Mini Mondays- Mini Meatloaf

Oh my gosh, blogger fail.  Not only have I been horrible at posting at all lately (something which Cole points out on a regular basis), but I'm just not getting around to posting Mini Mondays with only 2 hours left in the day.  I hope y'all can forgive me.

Anyway, when I was thinking about what I could for Mini Mondays this month, I was really at a loss.  So I was thinking, and thinking, and thinking and I finally came up with a stroke of genius.  I'm know, I know, I'm totally modest, right?  Well, my stroke of genius was mini meatloaf!  I can't take any credit for this really; Cole's mom used to make meatloaf this way.  I'll admit when he first suggested baking meatloaf in a bell pepper I was pretty skeptical.  I have had one experience with stuff bell peppers in my life, and let's just say it was not a good one (think mushy rice filling and even mushier peppers; yuck).  These are nothing like that.  The peppers stay nice crisp and are the perfect vessel for the meatloaf.

Mini Meatloaf

What you need:

1 lb ground beet

4 whole bell peppers

1/2 cup oatmeal

1 egg

1 small yellow or white onion, diced

4-5 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2-3 tsp. Salt

3 tsp. Pepper

1 T Garlic powder

1 T Cayenne pepper

1/2 T Chili powder

1/2 T Thyme

3 T Ketchup

2 T yellow mustard

1 1/2 T dijon mustard

What you do:

Preheat oven to 350*

Cut the bell peppers in half and remove the seeds and core inside.  Then saute the onion and garlic until the onions are barely translucent.  I like mine with still a little bit of bite, but if you want them really soft go ahead and knock yourself out.  Then mix the hamburger together with the onions, garlic, and the rest of the listed ingredients.  The amounts listed are more of guidelines, season the meatloaf to your taste (or if you have your own recipe, by all means use that).  A good way to test if you've seasoned it enough is to take a little piece and cook it on the stove real quick.  There is nothing worse than underseasoned meatloaf (believe me, I made that mistake last time I made this).  Divide the meatloaf into equal sized portions and stuff it in each pepper half.  Bake for 30 minutes.  I served mine with mashed potatoes and salad.  Next time I think I'll make it with mashed potatoes and corn because that's what I always had with meatloaf growing up (and plus it's corn season, and I'd eat corn on the cob 3 times a day if I could).

  

Look how cute these are!  And they are the perfect serving size.  I usually eat 1-2, Cole will eat 3 and then I'll have a few to take to work for lunch for the next few days.  

Homemade Pizza

Fact: Pizza is delicious.  Homemade pizza is EVEN MORE delicious, because you can customize it however you want and add tons and tons of toppings.  Pizza places are SO stingy when it comes to toppings.  Am I right?  For a while Cole and I were making our homemade pizzas with the Jiffy crust mix, and for a box mix it's actually really good.  But, it's really easy to make 100% homemade.  You can even make a double (or triple) batch and store the extra dough in the freezer.  Then you just pull it out in the morning, and *bam* you have homemade pizza in 30 minutes or less at night!

Pizza Dough

(adapted from The Pioneer Woman)

What you need:

1 tsp yeast

3/4 warm water (not boiling, not lukewarm)

2 cups flour

3/4 tsp salt

3 T olive oil

Various seasonings of your choice (I use garlic, oregano and Italian seasoning)

What you do:

Sprinkle yeast over warm water.  Let stand for a few minutes and do it's thing.  Meanwhile, in a mixer combine the flour and salt.  With the mixer on low slowly drizzle in the olive oil.  Then pour the yeast/water mixture and mix until just combined.  The dough will be sticky. 

 Coat a separate bowl with a little bit of olive oil.  Form the dough into a ball and toss it in the olive oil.  Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let it rise for a 1-2 hours.  

*Note- According to the Pioneer Woman, you can store the dough in the fridge and until you need it and it's best to make the dough at least 24 hours in advance.  I'll be honest, I never think about it early enough.  I usually decide that afternoon I want pizza, so I make the dough then.  Or I'll pull the pre-made dough out of the freezer in the morning before I go to work.

Now it's time for the toppings.  You can go crazy and use whatever your little heart desires.  Our pizzas are always insane, giant monstrosities.  Every time we make one we are like "Next time we're going to cool it on the toppings a little."  And you know what, we never do.  This time, we went with fresh mozzarella cheese (in the very back), bell peppers, tomatoes, and jalapenos.  We cooked up some ground breakfast sausage too to throw on there.  So good.  For sauce, I just take canned tomato sauce and mix in some fresh chopped garlic, a little bit of garlic powder, oregano, and Italian seasoning.  

Preheat the oven to 475*, and make sure your rack is in the bottom half of the oven.  Roll out your pizza dough and put it on a pizza pan (or cookie sheet, or pizza stone, whatever you have).  I fold over the edges a big to make a crust, but that's mostly because my pan is a little too small for the amount of dough this recipe makes.  A big pizza pan is on my "to get" list. Spread the sauce on the dough.  When I'm using fresh mozzarella slices I like to put the cheese underneath the toppings.  I don't know why that is, but I just like it better that way.  If I'm using grated mozzarella I put the cheese on top of the toppings.  I'm weird, I know.  Anyway, I digress.  Add the rest of your toppings (or in my case, pile the rest of your toppings on top of the pizza).  

Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.  My oven is kind of weird and lame (a new oven is also on my list of wants, but I don't think that's happening anytime soon) so my crust really isn't golden brown, but it still tastes good.  Let the pizza cool for a few minutes when you pull it out of the oven, slice and enjoy.  

Really, it's so easy to make your own dough.  And if you make a lot at one time you can freeze the extras and if you remember to pull it out of the freezer in the morning you can have delicious homemade pizza that night in less time than it would take you to order a delivery.  To me, the key to this is adding seasoning to the dough.  It really pushes it over the top.