Healthy Snack Wednesdays: Heart Healthy Oatmeal

We made it through week one of our biggest loser style challenge! Renee and I didn't have a 'big number' on the scale at our second weigh-in, but we did have a successful first week. We stopped taking the elevator and walked up four flights of stairs instead. Lunch hour included healthy dishes and a 20 minute walk each day.  It's an 8-week challenge so what really counts is the long-term result.

Being at Boston University, there are a lot of resources available to faculty and staff. One great resource is access to the BU Nutrition and Fitness Center. They work hard to make healthy choices available on campus and to educate the University about healthier living.  One of their nutritionists came to give us a brief talk about healthy eating last week.  Inspired by their talk and some recipes they sent over, Renee and I decided to choose oats as our ingredient for this week's healthy snack.

Oats are a versatile, and healthy, ingredient! Part of the grains group on the food pyramid, they are heart healthy and rich in fiber. You can use them in every meal: oatmeal for breakfast, granola for snack, mixed into meatloaf for lunch and dinner, and as a topping for fruit crisps for dessert. There are many different choices for oats at the store. Be careful when selecting oatmeal - many of the flavored instant oatmeal packets have a lot of sugar.  Instead of getting the flavored packets you can pick up the original instant and make your own flavors. This allows you to control the amount of ingredients you add in.  A few of my favorite oatmeal mix-ins include:

-Brown sugar
-Maple syrup
-1 teaspoon of peanut butter
-Dried fruits like cranberries, cherries, or raisins
-Fruit preserves or jam
-Bananas and a few chocolate chips

For Healthy Snack Wednesday, I decided to try one of the oatmeal cookie recipes sent over from the women at Sargent Choice (at BU Nutrition and Fitness).  They are not no-calorie and no-fat cookies, but they are more nutritious and less-bad for you.  Unless of course you eat all 3-dozen at once!  The key to healthy eating is really moderation.  I find that I don't have to give up my favorite foods, I just need to eat the appropriate portion size.

These cookies have heart-healthy oats and flax seed. Flax seed adds a good dose of nutritional value to the cookies with omega-3 (good fat) and additional fiber.  I did add a little extra antioxidants to the original recipe with a few mini-dark chocolate chips. Using mini-chips gives you a little chocolate flavor in each cookie without adding too much additional sugar.  If you make 1 tablespoon sized cookies this recipe will yield 3-dozen heart healthy cookies to share with your family, friends, or co-workers.  Thanks again to Sargent Choice for the recipe and nutrition information. Please note, the nutrition information does not account for the mini-chocolate chips. I also swapped dried cherries for the raisins which might change the sugar content as well.

Heart Healthy Oatmeal Cookies
Yields 3 dozen cookies


1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups Quick oats (NOT instant or regular)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 stick salted butter (equal to 1/2 cup or 8 tablespoons)
1/3 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup ground flax seeds
1 cup dried cherries (or raisins)
1/4 cup mini-chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper
Add butter, oil, vanilla, granulated sugar and brown sugar to your mixer bowl (or large bowl)
Cream butter and sugars with a mixer until butter is smooth
Add eggs and mix until smooth
Add flour and baking soda and mix until incorporated
Add ground flax seed and mix until incorporated
Stir in oats, adding 1 cup at a time until combined
Stir in dried cherries and mini-chocolate chips

Using a greased tablespoon, drop cookie dough 2" apart onto parchment-lined baking sheet
Using your hand or the back of the spoon, press the balls of dough down, flattening them slightly
Bake for 8-11 minutes, until golden brown and the look slightly under-done
Remove from the oven and cool on a wire cooling rack, the cookies will harden after cooling

Notes:
The dough will be dry and somewhat crumbly
Do not overcook the cookies. It is important to take them out of the oven when the center still seems slightly undercooked
You can also use unsalted butter and add in salt separately (I have not tried this yet for results)
The addition of orange zest would give the cookies a nice zing (Planning to try this for the next batch)
The cookies tasted better after they had cooled (and even better the second day)

Flax seeds might be something you have never bought before.  At Whole Foods you can find whole flax seeds in the bulk foods aisle.  You can also find them in the baking aisle near the flours.  Bob's Red Mill brand offers flax seed meal.  At the regular grocery store, you can look for them in the organic/natural foods aisle.  If you can only find whole flax seeds, you can grind them using your coffee grinder. The whole and ground seeds look like the photo below:

Cookie Nutrition:

How is your healthy snacking and eating going? Any tips or tricks that you use to be successful?

