meat loaf

from my friend Gina Larson

2 lbs ground beef
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup grated carrot
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup barbecue sauce
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. sage

combine all ingredients, mix well. Place in 9x6 pan or 8 inch square.
Bake at 350 for 1 hour.
Remove from oven, pour off excess juices. Spoon enough meatloaf sauce to cover top. Reserve additional sauce for passing. Return to oven and bake for 20 more minutes or until done.
(sometimes I add a chopped up green or red pepper, if I have one)


meatloaf Sauce:
2 cups ketchup
1 cup brown sugar

mix and heat in microwave.

*and you have to serve meatloaf with green beans and a backed potato! yummy.

power smoothie

Julia was a little skeptical of the spinach smoothie, but she ended up wanting seconds!
Recipe by Our Best Bites

1 cup orange juice (preferably the good stuff, like the not-from-concentrate orange juice)
3 tablespoons oat groats or 2 tablespoons steel cut oats (optional…kind of…)*
3/4 cup fat-free vanilla Greek yogurt (make sure it’s Greek and not Greek-style)
1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries
3 cups baby spinach leaves
1 1/2 cups crushed ice

*To help your blender out, you can soak the oak groats in the orange juice overnight (either in the jar of your blender or in in a glass). This will make it easier to blend and will also eliminate a lot of the grittiness from the oats.

Combine ingredients in the jar of your blender and blend. You may (read: probably will) need to run it through twice. Serve immediately. Makes 1 giant smoothie, 2 smaller smoothies, or 3 snack-sized smoothies.