Recipe: Very Veggie Meatloaf

Since I have a little more time on my hands, I have been trying to experiment with some of my favorite foods. And meatloaf is one of them! Currently, I am a (sometimes) stay at home mom. I say sometimes because last Sunday was my first day back at my part-time job. Work was exactly how I remembered it, the only thing that was different was ME. I missed my daughter Alana the entire time and couldn't stop thinking and worrying about her too.

How could you not love this face?

                                                        
But during my time at home with my lovely little one, I have found creative ways to pass the time. I have recently become obsessed with watching food network clips online. I've always been obsessed with watching food network, but now I can refine my search and watch whatever recipe I want. Sounds awesome to me!!! So I've been doing some research on how to make meatloaf juicier and more wholesome. Since my previous meatloaves have been on the dried side.
So I have a recipe that I really love and I want to share it with you...

The Ingredients 

(sorry I forgot to get the ketchup and hot sauce before I took the picture)

Ingredients:
2- 1 pound packages of extra lean ground beef
1- large yellow onion
1- 8 ounce package of button mushrooms
1- large zucchini
1-green bell pepper
1-large egg
1/2- can of tomato sauce
1- tbsp of tomato paste
2- tbsp of vegetable oil
1-cup of plain breadcrumbs
1 -tsp of dried thyme
1/2- cube of bouillon
1/4-cup of water
3-tbsp of ketchup (not pictured)
1-tbsp of hot sauce (not pictured)

Directions:
Step one: Chop up your onion and green  pepper. Add the oil to a medium high heated saute pan. Add in your veggies. Saute until heated through and beginning to wilt. 
Step two: Now finely chop up you mushrooms and add them to the pan with the onions and bell pepper.
Step three: Allow your veggies to sweat out. Then add in the tomato paste, thyme, bouillon, and 1/4 cup of water.
Step four: Chop up the zucchini and add them to the pot of veggies. Mix in the zucchini, and remove the pot from the heat so that the veggies will cool down to room temp.
Step five: Now in a mixing bowl, beat one egg. Then add in the bread crumbs and the ground meat.
Step six: Once the veggies have cooled, add them to the mixing bowl. Mix everything together.
Step seven: In a Pyrex baking pan form the meat mixture into a loaf.
Step eight: In a separate bowl mix together the tomato sauce, the ketchup, and hot sauce. Pour half of this mixture on top of the meatloaf. (The other half we used as extra sauce on the side) Bake in a 400 degree oven for 1 hour.

Step by step photos

Add the green bell pepper and onion first. I do this because I like for these veggies to be really wilted

Add the mushrooms. Remember to chop them up finely, because we do not want big chunks of mushrooms in our meatloaf.

Get them nice an sweaty.

Add the thyme, tomato paste, and bouillon. And some water. This is the moisture layer in your meatloaf.

Now add in the zucchini. I add them in last so they keep a firm texture.

In a separate bowl add in a beaten egg and bread crumbs

I snapped this pic because I realized the I pick up two different packages of meat. Opps! Next time I will be sure to only get the extra lean beef. As you can tell in the picture, the regular ground beef is fattier.

Add in the cooled veggies and beef to the egg mixture.

Mix it all together.

Form the mixture into a loaf

Mix together the ketchup, hot sauce, and tomato sauce

Put the tomato mixture on to of your loaf

Bake at 400 degrees for an hour. And Enjoy!!!

 I hope you try this recipe! Sorry I do not have a picture of it plated. By the time it was done this mama was really impatient (hungry) and just wanted to eat! I will be making this again, so I will update the picture. Promise!!!

To Health, Love, and Happiness,