Meat Loaf Florentine
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Cooking time: 20 minutes prep, then 60 in the oven |
Meat loaf can be as simple or complex as we choose to make it. It can be made with beef, turkey, pork, sausage, chicken, or any combination thereof. It can have no vegetables, a bit of raw onion or lots of vegetables like this one. You can make one big one or 4 small, mini loaves. You can use oatmeal, cracker crumbs or bread crumbs. You can top it or not, add cheese or not..
All we need to finish the dinner is some baked potatoes - and you have an hour free!
Meat Loaf Florentine Time: 80 minutes
While this meat loaf is chock-a-block with vegetables it still retains the 'proper' meat loaf taste and texture. We'll eat it for 2 meals - and there may be enough for a couple great sandwiches as well. I actually used about 19oz (600gr) in this because I had some bits in the freezer to use up.
1 lb (500 gr) ground beef (mince) or beef and sausage mixed or turkey
1 medium onion, about 1/2 cup finely chopped
2 - 4oz (100gr) mushrooms about 3/4 cup finely chopped if you have mushrooms left, save for Monday
1 carrot, about 1/3 cup finely chopped
1 - 2 stalk (rib) celery, about 1/3 cup finely chopped
2 cloves garlic
8 oz frozen spinach
1 tbs olive oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup red wine or beef stock
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried basil
2 tsp parsley
1 can tomato sauce, 8 oz (jar 225ml)
Finely chop onion, carrot, celery, mushrooms and mince garlic. Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrot, celery, and garlic and sauté until they start to get tender, onion will be transparent, about 8 minutes. Add mushrooms and frozen spinach. The heat from the skillet will thaw it. Cook spinach and vegetables, stirring frequently until spinach is just thawed and mixture is well combined. There should be no visible liquid from the spinach. Remove and spread the vegetables on a plate to cool slightly. In large bowl lightly beat eggs. Add crumbs, wine, ketchup and herbs and mix well. Add meat and mix. Add about a third of the vegetables and mix (because the veg are hot we are adding them slowly). Add another third, mix. Add remaining vegetables, mix well - at this point it's best to use your hand, kneading it like bread dough. Put into a baking pan large enough to hold it easily and shape into a loaf. Cover and bake at 400F (200C) for 45 minutes. Remove and pour tomato sauce over the top. Bake, uncovered, 15 minutes longer or until done. Remove, let rest 5 - 10 minutes. Cut in half. Put half on a platter, slice and serve.
Baked Sweet Potatoes/Yams Time: 60 minutes
These will, obviously, cook much faster in the microwave and I have seen in the U.S. that you can buy them micro-wave ready ....whatever that means. And I think that they are yams, but we've always called them sweet potatoes ...whatever, they are incredibly good for us, and delicious!
2 sweet potatoes/yams
Butter, salt & pepper
Scrub potatoes. With a sharp knife cut a shallow slit down the length of each potato. Place on foil in the oven with slit side up. The foil is necessary unless you want to clean your oven - as the potatoes get close to being done the sugars start to ooze out - the slit stops them from bursting. Bake at 400F (200C) for 60 minutes or until done - tender when pierced with a knife. Serve with lots of butter, salt and pepper - eating the skins or not, as you choose.
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Cooking Schedule:
20 minutes prep then 60 in the oven |
Scrub the potatoes, make cuts |
Cooking for Two? Or more?
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