Recipe: Mom's Tricky Meat Loaf

The Newsy Neighbour Magazine

November Issue 109

www.thenewsyneighbour.com

by Denise Geremia for The Newsy Neighbour Magazine

There are some bad moms out there. You know the kind – who let their kids eat processed cheese slices, give them processed meats in their lunch sandwiches, and give them *gasp* cereal for breakfast.

Ok. I’m not describing any other mom but myself. I literally did all of that on Tuesday. Hashtag bad moms club.

Getting my kids to eat vegetables is getting harder and harder as they get older, especially now that their adamant “NO!” is loud enough for the neighbours to hear – and the neighbour is a teenager ready for babysitting age, so I need to give the illusion that my kids are angels. Am I hurting them? No. I am feeding them broccoli. I mean, realistically, by suppertime, I’ve already argued with these little demons for roughly 14 hours straight so forcing beets or caramelized carrots down their throats is the last on my list of things to do. Numbers 1-5 include the hot tub and ear plugs.

But these little dummies have been eating so healthy the last couple of weeks and they seriously have no idea! So I’m writing an article about it. I’m letting you all in a little secret. The secret of getting these picky, hot-dogs-only-on-the-menu, Brussels-sprouts-hating children to eat vegetables without even knowing.

Mom’s Tricky Meat Loaf

My kids love beef. Taco Tuesday is literally Taco Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday in our house. This recipe works for taco beef as well, wouldn’t you know. And while they’re gobbling it up, saying “NO!” to the offer of a tiny little piece of lettuce on their taco, or an even tinier piece of tomato, you can smile at them with an evil grin, knowing full well they are getting soooo many vegetables in their little tummies and they are completely oblivious.

Ingredients

2 lbs of ground beef

2 eggs

1 cup ketchup

1-2 cups cheese (really, however much you want)

1 tbsp dry mustard

½ sleeve of Premium Plus salted crackers (you can substitute dry bread crumbs)

1.       In a hand blender, blend all the vegetables. Heck, throw in any others you may want them to eat. Throw some lentil beans even! The key to grinding up the vegetables is to make it SO FINE that they can’t see them. If there is even one piece of pepper that’s bigger than their pinky fingernail, they will learn of your betrayal and all future trickiness will be over. Your only job in life during this portion of the recipe is to put EVERYTHING YOU’VE GOT into making sure the vegetables are ground into the absolute finest pieces imaginable.

2.       In a bowl, put the uncooked, thawed beef. Add the dry mustard, the eggs, cheese (the more cheese the better), and the crackers. Add the ketchup. When the demon children aren’t looking, throw in the vegetables. Add more crackers if the mixture isn’t thick enough.

3.       Mix everything together, either with a spoon or your hands.

4.       Put the mixture into a pan. I personally use cupcake pans, and cook it for less time. I have also used a large loaf pan.

5.       Bake. For a full cupcake pan, bake for 35 minutes at 350°F. For a large loaf pan, bake at 350°F for a little over an hour.

6.       Smile an evil smile as your children (and husband) consume vegetables.