Now for some healthy snacking fun! Tribe Hummus and Pretzel Crisps have generously offered to giveaway healthy snacks to some lucky readers. Winners will be chosen at random using random.org. One winner will win a case (12 packs) of Pretzel Crisps in the flavor(s) of their choice. Three additional winners will win 2 vouchers for their choice of Tribe Origins Hummus. Entries due by midnight on Tuesday, January 18. Winners will be announced on Wednesday, January 19, 2011. 

You can enter up to three times (you can do any combination of the entries below):

Entry 1: Visit both of these snacks’ websites, and comment below on which flavor Pretzel Crisps and which flavor Tribe Origins Hummus you would like to try.

Entry 2: Become a fan of Pretzel Crisps and Tribe Hummus on Facebook, and leave me a comment below.

Entry 3: Tweet about the contest or mention on Facebook and leave a comment below (be sure to include @goodcookdoris, @pretzelcrisps and @tribehummus in your tweet)

Bonus entry: Leave a comment letting me know if you subscribe to the blog. If you would like to add the blog to your reader or subscribe, leave a note letting me know you did!

Full disclosure: Tribe Hummus and Pretzel Crisps are responsible for fulfillment of the contest prizes. I was not compensated for promoting this contest, except for a sample of crisps and hummus delivered by Pretzel Crisps (see last Wednesday's post for details).

Cooking the Classics: Not Such a Simple Stew

This year the hubby and I took a vacation to celebrate two big milestones – our 30th birthdays and our 5th wedding anniversary. We decided to head across the Atlantic to Spain. Ever since my brother studied abroad in Spain in college, I have wanted to visit and experience it for myself. To get us ready for the trip, my brother cooked up a Spanish fiesta for an early birthday party.

Then, we got on the plane and headed east to our first stop, Madrid. This was the starting place for our fabulous trip to Spain! For 9 days we ate our way through Madrid, Toledo, and Seville. To make room for all the delicious comida we traversed the cities on foot, visiting museos, mercados, and more.

We didn’t just rely on our guidebooks or the internet in planning our food destinations. One of our friends, a native Madrileno, gave us a great list of restaurants to visit in Madrid. For Seville, I contacted (via twitter) a tapas restaurant that I had visited on a trip to San Diego last year. I had a really nice chat with the bartender while I was there, and knew that a place called Café Seville would point me in the right direction when we visited their namesake city. The suggestions did not disappoint! We found ourselves in places frequented by locals and dined on a variety of delicious foods.

Here are some of the culinary highlights of our trip:

Spain was an interesting destination for us to visit. We love to eat a lot of different foods, but we are not lovers of jamon, langostinos, morcillo, pulpo and other popular Spanish foods. As Jews, we have a different perspective on Spanish history. In religious school we learned about the Spanish Inquisition (and History of the World, Part 1 thanks to Mel Brooks). While the Jewish population in Spain is starting to increase, it seems like so much Jewish heritage was lost over centuries since 1492.

We learned a lot about Spanish history while researching our trip, and throughout our visit. The Iberian Peninsula was home to many cultures: the Visigoths, Moors, the Roman Empire, Arabs, Jews and Christians. Jews had a presence on the peninsula since the arrival of the Roman Empire. However after centuries of tolerating different religious groups, when Ferdinand and Isabella came into power they decided that it was their way or no way. It was fascinating to tour Jewish history sites and see how they addressed the Inquisition. There were no detailed descriptions, you got the sense that “ the Jews were asked to leave”. We toured many religious buildings had been converted to churches after the expulsion of the Jews. The buildings have now been restored to museums that describe the history of the Jewish people in Spain before 1492. Jews had lived on the Iberian Peninsula for a long time, and their influence did not disappear when they left the peninsula. Many Jews who left went Morocco, Turkey, and other parts of Northwestern Africa. Some did stay in Spain, becoming conversos. To make sure that no one could accuse them of false conversion, many of the traditional Jewish dishes were modified.

