Food for a guys' guy

I love Meatloaf.  Seriously.  Whenever I am listening to my local light radio station, I can't stop myself from rolling down my windows and belting out along with him....I will DO anything for love, but I won't do that....

Meatloaf rocks.  Even though I have no clue what that really is.

Even though I love Meatloaf, I can't stand meatloaf.  I mean, I really really really can't stand meatloaf.

But, for some reason, the other day I got an urge to make a meatloaf for Mr. McGhee.  See Mr. McGhee is a guys' guy from Wisconsin that now, because of me, eats salmon and salad instead of filet and potatoes.  So every once in a while, I like to treat Mr. McGhee to a guys' guy type of dinner.  

Plus, Mr. McGhee is very handsome and the other day I caught him looking at my favorite catalog and circling the things he thought I would like.

To find a meatloaf recipe, I went to my favorite site, Our Best Bites.  And the ladies at Our Best Bites didn't fail me with their recipe for bacon-wrapped meatloaf.  That's serious guys' guy type of food.

I made the recipe exactly as written.

Bacon-wrapped meatloaf

Glaze

• 1/2 cup chili sauce (or substitute ketchup, but I liked chili sauce)
• 4 tablespoons brown sugar
• 4 teaspoons cider vinegar (or white vinegar in a pinch)

Meat Loaf

• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion , chopped medium
• 2 medium cloves garlic , minced
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon hot sauce
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt (or whole milk)
• 1 pound ground beef chuck
• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 1/2 pound ground veal (I used more pork instead of veal)
• 2/3 cup Saltine crackers , crushed (about 18), or quick oatmeal, or 1 1/3 cups fresh bread crumbs
• 1/3 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
• 6 – 8 ounces bacon , thin sliced (8 to 12 slices, depending on loaf shape)

1. For the glaze: Mix all ingredients in small saucepan and bring to a simmer.  Simmer for 2-3 minutes or until slightly thickened and set aside.

2. For the meat loaf: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Heat oil in medium skillet. Add onion and garlic; sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool while preparing remaining ingredients.

3. Mix eggs with thyme, salt, pepper, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, pepper sauce, and milk or yogurt. Add egg mixture to meat in large bowl along with crackers, parsley, and cooked onion and garlic; mix with fork until evenly blended and meat mixture does not stick to bowl. (If mixture sticks, add additional milk or yogurt, a couple tablespoons at a time until mix no longer sticks.)

4. Turn meat mixture onto work surface. With wet hands, pat mixture into approximately 9-by-5-inch loaf shape. Place on foil-lined (for easy cleanup) shallow baking pan. Brush with half the glaze, then arrange bacon slices, crosswise, over loaf, overlapping slightly and tucking only bacon tip ends under loaf.

5. Bake loaf until bacon is crisp and loaf registers 160 degrees, about 1 hour. Cool 10-15 minutes. While meal loaf is cooling, re-heat remaining sauce and brush some over meat loaf if desired.  Slice meat loaf and serve with extra glaze passed separately.

Make the glaze and set it aside.

As with most good recipes, start by sauteing garlic and onion.

Get your egg mixture mixed.

Add egg mixture to meat.

Mix together egg and meat mixture.  This is a tough step for those of you that are squeamish about touching meat.  I would be one of those people.  I kept myself distracted by daydreaming about this.

Slather your meatloaf with your glaze.

 Wrap that loaf up in bacon.  Tuck the ends underneath the meatloaf.

Bake until cooked thoroughly.

 Slather a little extra glaze on top before serving.

Mr. McGhee loved this.  In fact, all the minis loved it too.  Especially my middle mini, which doesn't surprise me...he's sort of a guys' guy too.   This is him, finishing his first 5k in 30 minutes!

I served my meatloaf with oven-roasted cauliflower.  

• 1 medium head cauliflower (about 2-1/4 pounds), trimmed and cut into florets
• 3 large cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1.  Heat oven to 450 degrees F. 

2.  Combine cauliflower and garlic in a large bowl. 

3.  Drizzle with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. 

4.  Transfer, in a single layer, to a large rimmed baking sheet. Roast at 450 degrees F for about 25 minutes, stirring once. Sprinkle with cheese. 

