Four Hour Meatloaf

Four hour meatloaf? Are you kidding? This must be some sort of joke.  Nope, this is not a joke. I made a delicious, moist and tasty meatloaf today in about 4 hours.  Your meatloaf doesn't need to take as long, but if you want it to have the same taste that mine did today, then you'll want to take these steps.  

My (give or take) four hour meatloaf started with caramelizing an onion over low and slow heat in a cast iron pan for about two hours.  Caramelizing the onion adds a lot of moisture to the loaf and caramelized onions just taste so darn good! I added a bit of honey, cayenne, two cloves of garlic and salt and pepper to my onions to develop that rich taste and finished with worcestershire sauce, apple cider vinegar, tomato paste, and chicken broth to the pan.  After my onions cooled for a bit, I mixed them with the meat, eggs and bread crumbs and allowed the mixture to rest in the refrigerator for an hour.  I'm not sure if this added to how delicious this loaf was, but that's what I did because I wasn't ready to cook it.  The last step I did was to baste the loaf in the oven every 30 minutes and then broiled it with a final layer of glaze for 3 minutes.  Are all of these overcomplicated steps necessary for a delicious meatloaf? Probably not, and of course you don't need to caramelize onions or let the meat rest, but that's just what I did and that's what produced an out-of-this world moist meatloaf.  Here's the breakdown!

Four Hour Meatloaf

Inspired by Ina Garten's Meatloaf and Abs Diet Sloppy Joes

Caramelized Onions

1 tbsp butter

1 onion diced

1 tbsp honey

Pinch of cayenne

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1/4 cup chicken broth

3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Melt the butter in a cast iron pan and add the onions and honey and cook over low heat for 30 minutes.  Add the salt and pepper and cayenne. Take off the heat and add the chicken broth, Worcestershire sauce and apple cider vinegar.  Let cool for a few moments.

Meat Mixture

2 lbs of ground beef

2 eggs beaten

1/2 cup bread crumbs

Salt and Pepper and cayenne to taste

Caramelized onion mixture

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and pop in the refrigerator for an hour

Glaze

1/2 cup Ketchup

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp mustard

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Meatloaf Assembly

Preheat oven to 350F

Cover a large baking sheet with parchment paper.  Put meat mixture on the baking sheet and form into a rectangular loaf.  Brush the loaf with the glaze and bake for 60-90 minutes.

Check the temperature after 60 minutes.  If your loaf is at 160F congratulations! It's finished. 

Let the loaf rest for about 15 minutes, slice it up and enjoy with mashed potatoes, mashed cannelini beans, or your carb of choice, and peas!

After a 15 minute rest

Sliced

Ready to enjoy with mashed beans and peas

Black Bean Protein Brownies

I ran out of my homemade protein chewy bars so I thought it would be time to make a new recipe and to experiment a little.  I decided that it might be time to be adventurous and try the infamous "black bean brownies". I needed to put my own spin on such an idea so I decided that I would have to add protein powder to the mix and so I did.  I happen to have gluten-free and vegan protein powder and so that is what I used in my brownies, but you could use whatever you have on hand.

Believe me, I was extremely skeptical in making this, but these do indeed taste like brownies and it's great to know you're getting lots of protein in these guys.  The protein powder gives them a distinct taste, but that's what protein powder does when baked.  If you don't like protein powder baked, then don't add it, but they are fudgy and rich, but without being heavy.  These are a great compromise for the buttery version!  They don't taste like coffee, but taste very chocolatey!

Black Bean-Protein Brownies
1 15oz can black beans
3 tbsp honey
6 dates
3 tbsp melted coconut oil
3 eggs
2 tbsp coffee
2 tsp espresso powder
1 scoop chocolate protein powder
3 tbsp flax seed
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 and grease an 8x8 inch pan.

Combine black beans, coffee, honey, dates, coconut oil, eggs in a blender and blend until everything is thoroughly incorporated.

Meanwhile, place the espresso powder, protein powder, cocoa powder and salt in a bowl and pour the liquid over that.  Stir to combine and add the chocolate chips.  You can add some extra on top to make the brownies look more decadent

Bake for 23 minutes and dig in!

Country Captain Chicken- My Way

I rediscovered a recent cookbook I purchased and have loved looking at the beautiful photographs.  I was inspired by the Country Captain recipe in the Well Fed Paleo cookbook and knew I needed to try this recipe, despite having never eaten this dish or seen it on a menu.  I took to google for additional inspiration and saw the Lee Bros recipe on the Food Network website. I had seen the dish on Throwdown with Bobby Flay and it looked good on the show, so I decided to mash up the Paleo and Lee Bros recipe and came up with this super tasty recipe!

My Country Captain Chicken recipe uses chicken breasts, lots of veggies and crushed San Marzano tomatoes.  This was flavorful and the extra veggies make it colorful.  I served mine with mashed cauliflower, but brown rice would also be good or cauliflower rice.  It doesn't taste like Indian cuisine, but it reminded me of jambalya in a way.  It takes some time to put together, but it's definitely worth it!

Country Captain Chicken- My Way
Inspired by Well Fed: Paleo Recipes for People who Love to Eat and Lee Bros. Country Captain Chicken (as seen on Bobby Flay's Throwdown

1/2 cup beef broth or chicken broth
1/4 cup raisins
3lbs Chicken Breasts
2 tbsp coconut oil
Salt and Pepper
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp ras el hanout spice blend
Dash of cayenne pepper
1 tbsp of tomato paste (optional)
1/2 onion, diced
4 carrots, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
1 cup bell pepper, diced
3 cloves of garlic
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes (San Marzano is what I used)
bacon as a garnish

Preheat oven to 350F 

Place the raisins in a bowl.   Put the broth in a small saucepan and bring to a boil and pour over the raisins.

Heat the coconut oil in a dutch oven over medium- high heat.  Sprinkle salt and pepper over the chicken breasts and place the chicken in the pan to sear on both sides, but do not crowd the pan.  Transfer the seared chicken to a 9x13 pan.

Add all of the vegetables to the pan with the remaining oil and cook for about 15 minutes or until softened.  Add the spices and tomato paste to the pan and cook together for about a minute.  Add the raisins and broth, the crushed tomatoes and allow to reduce for about 8 minutes.  Pour the mixture over the chicken.  Cover the pan in aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Turn the heat up to 400F and bake for another 10 minutes.  

Serve with mashed cauliflower or cauliflower rice and top with cooked bacon if desired.  Enjoy!