The cocido, or stew, is one example of this. Our madrileno friend told us it was unthinkable for us to visit Madrid and not try the cocido. In Madrid, the cocido is a slow cooked stew served in two or three parts. First, the slow cooked broth with fideo (vermicelli noodles). Next meat, with garbanzos, potatoes, and what I later discovered to be lard! Third, the server topped the dish off with garlicky cabbage. This, and most, versions of cocido include a combination of beef, pork, and blood sausage.

In researching the dish for this challenge, I discovered that the cocido had its roots with the Sephardic Jews of Spain. It was originally called adafina and was a traditional Sabbath stew. Jewish families would put the stew on a low flame on Friday, and then would be able to enjoy a hot meal on the Sabbath. In some of the material I read, often families would place their pots in a communal oven as not everyone had proper cooking facilities in their homes. When the Jews left Spain, they continued to make this dish in Morocco and their new lands. The name changed to dafina (meaning covered) or hamin. Others may know another variation of the dish as cholent.

For the conversos who stayed in Spain, it was important to demonstrate that they had given up their Jewish faith and adopted Christianity, even though many still practiced Judaism secretly. Modifying their traditional Sabbath stew was an outward symbol of this conversion. The stew came to include pork belly, bacon, sausage, and other non-kosher ingredients.

I was excited to find a recipe for a traditional Adafina on the official website for Toledo (Spain) Sefardi (Sephardic Jews). The site includes a section on the Gastronomia Sefardi and includes recipes for many traditional dishes. When we were in Toledo, we visited the temple, which has been converted back from a church to the Museo Sefardi. Thankfully, much of the building’s interior had been preserved and many artifacts had been returned to be displayed in the museum

The recipe and website are in Spanish, so I pulled out my trusty high school English to Spanish dictionary to look up any words I couldn’t remember. I’ll post my translation and adaptation of the recipe below. The original can be found at http://www.toledosefarad.org/GASTRONOMIA/recetas.php. I consulted a number of websites in researching cocido, adafina, and the history of Jews in Spain. I’ll include a link to these sites at the end of the post.

I love to use local, seasonal ingredients as much as possible in my cooking. This dish is no exception. My local ingredients include potatoes and onion from my local farmers market and meat from my local butcher shop. I talked to my butcher about the stew and he custom cut both lamb and beef shank for me. The rest of the ingredients are from the pantry.

This is a multi-day recipe. The first night is soaking the garbanzos and the second day is preparing the stew to simmer overnight. This was designed as a one-pot dish that can provide many meals throughout the Sabbath day. It includes vegetables, meat, and hard-cooked eggs which can be eaten at any time.

I started by layering the ingredients in my large Le Crueset red French oven. While the ingredients were coming to a boil, I prepared ‘el relleno’, almost like a meatloaf. I rolled it up in cheese cloth and tied it so there would be individual servings. Then, after 6-8 hours of cooking, I pulled it out of the oven for dinner. The eggs had hard cooked in their shells, taking on a tan hue from the onion skin and meat. The meats were fall apart tender and the shanks had imparted a deep, rich flavor to the broth.

As we enjoyed our adafina, we could imagine the Juderia Sefardi enjoying this dish centuries ago. Food is a wonderful way to connect with your heritage. A simple dish, such as a stew, can show the influence of one group on the cuisine of an entire nation.

Adafina
Adapted from the recipe found at http://www.toledosefarad.org/GASTRONOMIA/recetas.php:

Recetas de Ana Benarroch, del libro "La cocina judía. Leyes, costumbres... y algunas recetas sefardíes", Uriel Macías Kapón. Edita "Red de Juderías de España".

2.5 lbs chuck roast, tied with kitchen twine
3 lbs veal shank, cut into 4 pieces
1 piece of beef shank, approximately 1 pound, meat removed from the bone
½ kg garbanzos
20 medium potatoes, peeled (10 whole and 10 chopped)
10 eggs in their shells
1 whole yellow onion with its brown skin, plus skin from second onion
350 ml olive oil
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Salt, pepper
Cold water
Relleno (recipe below)

