Mmm... meatloaf

The kids and I alternated meatloaf from the grocery store with a roast chicken from the grocery store every Wednesday for most of a year... until I had to go gluten-free. Now I still occasionally get the meatloaf for them but I can no longer have any -- instead I stare longingly at it. I didn't dare make one... the one attempt I made at making meatloaf years ago was a greasy, yucky, disaster. So inedible I threw it out.

Today, with the mess that is our kitchen, I REALLY needed some comfort food so I made meatloaf and mashed sweet potatoes.

The meatloaf was super-easy and came out absolutely delicious:

2/3lb ground beef

1/3 lb ground pork

1 carrot, 1/2 onion, 2 cloves garlic chopped really fine in the food processor (would be better sauteed)

1 egg

1 splash milk

1/4 c rolled oats (gf, of course!)

1 heel of gf bread

salt, pepper, etc to taste

Mix by hand, shape into a loaf, bake at 350 until internal temp reads 165. It even tastes great if you overcook it to 185 like I did. Oops. Forgot to set the alarm.

Oh... and I should have checked if we had ketchup for the all-important glaze. We didn't.

Chestnut Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting (GF)

I picked up a jar of sweetened chestnut purree at an import store. As I was looking on the internet for muffin recipes I came across Tartelette's Chestnut Cupcakes. I actually HAD all of the ingredients so I couldn't resist...
Substitutions marked below:
1 cup all-purpose flour 4 oz brown rice flour mix + .5 oz coconut flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick unsalted butter, softened Used 1/2 stick
1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/3 c
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar 1/3 c
2 large eggs, at room temperature
3 ounces chestnut puree
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 tsp guar or xanthan gum

I followed the recipe instruction exactly as written. I was too lazy to make piped frosting so I just melted the butter, cream cheese, and chocolate together in the microwave and stirred until smooth.

Oh WOW. I just finished eating one and they are out-of-this-world good. And decadent. Ben's review... "Oh. It's really good. You get a bite of chocolate and a little bit of nut. It is SO good."

Buckwheat Pancakes (Gluten Free)

Last night we had breakfast for dinner. That is one of my favorite meals... there is something decadent and comforting about eating pancakes with syrup and eggs for dinner...


Buckwheat Pancakes
1 c buckwheat flour
1/2 c rice or almond or regular wheat flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
2 T sugar
2 eggs
1.5 c buttermilk

Mix it all up and fry on medium heat. This is very buckwheaty... perfect if you like buckwheat (like we all do) but it may be a bit much if this is your first experiment with buckwheat. Oh... and you MUST eat it with real maple syrup...