2007 June » LizaWasHere

Healthified Meatloaf

Jun 302007

Warning: Spoiler ahead!

We are so happy that Top Chef is back on TV, and this week, the episode was one of our favorite challenges: update and healthify a classic comfort food.

I love comfort food. Well, duh, right? Why else would they call it comfort food if average Americans didn’t love it?

Unfortunately for South African (apparently partially raised in exile in Connecticut) contestant Micah, whom we liked but expected to be eliminated soon, she got to update meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

Personally, I thought that would be an EASY assignment, not the one that would get the contestant sent home. In fact, I had an updated and healthier meatloaf baking in the oven while we watched the show. AND since my meatloaf turned out Elks Lodge delicious, plus was full of ingredients that Tom and Padma would have approved, I’m going to share the recipe with you.

In the interests of full disclosure, I have never made the same meatloaf twice. Meatloaf was one of the first dishes I learned to cook, and I’m all about the “Hmm, that might be good in it” style of cooking. So don’t fuss about the exact ingredients if you try this at home.

Ingredients

1 lb ground turkey (ideally the 7% fat kind; if they don’t label it in your area, then the regular kind. NOT the ground turkey breast/ 1-3% fat kind)
1/2 lb chicken sausage, loose (not link)
1 cup leftover whole grain pilaf (details below)
2 eggs
1/4 cup “quick” oats
1 tsp seasoned salt
1.5 tsp “herbs de provence” (or other seasonings you like)
handful of breadcrumbs if needed

Pilaf Digression

Last week, I made a vat (well, cooked, not quite 3 cups) of mixed whole grain pilaf, which didn’t work quite as well as I’d hoped as a pilaf, but was PERFECT as the filler for the meatloaf.

Pilaf ingredients

All of these could safely be halved.

1/2 cup quinoa
1/4 cup amaranth
1/4 cup barley
1/2 cup brown rice
1 large vidalia onion
1 cup mushrooms
2.5 cups chicken broth

Saute the chopped onion and sliced mushrooms until the onion is translucent.

Dump all the dry grains in a pot, stir them up a little, add the onions and mushrooms, then the chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then cover and turn the heat to low for 45 minutes.

Of course you could cook it in mushroom broth or water and make it vegetarian, but since we’re adding it to the meatloaf, what’s the point?

WHEN I DO THIS AGAIN, I’ll probably skip the amaranth. I think that’s what gave this too cereally a texture for pilaf. But it was perfect for meatloaf.

Meatloaf Cooking

Dump everything together in a large bowl and mix it thoroughly with your hands. Yes, it feels gross, but the results are worth it. You may want to start with just 1 egg and see if you actually need the second one for texture.

If you are one of those people who likes your meatloaf ketchup infused (that’s not the way I roll), add as much as you want, and definitely start with just the one egg. You may need to increase the amount of oats and/or breadcrumbs.

The trick to meatloaf is getting the texture right. If it’s too runny/sticky/gloppy in the bowl, you’re going to get more of a giant meat patty than a loaf. Too dry and it’s going to get you sent home, just like Micah.

Incidentally, that’s why I recommend the “regular fat” turkey and the whole egg, not just the white. Meatloaf needs some fat to cook properly.

What you want is something that holds its shape, but is kinda sticky/gloppy when you’re done mixing. The easiest way to correct too wet is by adding breadcrumbs. I needed 1 generous handful.

You know what would probably also be good in this recipe? Parmesean cheese! My next meatloaf I’ll try adding 1/4 or 1/3 cup of grated parmesean. Or you try it and tell me if it tastes as good as it sounds. (Yes, that’s cheese, that’s fat, whatever. This is healthier meatloaf; I am about balance, not strict food rules.)

Anyway, once you have a meatloaf that is sticky but holds its shape, put it in the middle of a roasting pan and bake it in the oven at 350 for 45 minutes.

For reheating, I like to slice and heat in a dry pan, like hamburgers, more than in the microwave, but that’s just me.

Nail. Coffin. Bye-bye Brown v Board of Ed.

Current Affairs, Opinion 1 Response »

Jun 282007

My earliest memory of lobbying was during the summer before 4th grade.

(I didn’t know that’s what it was called until I was probably 23. I had no idea you could make a career out of telling people your opinion and what you thought they should do.)

My parents took me with them to Congressman Les Aspin’s annual picnic, and during the drive down, discussed their disappointment in a recent vote he’d made, against funding school busing for the purposes of desegregation.