The day before, put the garbanzos in water to soak
In a stainless/non-reactive pot, add ingredients in this order (leaving a space in the middle): olive oil, drained garbanzos, meat tied with twine, veal shanks and beef bone, eggs in the center, and peeled potatoes whole and chopped
Do not mix
Season with salt and pepper and cover with cold water
Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer, skimming the top
Cook until the foam has ‘retired’ or lessened
Add in the relleno
Cover with a lid and place in a 225 degree oven for 6-8 hours (or 170 degree oven overnight)

Relleno
.5 - .75 lbs beef from the beef shank
200 grams cooked rice
3 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Mince the beef, or chop in the food processor until minced finely
Mix together the beef, rice, eggs and nutmeg (using your hands)
This should be wrapped in a fine cloth (cheesecloth), tied with twine, and shaped like a sausage

Summary:
Inactive prep time: 8-12 hours of soaking
Active prep time: 20-30 minutes
Active cook time: 30-45 minutes
Inactive cook time: 6-12 hours
Cutting board and knives, vegetable peeler, mixing bowls, spoons, cheesecloth, twine, French oven/heavy stockpot, serving dishes and utensils

Thank you for your support in helping me advance to round two of Project Food Buzz! Project Food Blog is a contest hosted through Foodbuzz. Contestants participate in a series of challenges and a certain number advance through to the next rounds. You can see my official profile and entry by clicking here. Please take a minute to 'like', tweet, and vote! One readers' choice winner automatically advances. 




Book and Websites visited in preparing this post:
Larousse Gastronomique, 2001. Page 312, page 1130.
http://www.toledosefarad.org/
http://www.directoalpaladar.com/cultura-gastronomica/la-adafina-la-madre-de-todos-los-cocidos
http://www.vinosyrecetas.com/adafina-judia
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/culture/2/Food/Sephardic_Cuisine/Northern_Africa/Dafina_Moroccan_Cholent__.shtml
http://www.inmamaskitchen.com/RECIPES/RECIPES/meats/Adafina.html
http://emr.cs.iit.edu/~reingold/ruths-kitchen/recipes/meat/adafina.html
http://www.cyber-kitchen.com/recipes/Dafina.htm
http://mzowl.blogspot.com/2009/05/recipe-adafina.html
http://www.spain-recipes.com/cocido-recipe.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Marranos.html

One Year of Recording Delicious Meals!

It's hard to believe that it has been one year since my first post on GoodCookDoris.  What started as a way to record our meals and never be without an idea for dinner has become quite an adventure!  The hubby joined in the fun with his own feature (When He Fends for Himself), my family has contributed some guest posts, and I have been cooking up a storm!  I've reconnected with old friends and met fellow food bloggers and foodies from around the world.  What a blast! 

In honor of this momentous occasion, the hubby suggested I post a picture of my meatloaf cupcake with mashed potato icing, green bean candle, and parsley sprinkles.   This year I'll work on some sweet dessert cupcakes.

I'd love to hear what your favorite post has been. Leave a note and let me know! Thanks for being a part of the fun.

I'm excited to start another year of trips to the farmer's market, trying new recipes, cranking out old favorites, and sharing delicious food with family and friends.

Happy cooking!

When I was home recently, I found my old apron. Funny that my apron from when I was 3 is almost identical to my apron now (red polka dots!).  It doesn't quite fit, but the sentiment was right.  It reads, "Kiss the Cook".

Here are few stats from my first year of blogging:

Number of Posts: 120

Number of Labels: 42

Number of Visitors: 1,054

Visitors came from 55 countries, and all 50 states!

The most popular post, fittingly, was the meatloaf muffins!

Burgers, Corn, Radishes and a nice Rose

I'm a little behind on my blog posts - this one goes back to last Tuesday night. With adjusting to evening classes and homework, it's been hard to keep up! Sorry for the delay, I hope that you enjoy reading the next few posts from the past two weeks.

I had been to the Tuesday farmers market and continuing the theme of buying something new to me each time, I picked up some watermelon radishes from Siena Farm. On the train ride home, I noticed that someone had left a bag on the baggage rack. I could read the name Kimball Farm on the bag and figured that someone forgot to take it home (I get off at the last stop). I picked up the bag and inside were 4 fresh ears of corn! I'm sorry to the commuter who had no side dish for dinner, but thank you for adding to ours!

I decided on making a burgers for a late summer (well, early fall) dinner and grilled the corn along with them. I had recently read about a radish salad at one of my new favorite websites, http://www.localinseason.com/ and followed their recipe for the dressing.

