Oh Soy you didn't!!

I made my meatlof with soy milk in it and no one noticed!! Hee hee hee!! (snicker snicker).

Really, I was in the middle of making a meatloaf and I realized that I had no milk in the house other than soy milk. I took a chance and added the soy milk and it came out great, and no one could tell the difference at all! I will never tell. ;)

Another way to change up meatloaf if you are trying to be healthy is use ground turkey instead of ground beef. My hubby has dietary restrictions and he is not supposed to eat red meat. Instead of being a supportive wife, I was actually kind of peeved that an entire protein type was now off limits to me. Having all of my beef recipes totally removed from circulation, quel disaster! But I rose to the occasion and learned to modify a lot of our favorite meals to include a white meat or better yet, to be meat-free.

One saving grace has been ground turkey. It's easy to sub ground turkey in place of ground beef or ground chuck, and you really can hardly tell the difference. I use ground turkey now in meatloaf, meatballs, meat lasagna, meat manicotti, chili, and pretty much any recipe where I used to use ground beef.

I don't usually tell my family when I secretly sub out these ingriendients. If they don't know what's in it, the chances are better they will like it. Somtimes just saying the word "soy" or "healthy" can diminish appetites and it's really not neccesary, so I just don't tell!

Anyway, meatloaf is pretty much a staple in our house, it's one of those few meals that I can serve and 4 out of 4 family members like it. 10 minutes to mix, 75 minutes to cook, and unanimous appeal - what more could I really strive for with my cooking! Here is my meatloaf recipe, from my original Betty Crocker cookbook.

1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef (or ground turkey)

1 cup milk (or soy milk)

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp chopped fresh or 1/4 tsp dried sage leaves

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground mustard

1/4 tsp pepper

1 clove garlic, finely chopped, or 1/8 tsp garlic powder

1 large egg

3 slices bread, torn or 1/2 cup dried bread crumbs

1 small onion, chopped (1/4 cup)

1/2 cup ketchup, chili sauce, or barbeque sauce

1) Heat oven to 350 degrees

2) Mix all ingredients except ketchup. Spread micture in an ungreased loaf pan, spread ketchup over top.

3) Bake uncovered for 1 hout to 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a meat thermometer inserted in the center of the loaf reads 160 degrees. Beef should no longer be pink in color and juices should run clear. Drain meatloaf.

4) Let stand 5 minutes, remove from pan.

Crunchy Granola

I never would have though in a million years that my kids would love granola - but they do! I started making my own homemade granola mix for my kids a few months ago and they love it and ask for it all the time. Who knew??

This is a great idea for a snack for kids. You can make it healthy as you want it to be, it's good for any time of day (sometime I give it to them as their breakfast), no utensils are needed to eat it, and it can be totally portable as an on-the-go snack.

This past January I had all these ingredients in my pantry that were leftovers from baking my Christmas cookies. I was trying to think of a way to get rid of the stuff and free up cabinet space. I had this huge tub of vanilla flavored granola that I bought at Whole Foods, I bought it intending to put it in my yogurt but I never actually used it. So I took the ingredients that I had on hand, which was chocolate chips, flaked coconut, and some dried cranberries, tossed it all in with the granola and presented it to my kids enthusiastically as a new and exciting yummy treat. And it had chocolate in it! They loved it. Wow! I was blown away.

Now I make batches of it up all the time and keep it on hand in little Gladware containers for snack time. I make it up differently based on what I happen to have in the pantry. Sometimes I add different types of nuts, or seeds (already out of the shells so I don't have to help them eat it), dried fruits, and I always include a form of chocolate just to seal the deal.

All of these items can be found at any grocery store, but I love to buy ingredients at Whole Foods in their trail mix aisle. You can pick and chose from all kinds of grains and goodies and get very creative about what to put into your mix. They have the widest variety of dried fruits I have seen anywhere, and I like to find special things to incorporate like chocolate covered blueberries or dried cherries that serve as the "surprise" item that gets my kids excited about it.
Try this at home at least to just test it out and see if your kids like it as much as mine do. You may be surprised that your kids like granola!

More Rhubarb! Rhubarb Cake

I am sharing another great rhubarb recipe - this is for a Rhubarb Cake made with fresh rhubarb and jello. But do not expect a jello mold - that's not what this is!

I was recently introduced to the concept of a "dump cake". A dump cake is a cake that is made by simply dumping the ingredients on top of each other in a cake pan, no mixing or stirring takes place! The result is a flatter type of cake with little rising but the layers are intact. This rhubarb cake is delicious, fruity and very seasonal with lots of fresh rhubarb. It is not at all tart since plenty of sugar and the jello mix sweeten it up.

Here is the recipe:

• 1 18.25 oz package yellow cake mix
• 4 cups of rhubarb, chopped (this is 2 very large stalks or 3-4 thinner ones)
• 1 3 oz package red flavor jello (raspberry or strawberry work great)
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup water

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2) Line the bottom of an ungreased 13 x 9 baking pan with the diced rhubarb. Sprinkle the white sugar over the top. Then sprinkle the raspberry gelatin mix over the top of the sugar. Next sprinkle the cake mix over the top of the gelatin.
3) Melt the butter or margarine and pour it over the top of the cake mix. Pour the water over the top of the cake.
4) Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

So easy! See how all you do is "dump" the ingredients?

Another tip - I always make this when fresh rhubarb is in season, but if fresh rhubarb is not available in your area you can use frozen rhubarb. If you do use frozen, then reduce the amount of water used to 1/2 cup or the cake will be too soggy.