Everyone loved the cauliflower.  A huge hit and now on our weekly veggie rotation!

And to drink, we had spinach smoothies.  My best friend introduced them to me this weekend.  

Spinach Smoothie

• handful (or two) of spinach
• handful of frozen strawberries
• frozen banana
• 1/2 cucumber (peeled)

1.  Blend in blender.

Delish!  A meal you can totally feel good about feeding to your family!

Shamrock SMOOTHIE!!!

I told you on Monday that it was my mini's birthday.  We celebrated Sunday with family.

We celebrated Monday at home with tacos and baseball in the backyard.

We celebrated Tuesday with the Rockford Icehogs.

And we celebrated today at school was his classmates.  My mini got to bring in treats for his birthday at school, and he requested Shamrock Shakes.  My mini loves shamrock shakes.  With a last name like McGhee, it was bound to happen.  I thought bringing shamrock shakes to school was a great idea and found a recipe online.  I even pinned the recipe, that's how committed I was to these shakes.  We all know that pinning something is like publicly shouting, "I WILL DO THIS."

The shakes needed to be there by 12:30, so this was my plan.  Spin class at 7, shower, oil change, grocery store, make shakes, deliver shakes.  This is what happened.....spin class at 7, shower, oil change, find out I need new brakes on my car.  Normally, I would have said "not today, I'll wait and come back to get them done someday when I desperately call you from Interstate 90 because my brakes don't work."  But, this weekend we are going to visit my bestie and I can't feel good about putting my minis in a car for 7 hours that has questionable brakes.  So, I tell the guy, I've got an hour and 15 minutes.  He promises me it can be done.

So, at that point, I completely abandon all hope of delivering homemade shamrock shakes at this point, and resign myself to the fact that I will have to stop by McDonalds and buy the shakes.

An hour and 15 minutes pass and my car is still up on that thingie.  I ask the guy how much longer.  30 minutes.  I tell him that isn't going to work, I need my car now.  He tells me there is no way he can give me the car now, it has no brakes.  I tell him, "dude, you don't understand.  I am a mom that made a promise to my mini.  I don't care if the car has brakes or not.  It's got a horn, that'll work."  The guy gives me the keys to their rental car (a minivan with 450K miles on it) and I peal off to the golden arches.

At this point, I have the shakes.  I am mortified to be seen in public carrying $60 worth of McD's shamrock shakes, and I am paranoid that the middle schoolers are going to see me and think I'm a fraud.  I am calmly doing my 4-7-8 breathing exercises, and I tell myself maybe I can discreetly drop them off.  And then, the door to the school was opened by that guy.  You know, that guy that is the type of person that looks into the box and says, "well, well, well, what do we have here, Heids McGhee?"  I took off running for the classroom and was met by people who already knew Heids McGhee was in the building with McDonalds food, asking me questions like, "are you freaking out about all that food coloring?"  I dropped the box off and ran back to my crappy rental car.  I made it back to the car shop, got my own car and raced home.

I was a mess when I got home and knew I needed to rid myself of all the McDonalds cooties I surely had all over my body.  So, I did 100 jumping jacks, 100 situps, 100 pushups, and then I tried to do 100 pullups, but I only could do 3.  I still didn't feel better, but then I remembered a green smoothie recipe I have been dying to try.

Ingredients:

• 2 bananas, frozen
• 2 HUGE handfuls spinach (you won’t even taste it)
• 1 cup milk (almond, soy, cow, etc)
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil

Add all ingredients into a blender. Blend until mixed. Serve in tall glasses and enjoy.

Oh. My.  Delish.  Seriously, seriously the best green smoothie I have ever had.  And I feel so much better now.  In fact, if the entire school is pointing and laughing at me in the carpool lane at pickup today, I am totally okay with that.  Like, I'm not even worrying about that.  That's how okay I am.

And next year, I am totally showing up with a box of 26 shamrock SMOOTHIES.  And, now, this birthday is officially over.  

