Sometimes I surprise myself

So yesterday I was making one of my standard dinner's for myself and the kids which was meatloaf and augratin potatoes.  Boring right???  Well I would say in the last 5 years we have really been expanding our foods that we have been including in our meals and adding new flavors.  Needless to say we have had great outcomes with this and now my children....read that again.....my CHILDREN love such things as Indian Food, Chineese Food, ARTICHOKES, and most any kind of peppers be it red, green, orange or red.  I have been loving it!!  We have also become conisures of such flavors as balsamic vinegar, red pepper flakes and Umami.  Since you are just dying for my surprising meatloaf recipe I will share it because it turned out to be the BEST I have ever made. 

Ingredients:

Zucchini
Onion
Green Pepper
1 pound Ground Pork
1 1/2 pound lean ground beef
1 large egg
bread crumbs
salt & pepper
1/4 - 1/2 cup catsup
balsamic vinegar

I chopped up some zucchini, green peppers and onions and I cooked them on the stove top in a little olive oil to make them soft, set them aside and let them cool down.

Then you take 1 pound of Ground Pork (this is important) and 1 1/2 pounds of Lean Ground Beef and add the rest of the ingredients:  egg, salt and pepper, 1/4 c catsup 2 tbs balsamic vinegar, 1/2 cup bread crumbs.  Mix well with your hands - Yes use your hands.

Now add the cooled vegetables.  It shouldn't be to moist.  If it looks moist and extremely "wet" then add more bread crumbs and make sure you mix them in well so you don't bite into a chunk of crumbs.

So now take your cookie sheet and line it with parchment paper or aluminun foil and plop the entire mixture out onto the sheet and form it into a wide loaf that looks like this.  The only thing I would do different is I would make it shorter and wider so that you get more of teh loaf covered with the glaze you will make.  And this recipe won't make a loaf this big!!

So now for the glaze.  It is an American tradition to put catsup on top of your meatloaf and who am I to mess with tradition?  I only ask that you take your 1/2 cup of catsup and spice it up with 1 tablespoon or more of balsamic vinegar.  When this cooks down it make the yummiest sweet and tangy topping on your meatloaf and with there being some vinegar in the loaf itself it just all comes together like a wonderful choir.

So I spent all my time on my wonderful meatloaf that I will admit to paring it with a box of Augratin potatoes but I have taken time before to make cheesy funeral potatoes or bakes sweet potatoes goes well with this.  I will do artichokes with this also to add in more vegetables and a good dose of fiber.

Let me know what you think.  Try it, your kids will love the flavor and won't know they are eating all those veggies especially if you chop them up small.