Lundi: Recipes

As the end of the year Holidays rush ever closer, to my mind rather like a herd of galloping horses, time to cook slips away. Putting a healthy meal on the table can seem overwhelming on top of everything else that is expected of us. Shopping, cleaning, decorating, wrapping, connecting – gah! You all are lucky if I get some cookies baked, one is tempted to scream.

As a form of balm, if not a total panacea, HQ will offer simple but hearty recipes on the Mondays before the end of the year. I’ll try to keep to a minimum of easy to get ingredients and if at all possible make it something that can sit on the stove or just spend some time in the oven while you do one or more of the thousand other things that need your attention. Today, I offer my Grandmother’s meatloaf recipe. It’s not fancy; in fact its old-school comfort food. But it is good.

1 pound ground beef
½ envelope dry onion soup mix
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 egg lightly beaten into
½ cup milk
3/8 cup quick cook oatmeal
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Thoroughly coat the inside of a standard 9” by 5” loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Your hands work best for this. Press the mixture into the loaf pan (you can also shape your mixture on a parchment lined baking sheet if you prefer). Pop into the oven and bake for 1 hour. Immediately drain any fat, then let stand five minutes before removing from the pan and cutting into slices.

This recipe will serve 4 and can easily be doubled with the use of a larger pan, of course.

Serve with a green salad and some crusty bread or baked potatoes. Either way, there’s not much in the way of clean up, which is a huge benefit as well. Bon appetite ~

Header: A Pork Butcher’s Shop by EJ Dambourgez