Meatloaf, Smeatloaf, Double-Beatloaf

Why, hello there. I have returned! After a long absence that included laziness, lack of supplies, and sickness. All of those factors kept me from updating. But here I am again, and I hope it was worth the wait.
My sister told me to make something that I would eat, but I didn't. But she knows I rarely, if ever, listen to what she tells me. My wedding dress was one that my sister said was ugly, so I tried in just because and ended up loving it. There is a rather telling home video of me when I was tiny(age like 4 I think)that shows me out right disobeying her, and rubbing it in. But she also knows that I love her a lot. Now on with the show!
Lil' Cheddar Meatloaves
I do not like meatloaf at all. Even if they are tiny.



Ingredients:

1 egg, 3/4 cup of milk, 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, 1/2 cup quick cooking oats, 1/2 cup chopped onion, 1 tsp salt, 1 lb lean ground beef, 2/3 cup ketchup, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 1/2 tsp prepard mustard
Directions:

In a bowl beat egg and milk.

The whisk I am using is a new one I got from Pampered Chef that is really tiny, great for eggs! I hadn't used it yet(my husband is the one that makes eggs usually) and I wanted an excuse to use it. Even if it was a bit on the smaller side for this big bowl.

Action shot!(I love action shots)

Stir in cheese, oats, onion, and salt.

Add beef and mix well.


Shape into 8 loaves; place in a greased 9x13 inch baking dish.

I just guessed on the size, and it worked out well!

In another bowl, combine ketchup, brown sugar, and mustard; mix well.

Spoon over loaves.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Pretty gross looking, huh?

Still look gross.

Its over! These will work great for my husband's lunches because they are tiny! I also don't see how it couldn't be a good big meatloaf as well. My husband loved this recipe, and definatly wants it again. He said though, that next time to cut back on the brown sugar. So I mught just do like, a half of a half. Whatever that is.

Yes, I realize I am picky.

Hi! So this was a new recipe(blurg they are all new basically)from my Taste of Home Casseroles cookbook. And I cannot stand touching raw chicken! Its so gross! Slimy and cold, smelly and just plain gross. So by the time it was a finished product there was no way I was going to eat it. Also its smothered in cream of mushroom soup. This was my face for most of making this recipe:

But if you can stomach through making something with raw chicken, here is the recipe!
Stuffed Chicken Breast

Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves, salt and peppar to taste, 1 package (6 oz) chicken stuffing mix, 1/2 cup chopped pecans, 2 Tbs butter, 1 can (10 3/4 ox) condensed cream of mushroom soup

The main reason I made this recipe was the soup. As I was searching through the cookbook, I found this recipe and saw it called for the soup. Which I just so happened to have in my pantry! Don't you love stuff like that? And I knew I would never eat it just as soup, I needed to make this recipe. And I know what you are thinking, those nuts look like almonds, not pecans. I will get to that in a moment.

Directions:

Flatten chicken to 1/4 inch thickness, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Prepare stuffing mix according to package direction. For those that are curious, here are the directions.

I have never made any form of stuffing. I grew up with the handmade stuffing, that was cooked in the trukey at Thanksgiving time. My husband grew up with the box kind. Wanna know something funny? I don't like the homemade stuffing, I like the box kind. My husband loves my mom's homemade stuffing, and doesn't really like the box kind anymore. I don't know why, but that's the way it is. The homemade kind is to squishy or something. My dad would probably say the boxed kind actually tastes like a box. Oh well, to each thier own!


Should I have melted the butter first, before I added it to the water? I chose not too(duh)and I think it went all right.

Meanwhile, in a small skillet, saute pecans in butter wuntil lightly browned; add to stuffing.

Ok, so the pecans. In the store I had every intention of buying pecans. Until I saw the price. $8 dollars! For like half an ounce! No way! So we got a Mixed Nut container for like $2, that had pecans pictured on the front. I figured there wouldn't be half a cup of pecans, but something close. There were 3 pecans in the whole container. 3! My husband said he didn't really like pecans anyway.Thankfully we had almonds, he likes those so when they are on sale(still very expensive)we sometimes splurge on them.

This was my first attempt at sauting something. Ever! See how well it went? A few factors helped in the burnanation of these almonds. My gas stove, which I am still getting used to, gets so hot so fast! And Rufus, my cat. He was trying to get on the counter to get at the chicken, so I turned away from the skillet, scared Rufus out of the kitchen, turned back and boom! Burnt almonds. Good thing, I had extra almonds. And when I tried again, I watched them like a hawk.

See? Much better. I might have under cooked a tad, but I didn't want to risk burning.

Here is my mallet. It kinda sucks. But its all about the Jackson's in this house and a good mallet was way to expensive. So you get what you pay for. Its better than using my husbands rubber hammer, and plastic wrap over the chicken.

Place 1/2 cup stuffing( I didn't measure, use as much or as little as you want)down on the center of the chicken breast. Roll up and secure with a toothpick. Place seam side down in greased 1 quart baking dish. Spoon soup over chicken, and sprinkle with remaining stuffing. Cover and bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.

There you have it! The finshed product! My husband really liked this one. He said it tasted like Thanksgiving all rolled into one. Don't forget to remove the toothpicks! I of course passed on this one. I have nothing against chicken or stuffing. But everything against the other ingredients. Plus seeing the chicken raw before hand just turned me off to eating all night. Don't worry. I will be fine! I am sure there is some ramen in the pantry. ;)