Daily Meal Plan

I am a little nervous about writing this post and have debated how to best approach this.  I think I made a mistake when I posted the information from Dr. Oz on eating for your body type.  I got an email from someone saying they were unsure what their body type is and could they email me a picture.  Sure, no problem.  So, I got the email with the picture and a note saying, I am so embarassed because I know I am fat everywhere and I can't believe I am sending you a picture of myself.  And, I am sitting there, looking at this picture of this beautiful and courageous woman and I can just feel her shame.  And I wanted to say something profound to her, but I didn't.  Instead, I sent back a quick reply of "you are an apple body shape, you should follow these.....recommendations.  Best of luck to you!"

What I really wanted to say to her is this....you are a soul, a spirit, a personality.....you are your talents, your strengths, your fears, your sense of humor, your likes, your dislikes, your love, your passions, your spirituality.  The vessel that carries YOU is apple-shaped.  You are not your body shape. When you die, nobody is going to cry and say, "I will miss her so much, she was such a skinny girl."

So, can we please stop confusing who we are with what our bodies look like?  Can we please stop defining our self worth based on what size jeans we wear?  Can we stop being embarassed by pictures of ourselves?  I hope so, because I've got a doozy to share with you.....

That's me.  Seven years and 50 pounds ago.  And that is not baby weight.  That is "I weigh more when my baby is 15 months old than I did 9 months pregnant" weight.  Have you ever noticed that when someone is really stressed they either gain a lot of weight or lose a lot of weight?  What is it about food that it plays such an important role in our lives?  I don't know the answers, but I do think that if we can change our perspectives on food we can change the role that food plays in our lives.  How many of us reach for a bell pepper when we are stressed?  I am guessing most of us head for the pantry and reach for something in a box with the words high-fructose corn syrup, refined sugar, and enriched on it.  And that is why we need to eliminate our dependence on processed foods, right? 

I want to share with you something I saw on pinterest.  Seeing as I have been known to flip the double bird and scream "I hate you" at my scale, I am tempted to do this at home.

I also wanted to share a quote from JK Rowling.  You may have heard of her, she's written a few books. 

"Is 'fat' really the worst thing a human being can be? Is 'fat' worse than 'vindictive', 'jealous', 'shallow', 'vain', 'boring' or 'cruel'? Not to me."

Now, am I advocating we all be fat and happy?  Um, no.  I am advocating we all be healthy and happy.  So, how do we get there?  The diet that most of us should follow is this.....eat lean protein, good fat, complex carbohydrates and avoid simple carbohydrates.  While I don't advocate strictly counting calories, be mindful of how many you are consuming.  You can use a calorie counter like this to get an idea of what you should consume.  Here's a breakdown of what you should eat.

lean protein:  seafood, poultry, eggs, beans, lean beef, dairy, and soy
good fat (avoid saturated and trans fat):  monounsaturated fat (sunflower, saflower, hazlenut, olive, canola, avocado, almond, peanut, cod liver oils; seafood; nuts and nut butters) and polyunsaturated fat (fish, flaxseed, walnuts, legumes, and seeds)
complex carbohydrates: vegetables, fruit, beans, and whole grains

A typical day could be this:
breakfast: 2 avocado eggs, sweet mini bell peppers
snack:  spinach smoothie
lunch:  quinoa and black beans (see below) apple
snack:  celery and peanut butter (ants on a log!)
dinner:  grilled chicken breast with spinach and beet salad

Quinoa and black beans

• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels
• 2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic, and saute until lightly browned.
2. Mix quinoa into the saucepan and cover with vegetable broth. Season with cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes,
3. Stir frozen corn into the saucepan, and continue to simmer about 5 minutes until heated through. Mix in the black beans and cilantro.

Doable, right?  And we're all in agreement, right?  We're going to eat right, exercise, and enjoy life! 

Does anyone here love to snack?  I know I sure do!  We eat a lot of air-popped popcorn, and I was pleasantly surprised to read that there are some nutritional benefits of eating popcorn.   I recently bought a bottle of butter flavored grapeseed oil from Wildtree.  Oh. My. Delish.  I pop it on the stove with a covered saucepan.  It's so easy and we all love it.  So, for times that you really are craving a cracker/chips snack, reach for some popcorn instead!