Our Cookbook Blog

Our Cookbook ~ What We Cook, is a compilation of every recipe we (Janice and Carissa) cook - recipes from our cookbook collections, our recipe boxes, and our heads! We set up this blog for friends and family who have our cookbook to let them see pictures we post of the recipes in the book, and also for us to note any corrections, revisions, or additions to What We Cook. We encourage people who are cooking our recipes to let us know how the recipes turn out and any suggestions they might want to make.

In addition, we will be sharing some of our new recipes (along with pictures) that are not in our cookbook. We hope you will help us out and test recipes and give us your comments.

Monday, August 1, 2011

A New Spin on Spicy, Healthy Meatloaf (page 171)

I wanted to make this meatloaf for lunch the other day, but I was going to be gone all morning so I didn't know how that would work. I wished there was some way I could just put it in a slow-cooker and have it ready to eat when I got home. So I googled the idea, and turns out that slow-cooker meatloaf is a real possibility. So I made up my recipe, and patted it up into a loaf in the bottom of my crock-pot and set it on low to cook for 4-5 hours. I did not add any extra liquid at all. When I got home, I carefully lifted the loaf out of the juices in the pot. I did cut it in half first, just to make sure it did not fall apart on me.

I made up the sauce for the meatloaf, then put half of the meatloaf on a cooking sheet and added the sauce, and popped it in the oven for 5 minutes or so at 500 degrees. That caramelized the sauce nicely. The rest of the meatloaf and sauce I put in the freezer for another meal.
This was a great dinner with Parmesan Risotto and sauteed zucchini strips. I really love this meatloaf! And now I love it even more because I discovered I can make it in the slow cooker!--This is especially nice in the summer when you don't want to heat up your kitchen. ~Janice