After the swimming, but before the hot dogs, they introduced me to Congressman Aspin, and I told him in no uncertain terms that I took the bus to school and I liked it and I thought the government should pay for it.

I didn’t know, or say anything about desegregation, but in retrospect, there is no doubt in my mind that he knew my parents kept me in the Milwaukee Public Schools. This whole conversation took place after the first year of court-ordered desgregation there.

Milwaukee did some wonderful educational experiments as a result of having to desegregate schools — I’ve talked before about my high school experience. Instead of just shipping kids from neighborhood A to neighborhood B, they created a series of magnet schools all over the city, and drew in kids from throughout the city.

I went from walking 8 or 9 blocks (and being bullied) to spending 40 minutes reading on the bus — a huge improvement in my opinion. It was only later that I realized what a risk and commitment my parents took — they’d moved to the best neighborhood school district in the city in time for me to start kindergarten, and moved me out of that school when the call for desgregation came. When I was beginning 3rd grade.

My new school didn’t follow traditional grades, but regularly tested students and put kids with similar abilities in small groups to study — so I had reading upstairs with the 5th graders, math with different groups between 3rd and 4th grade over the year, and science with other 3rd graders.

A few years later, my sister went to a different magnet school where all of her classes were taught in German — until 3rd grade when testing pressures caused them to add in an hour of English grammar per day.

That’s why today’s news that the new Robert’s Supreme Court decision (pdf) that school districts mostly can’t use race to promote integration, unless they are repairing an explicit policy of racial discrimination, makes me so sad.

I admit, I have not yet waded through all 185 pages. I scanned the main decision, couldn’t even stand to read Thomas’ concurrence, read the very short Stevens dissent, and got about 15 pages through the Breyer dissent before I realized I want to finish this post and I have about 10 more minutes before I fall asleep no mater what.

So let me just say that Breyer is my new hero, but the very best, most succinct quotation from the entire matter is from the Stevens dissent (internal citations mostly deleted):

There is a cruel irony in THE CHIEF JUSTICE’s reliance on our decision in Brown v. Board of Education, 349 U. S. 294 (1955). The first sentence in the concluding paragraph of his opinion states: “Before Brown, schoolchildren were told where they could and could not go to school based on the color of their skin.” This sentence reminds me of Anatole France’s observation: “[T]he majestic equality of the law, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.”

Thank you, Justice Stevens. Well said.

The Second Cutest Baby?

Opinion, The Rest of the Fam 1 Response »

Jun 282007

I realize that some of you may think the rank order is different, but I’m afraid you’re wrong. THIS is the second cutest baby on the planet, also known as my nephew Max.

Recommendation

Opinion, The Real Live Boy No Responses »

Jun 272007

We have one of those stainless-steel bowl-style colanders, with handles and a base.

Noah loves it, of course: shiny, makes a nice clangy sound when you whack it with a wooden spoon, easy to pick up and fill with toys, attractive as a hat. What’s not to love?

Yesterday it finally occurred to me that it would be a great bath toy! Unlike a regular bowl, most of the water would drain out before it could be flung, plus lifting it out of the water and watching the water drain is interesting all by itself.

A hit, a very palpable hit.

Especially in a bubble bath, where it both contains and creates bubbles. And you can also wear it on your head, for a bubblicious hat. Noah found it entertaining for at least 10 minutes, probably closer to 15.

Strike 2

Opinion, The Real Live Boy 3 Responses »

Jun 262007

While Noah’s new day care earns big points for inclusiveness of GLBT families, they aren’t earning them quite so well on some of the basics.

Friday one of the little girls in Noah’s class was allowed to stay there sick. Her diaper was being changed when we arrived, and although I am not a doctor, her diaper rash looked a lot like the one Noah had when we had thrush.

On my way out, I raised my concern to the owner. She dismissively explained to me that the child in question was on antibiotics. Since Noah’s thrush came into being BECAUSE his course of antibiotics got the good flora and fauna of his system out of whack, this was not so reassuring.

Yesterday morning, his teachers told me that the owner interrogated them on Friday, wanting to know how I knew she had a rash. Um. It was visible to the naked eye. I walked into the room and a shrieking child was having her diaper changed — I glanced her direction and saw that her entire diaper area was covered with an bumpy red rash.

And breakfast yesterday was white toast.