I paired it with some wine I picked up at one of my other favorite new places, http://www.binendswine.com/. It's a great rose from Oregon - A-Z wines. Perfect for pre-, during, and post-meal sipping!

Every time we have burgers I like to add a little twist. The hubby had gone to the store this week and bought whatever veggies looked good. We had red peppers and onions on hand. I mixed up a variation of my meatloaf mixture for the burgers and tossed in a little hoisin sauce for a little Asian flavor. I grilled extra red peppers for a topping and made sure to toast the whole wheat buns on the grill too. This was delicious! Enjoy!

Asian Flavored Meatloaf Burgers (that's quite a mouthful!)
1 lb. ground sirloin
1/4 red pepper, diced very small
A few slices of onion, diced very small
About 1 tablespoon (2-3 dashes) Worcestershire sauce
About 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 egg, lightly beaten
Breadcrumbs, just enough to hold the burgers together

Preheat the grill before you make the burgers
Score the meat into four equal portions
Form patties, but don't over work
Set aside until ready to grill
Grill until desired doneness
Top with lettuce, grilled red peppers, and a little extra hoisin sauce

Simple and Delicious Radish Salad
Check out the recipe and nice presentation at http://www.localinseason.com/early-fall/37-radish-and-cucumber-salad.html. I didn't have any cucumbers on hands, so I stuck to just radishes.

Spice up a Monday Night Dinner

A quick note before this post. Thanks for reading! I'm excited to find out that so many new and old friends stop by to check out what's cooking. I hope that you'll take a minute to say hi in the comments and let me know what you think - or just say hello! It's fun to see all the readers and find out where they are from! Thanks! Now on to the fun....

Cooking almost every night is a challenge - coming up with interesting meals and making sure to vary the ingredients. Often I find myself going back to the same meals and repeating them a little too frequently. The trick is to vary some piece of the meal to keep it interesting.

One of these meals for us is meatloaf muffins. The recipe lends itself a lot of variations - different veggies, sauces, even types of ground meat. For this occasion I kept it pretty simple, but decided to dress them up as 'cupcakes'. The perfect way to spice up a Monday night!

For the 'cake', I used the meatloaf muffin recipe that I previously posted. I cut out foil squares to line my muffin tin (no foil muffin cups on hand). I sprayed them well with some olive oil cooking spray before filling them with the meatloaf mixture. I topped the meat with a good layer of ketchup before cooking.

For the icing, I made some basic mashed potatoes and put them into a large ziploc bag with the bottom corner cut off (a make-shift pastry bag). I piped the potatoes on top and 'sprinkled' them with some dried basil.

For a real party, serve with green bean 'candles'! I have to admit, I feel silly even posting that sentence. Here's the photo anyway!

Mmm...muffins...meatloaf muffins

About three or four years ago I watched a 30 Minute Meals episode where Rachael Ray made meatloaf muffins. Growing up, we never had meatloaf. When I moved out on my own, I never thought about it as an option. Since I found this recipe I've been making this regularly! The technique lends itself to a lot of creative ingredient combinations. Stick with the basic meat, egg, and breadcrumbs and then its all up to your mood and your ingredients. Sometimes smoky and BBQ flavored, sometimes salsa and southwestern. This was a pretty traditional interpretation. We had leftover jicama salad as our side dish. Great combination of hot and cold, crunchy and smooth!

For the original recipe, click here. My version:

Meatloaf Muffins - This week's version

1 pound ground sirloin (or lean ground beef)
1 yellow onion, cut into quarters
1 orange or red pepper, seeds removed and cut into chunks
1 jalapeno, seeded and cut into chunks
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup of ketchup + extra for topping
1/2 cup of smoky barbecue sauce
1-2 tablespoons of Montreal Steak Seasoning
1/2 cup of bread crumbs
Oil to grease the muffin tins

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Place the ground beef in a large bowl
Place the onion, pepper, and jalapeno into a food processor
Pulse until finely chopped and then add to the bowl with the meat
Add egg, ketchup, BBQ sauce and seasoning to the bowl and mix
Add bread crumbs and mix until well combined (but don't over mix)
Brush muffin tins with either vegetable oil or extra virgin olive oil
I use a 1/4 cup dry measuring cup to scoop the meatloaf mixture into the tins and pat them down
Top each muffin with BBQ sauce (I didn't have any extra sauce, so I used ketchup on top)
Bake for about 20 minutes or until cooked through
Use a spoon to remove from the pan

Makes about 8-10 muffins.

