Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Recipe: Sausage Pizza Meatloaf

On the occasional food fest the family likes to chow down on this old favorite... it combines a hearty (and dense!) meatloaf that has very little bread crumbs (I hate a filler filled meatloaf!). You get that pizza sauce, oregano, sausage flavor! BooM!

Sausage Pizza Meat Loaf

Recipe & Notes:

3lbs Ground Beef 80%
2lbs Sweet Italian Sausage (if you like a stronger sausage, use 1lb mild and 1lb sweet)
3 eggs
Salt
Pepper
1/2 Cup of Breadcrumbs (Italian preferred)
1 cup shredded cheese (moz or a mixed blend is fine)

Glaze:
Ketchup, Pizza Sauce (not tomato paste, but PIZZA SAUCE) *if you want to experiment, hoisin sauce is an excellent addition just add to the ingredients (and finish with crunchy noodles!).
Mix 1/4 cup Ketchup and 1/4 cup Pizza Sauce w/ salt, pepper and your choice of herbs. Oregano is a great choice! Mix well. Let sit.

Herbs: Here's the thing folks, salt and pepper do not count as your herbs! Experiment, try different herbs and learn what you like.

For this: I like 3 nice pinches of dried Oregano, dried Rosemary & dried Thyme, also added to this, you should add garlic POWDER and black pepper to taste.

Cooking Instructions:
Bring the meat to room temperature before working with it.
Set the shredded cheese aside until later.
Mix all the ingredients for the loaf together in a large bowl and let rest for 10 minutes.
Mix the ingredients for the glaze together in a small bowl and let rest for 10 minutes.

(take this time to clean your station. Wipe it all down, wash your hands.)

Preheat your oven to 375

Form your loaf out of the 5lbs of meat you have in your bowl. Make it 4 fingers tall and approx the shape of a rectangle. push a 1 inch canyon in the meat for later and place on a cookie sheet and put in a ready oven.

after approx 45 minutes take the meatloaf out of the oven and use a spatula to take the meatloaf and put it on a baking cooling rack or elevated oven rack and place back onto the cookie sheet.
(Doing this allows the meat to cook on all sides and not have a soggy bottom!)
Sauce the top of the meatloaf with the glaze and until its thick and goopey and in the canyon we created on the meat... enough to cover everything, but not too much that its sliding all over the place!

Place back into the oven for 10 minutes - take out, add shredded cheese to the top of the meatloaf and then place back into the oven for 5 minutes, or until the cheese meets your desired done-ness.

Suggested Sides: Mashed Potatoes and Peas or Sauteed Greens.

Let the meatloaf sit for 10 minutes before cutting and enjoy :)
if you make it, leave me a message on how you liked it!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Wendys Baja Salad is a sloppy mess

I went to Wendys today and grabbed the Baja Salad. I got home and opened the bag to see some chili, and then realizes this salad wasn't no ordinary salad.

It comes with the usual, lettuce of course but it has the leaves in it which is always weird. And the prickly purple lettuce, which sucks. Cheese, tortilla strips, a jalapeno type dressing, and uh, chili, which you pour on your salad.

The salad was OK I guess. Nothing I would ever go nuts about. But by the time you get down to the bottom of the salad, its just a swamp of, salad. A Salad Swamp. All the juice from the chili has mixed with the dressing and the little crumbs of the tortilla strips and cheese that melted because of the hot chili and its just a goopy swampy mess. And its no good, because you eat salads with a fork right? Well ever try to eat a soupy substance with a fork?

This salad is fail.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Healthy Choice Cafe Steamer: Chicken Marinara

So I have cut out fast food but I hate cooking, so I have started grabbing these bad boys off the shelf. Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers come in tons of different flavors, I have about 6 different ones in the freezer.

They're pretty easy to make, just take it out of the box, microwave for 4 minutes and boom, done. Mix the food with the sauce and you're ready to go.

Today I had the Grilled Chicken Marinara. Which was actually pretty good. Only thing I have it these little things come no where close to filling me up, but I suppose that is the price to pay for going on a diet.

