staying to meet up with Mandi and her husband Colby. Once we got there we all decided that we were quite hungry and need to find some grub quickly! Mandi knew exactly what I was thinking to pre-race fuel and suggested we go to Buca di Beppo's Italian Restaurant.  I had never been to one of these, but let me tell you I would definitely love to go back!  It's family style dishes so one order serves 2-3 people.  Mandi and I split spaghetti and meatballs while the boys both ordered their own dish!  After we had eaten probably more than we should we headed back to Mandi and Colby's where we chatted a bit before we said our goodnight's.

Race Day: Saturday April 27, 2013

4:30AM: Yes it was early, but I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to eat, dress, use the facilities if need be, and get to a shuttle by 6AM.  I knew it was supposed to rain a bit, but all of the weather reports I read said it would die down around 8:30-9AMish so I dressed in compression shorts with nike shorts over them and my St.Jude's race day tank.  I had a lightweight jacket as well that I had planned on taking off about half-way through the race.  I ate some peanut butter on a large half of a white bagel and drank some green tea to give me a bit of caffeine as well as some water.

Around 5AM I left Mandi's to head to LP Field to catch my shuttle to the start line (Spencer was still asleep and was getting a ride to the finish line).  I had Google mapped the drive and it took about 17 min to get from Mandi's to LP, so I was confident that I would have plenty of time.  At this point it was still misting outside as I approached my exit, which turned out to have a lot more traffic than I expected.  I ended up sitting in traffic for about 30-45 minutes, causing me to freak that I would miss the bus to the start line.  Thankfully I managed to park at LP and make it to a bus with plenty of time to spare.  I decided to keep my jacket on and forgo carrying my water belt, I knew there were quite a few water stations intermingled throughout the course so I just took one of the belt bottles and stuck it in my jacket.

When I arrived at the start line, it was PACKED! I knew that there was going to be a ton of people at this race (around 30,000 I believe!) but you don't really imagine all those people in one place until you see it.  That's when it began to rain....just a sprinkle at first, then transitioning to a steady drizzle.  Slow and Steady as I am, I was back in Corral 27, a long way from the start. So I didn't actually cross the start line until about an hour and 15 minutes had already passed.  At this point soaking wet....literally.....every piece of clothing shirt, shoes, socks, underwear was wet from the rain.  I had honestly contemplated calling Spencer to come pick me up and take me home, but penny pinching Millie had spent a decent amount of money come down here and by gosh that money was not going to go to waste!  BANG, the shot sounded for my corral and I was off.  A nice lady kept with me for the first couple of miles and we made some nice conversation, but then she had to stop and tie her shoe so I didn't see her again...Now I will just mention this once (even though it happened several times to me throughout the race)  but there was just some point where my eyes welled up and I could just not help crying like a big baby!  Not because I was mad or tired or anything like that, solely because I was just so inspired...Double amputees with their prostheses busting their butts to run this race.  Moms, Dads, Siblings, Children running with shirts announcing their loved with cancer that they were supporting.  To be a part of something that is so important to so many people...just left me in awe (Maybe this was the pregnancy hormones I didn't know I had that caused all the boo-hooing).

I had originally planned to write a much more detailed post then this, lol but the fact that I'm actually getting this one out is a miracle!  I finished in 2:47, not under the 2:30 that I wanted, but hey I finished my FIRST Half-Marathon!  I also found out a month later that I am pregnant, so I ran/finished a half marathon PREGNANT! Take that running!