Deer Meat!!!!

When an 86 year old woman gives you her meat loaf recipe, you cherish it! You think "there can be no better meat loaf recipe than this meat loaf recipe!". This is a recipe that needs to be passed from generation to generation and must always be your go to recipe. This is how I feel about our neighbor Bea's recipe. She passed away a year ago, and I learned little secrets from her not only about her meat loaf, but also about apple pies and kettle corn. So it's understandable that I would have my reservations about making meat loaf with another recipe, but I did.

This week I tried the Turkey Meatloaf recipe from "Double Delicious". Of course I changed the recipe a bit. The recipe calls for 2 lbs. of lean ground Turkey, but I used ground Deer Meat, because that's what we eat in our house. I mixed in some sausage per Don's request simply because Deer Meat has very little fat. I think next time I might just be able to use the Deer Meat. The recipe also calls for 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon onion powder, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/3 cup breadcrumbs, 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, 3 large egg whites, 1/2 cup carrot puree ( I used sweet potato because I had some made already), 1/2 cup cauliflower puree.  Mix everything together and put in a 9x5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray and bake 50-55 minutes.

I have to say, it turned out pretty well. I enjoyed it, Travis enjoyed it, and to my surprise, Don even said he thought it was better than Bea's. All I could think about was that she, much like my own 86 year old grandmother, would love the fact that it was "healthy" and had veggies hidden in it. After all, she made her pie crusts with Canola Oil so they would be healthier!

A couple days later we had some meat left to use, so I decided to make the Burgers 1 recipe from "Deceptively Delicious" (there are 2 hamburger recipes in this book).

Again the recipe called for 1/2 lb. lean ground turkey and I used the Deer Meat and sausage combo. 1/2 cup breadcrumbs, 1/2 cup cauliflower puree, 1/4 cup skim milk,  2 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 cloves garlic, 1/8 teaspoon pepper, 1 tablespoon olive oil,  whole grain dinner rolls. Stir together all the ingredients (except the olive oil, that's for the pan) and mold into hamburger patties.

We were going to try and cook these on the grill, but the weather turned wicked and Don didn't want to be outside on the front porch, and I don't blame him. We wound up using my pampered chef stone pan to broil them in the oven, which turned out great. So even healthier probably than frying them in the pan. We paired it with potatoes and peppers which were also roasted in the oven. We ate the burgers on Thomas' whole wheat english muffins, and it was great!

I don't yet know what I will make for this weeks recipes. I'll have to think about that tonight. Now at 33 weeks pregnant I am beyond the point where I stopped running with Travis. I ran a mile on Saturday and Sunday at the track along with some drills and hope to get another mile in today.  But I must say, my belly has gotten to that point where I am amazed that it can stretch this far and I am convinced it will never go back again! It's quite a sight!