Most diet foods taste horrible, but this one tastes pretty good. Has that home cooked meal taste. Highly recommended for all starving jerks out there.

Starving Jerks?! Crystal Light Energy a savior?!

I have decided to go on a diet. I have actually been on one for a couple weeks now, but now is the time to kick it into overdrive. I have gone from drinking nothing about soda, about 5-6 a day, to drinking no soda at all. Sticking with water, and water. And sometimes the occasional Crystal Light packet.

Also cutting out Fast Food. The reviews will continue since I will have to stop by the occasional fast food place for a salad, or for other people.

However I will now also be using Hungry Jerks to track my diet progress. I am not even going to bother weighing myself, and will not track my diet by how much weight I have lost. Instead I will go by pant size! See how many pant sizes I can drop through this diet. So how about a little review of something?

Since I became insanely addicted to sodas, I got massive headaches after I stopped drinking them. And then I was saved when I came across Crystal Light Energy. Which comes with a nice kick of caffeine, I now drink one of those after I wake up and no headaches at all. Crystal Light Energy has saved the day.

So if you are also starting a diet and seem to be having trouble kicking the soda habit, grab one of those, they help.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Q-To-U-BBQ and the Southwest Chicken Salad

I love me a good salad, but it is really hard to find a good one. Its either too small, or too big. Too much dressing, not enough dressing. Too much chicken to the point its just a bunch of fried pieces of, fryness, or too little chicken where after four bites you're stuck with just a regular ol salad.

But that all changed.

Today I went to Q-To-U-BBQ in Anthem AZ. I love this place, have reviewed it before, and today I felt like having just a nice salad, what I got, blew my mind.

The usual stuff that you expect in a salad, with some perfectly fried chicken on top of it, diced up nicely with some of their amazing BBQ sauce drizzled over top of it. Along with that it comes with a cup of their homemade southwestern ranch. And some cheese that the chicken rested on top of. The chicken was placed on the salad very hot, so the cheese had even melted a little bit onto the salad.

This is the best salad I have ever had. A perfect amount of ranch and BBQ sauce, with the perfect amount of chicken. It did the job of filling me up nicely, and it tasted amazing. This is by far the best chicken salad I have ever had. I will be back for another in the near future. Highly recommend you all check this out soon.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Dillons on Thunderbird Review

Dish #1

I had the pleasure of eating at Dillions on Thunderbird this weekend and I was not disappointed. I had 2 meals this weekend and will review both of them briefly.

First up, Burnt Ends w/ Loaded Mashed Potatoes and Coleslaw plus a side of Deep Fried Pickles.

The burnt ends where very tasty and not over sauced at all. They had a deep smoke flavor and where butchered to perfection. The sauce was flavorful, rich, sweet, tangy and hot... perfect! The loaded mashed potatoes really got the fungus flying for me too! Bacon, sour cream, cheese, and bits of meat in the mashed was a nice touch.

The next dish we sampled was the Deep Fried Pickles - CAUTION - THESE JERKS ARE HOT!
Deliciously tart and hot (temp wise) these deep friend southern staples are really a great treat!

SIDE NOTE: EVERY DAY FOR HAPPY HOUR. $1.00 for a plate of Onion Rings!

SIDE NOTE: DONT KNOW WHAT BURNT ENDS ARE? (FROM WIKI: Burnt ends are flavorful pieces of meat cut from the point half of a smoked brisket. A traditional part of Kansas City Barbecue, burnt ends are considered a delicacy in BBQ cooking.


Dish #2
Dish 2 was an unexpected choice... typically I don't order diner standards like BLT's or Club Sandwiches due to my more adventurous eating habits but this sandwich was well put together and extraordinary! What made it delicious and worthy of posting here? Out of the oven sliced ham and out of the oven sliced turkey, no lunch meat for this beast!

All in all... Dillions is a BBQ joint with flavors of your local eatery or diner, they offer some amazing advertising, real value savings and discounts and some tasty eats too!


8706 West Thunderbird Road. Peoria, Arizona.
http://dillonsrestaurant.com/thunderbird/index.html