Veggie Meatloaf

Veggie Loaded Meatloaf

I was craving meatloaf. This is a sentence I have said as many as never times in my life, but it was the case the other night. If you are following along, you probably noticed the trend of healthy, mostly meatless, and pretty inexpensive dishes recently, because that is how I try to cook this time of year. Plus I keep having to make mac and cheese stuffed burgers for the cookbook publicity so I am trying to counteract some of that. That all being said, I wanted to make a vegetarian or mostly vegetarian “loaf”. I did some research, but most veggie loafs were loaded with grains and tofu, and not actual veggies like I wanted. I decided to just wing it and do mostly veg with a little beef and some cheese, sort of like a veggie heavy lightened version of a regular meatloaf.

Pastrami Pickle Soup

Pastrami and Pickle Soup

We’re buried under about a foot of snow here in Boston this morning, and naturally my thoughts go right to a hearty soup. Even if you are snowed in today too, you can probably still make this soup if you can find some pastrami somewhere. If not, just toss in any meat instead. Everything else is pantry staples. This soup is a riff off of a dill pickle soup I once was intrigued by on an episode of Diners Drive-Ins and Dives, that I finally decided to make a version of.

Breakfast Mac and Cheese

Breakfast Mac and Cheese

Mac and cheese for breakfast inspired by the flavors in eggs benedict with buttery toast, tater tots, ham, eggs, and hollandaise.

Hot Dog Pizza

Hot Dog Pizza

Hot dogs on a pizza?!? It might seem weird to you, but to me, it makes total sense! I mean, think about it, many pizzas are topped with some sort of sausage, so why are hot dogs different? You can top this with whatever you want, but I made mine with my favorite hot dog…

Parm Baked Beans

Parmesan Baked Beans

As with most families these days, I have some vegetarians in mine. Being the conscious cook, I decided to try and make a vegetarian version of baked beans that would be so delicious that no one would miss the pork or even realize something was different. I based the beans off a hearty Italian tomato sauce, and added every non-meat based version of umami I could think of. Within 5 minutes of getting to the annual 4th of July party, my vegetarian aunt reminded me that she hates beans. Oh well! These beans were worth it anyways.

Chicken fingers with club sauce

Chicken Fingers… with Spicy Club Sauce

Fried Cheese… with club sauce. Popcorn shrimp… with club sauce. Chicken fingers… with spicy club sauce! I had no idea what club sauce was, but I imagined it to be like a cross between bbq sauce and cocktail sauce. The internet didn’t really help me in figuring out what it was, so I just made it how I wanted it to be. Honestly I thought the sauce was awesome, but the people I was with apparently don’t really like horseradish, so they didn’t enjoy the sauce as much as I did. I probably should have asked them before I dumped a bunch of horseradish into the sauce!

Mac and Cheese Soup

Mac and Cheese Soup

A creamy cheesy soup inspired by mac and cheese, that is very flavorful and rich, and loaded with sausage and veggies!