Summary:
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 20-25 minutes
Food processor, cutting board and knife, muffin tin, 1/4 cup dry measuring cup, spoon

Spanish Beef and Yellow Rice

I've been cooking a lot - but have been delinquent in getting the pictures and recipes online. Here is one of last week's creations. We eat ground beef a lot and were looking for something other than a burger or meatloaf. A quick check of the fridge (and a look at a few recipes) inspired this Spanish style beef. I served it over yellow rice with a little guacamole on the side. Muy bueno!

This is a pretty easy recipe and can be adjusted for the veggies and ingredients you have in the fridge. I threw in garlic, yellow onions, red pepper, and fresh parsley. The recipes I looked at all called for tomato sauce, which I did not have. I used a can of diced tomatoes and a couple of squirts of tomato paste instead. I think the sauce might have made it too soupy. The yellow rice was lovingly prepared by Goya, I just followed the instructions on the box.

Here's how I did it - more pictures are in the photo album.

Spanish Style Beef (served with rice)
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 - 1/4 lb. Ground sirloin (or ground beef)
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can diced tomatoes, no salt added
2-3 tablespoons tomato paste (from a tube)
About 1-2 tsp. each Chili Powder and Cumin (to taste)
Handful of chopped fresh parsley
Salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat
Add the ground beef and brown for 3-4 minutes, crumbling the beef as it cooks
Add onions, pepper, and garlic and continue to cook until beef is just brown
Drain any excess fat, if necessary
Stir in tomatoes, tomato paste, spices, and parsley
Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 5 minutes, or until the rice is ready.

I served it over a Goya Yellow rice - a nice rich flavor. You could use any type of rice and it would be delicious.

Leftover meat would be a good filling for stuffed peppers (top with cheese and stick under the broiler), tacos, or burritos. I'm always looking for ways to cook once and use for a few meals! Enjoy!

Summary:
Prep Time - 5 minutes
Cook Time - 10-15 minutes (meat); 25 minutes (rice)
1 large skillet, spoon for stirring, cutting board and knives

"Fiesta" Meatloaf

Not sure if this is the best name for the recipe, but it's essentially a southwestern flavored meatloaf. Meatloaf is a frequent item on our dinner menu - each time with a different twist. I usually make it in muffin tins. The meatloaf cooks quicker and it makes for easier leftovers for lunch. It's easy to come up with variations based on the flavor of the week (or what we have in the fridge). You can swap veggies, sauces, and side dishes. The flavor for this week is southwest, served with roasted Yukon gold potatoes, and guacamole on the side. Enjoy!

"Fiesta Meatloaf"
1 lb. ground sirloin
1 red pepper
1/2 an onion (any color)
2 stalks of celery
1/2 a jalapeno
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup salsa + 1/2 cup salsa
1 egg, beaten with a splash of milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Put ground beef in a large mixing bowl and break up.
Cut onion, pepper, celery and jalapeno into about 2 inch pieces.
Put vegetables into a food processor and pulse until they are in small pieces.
Add veggies to the meat in the bowl.
Add bread crumbs, 1/2 cup salsa, and egg to the bowl.
Mix until well combined.

Either put into greased muffin tins or use a 1/4 cup measuring cup and scoop into patties on a greased baking sheet. Top each muffin with a spoonful of salsa. Bake for 20 minutes, until meat is cooked thoroughly.

Southwest Roasted Potatoes
Yukon gold potatoes (as much as you need), cut in quarters.
Cumin
Chili Powder
1-2 garlic cloves
Salt
Pepper
Cilantro
Olive oil

Toss the potatoes in olive oil and spices. Place on a baking sheet. Bake alongside the meatloaf, checking after 15 minutes to make sure they don't burn.

Summary:
Prep time - about 10 minutes
Cook time - 20-25 minutes
2 bowls, chopping board and knife, food processor, muffin tin/baking sheet, second baking sheet, spatula and spoons.