Addictive

I’m awaiting the return of my husband from work with cottage cheese so I can finish my cottage cheese chicken enchiladas for dinner (get the recipe here). They are delicious, and neither difficult nor expensive to make. They are also a favorite of my friends at work, so I’m sure if they read this, there will be phone calls with requests for leftovers.

This is the seventh day in a row (I think) that I have posted. I like this. I like to practice writing… er… typing. Sometimes I come off with decent stuff; sometimes, well, it is what it is. I am feeling better today than I did last night, however, and anticipating yet another snow day tomorrow. That said, I’m always in the mood for comfort food, especially on snowy, cold days, and I love meatloaf. I have a supervisor who says she never eats anything that ends with the words “ball” or “loaf,” so if you’re one of those people, skip ahead and find another post.

This is actually kind of my own recipe with borrowed elements from friends. It’s stuffed meatloaf. The original idea was my friend, Pam’s. One night, I wanted to make some, and I couldn’t find her recipe. I called my friend, Lisa, who was somewhat helpful, but couldn’t remember all of the ingredients. I thought surely my favorite recipe site would have a recipe for it. No dice. So I compiled elements of other “stuffed meatloaf” recipes I found to make my own, very simple, very tasty recipe, and tried it out on Jonathan a couple of times (he’s not one for meatloaf sometimes, either, but he decided this might be okay). So this might be on my list tomorrow for dinner. I find it to be quite addictive, and don’t think I could ever go back to plain meatloaf ever again…

Before I get to that, though, here is your ag tip of the day: people are afraid of hormones — estrogen in particular — in beef. Since I’m using ground beef in this recipe, this is somewhat apropos. Here are the numbers to put it in perspective… To use information from bovidiva.com, one eight-oz steak from a hormone-implanted steer = 5.1 ng of estrogen (one nanogram = 1-25 billionth of an ounce — 1/25,000,000 — that’s a lotta zeroes) = one blade of grass on a football field. It’s true that an eight-ounce steak from a non-implanted steer contains less estrogen — 42% less as a matter of fact, so about 3 ng. Consider this, however: an eight-ounce serving of cabbage = 5,411 ng of estrogen, and a birth control pill = 35,000 ng of estrogen. That’s over 1,000 times the amount of estrogen in the implanted steer. Many women put this into their bodies electively on a daily basis (I’ve heard of men having to do this, too, although not commonly, especially those with prostate disorders, so I’m not trying to be discriminatory). So don’t let anybody fool you: livestock producers in this country are trying really hard to make sure the food supply is safe, adequate, and nutritious. All of this information was shared at the annual ag conference we attended about a month ago. And here’s a link to Dr. Jude Capper’s blog with more complete information… The reason I don’t have another source up (USDA, FDA, etc.) is because this advocate for agriculture is the one who did the research and published her findings on her blog. She has been published in research journals on many occasions, given numerous presentations worldwide, and has been referenced in an awful lot of college classrooms, so I did my homework before I even put this up here to make sure the source was reputable and the findings accurate… And now for the recipe.

Stuffed Meatloaf

2 lbs ground beef

1 can minestrone or vegetable beef condensed soup

1 box stuffing mix

1 envelope onion soup mix

1 egg

Worcestershire sauce, molasses and brown sugar to taste

1 block cream cheese

1 package dry ranch dressing mix

ketchup and brown sugar as desired

In a large bowl, mix together the hamburger, soup, stuffing, onion soup mix, egg, Worcestershire sauce, molasses and brown sugar and divide in two after they are mixed. Separately, mix together the cream cheese and ranch dressing mix. place half of the hamburger mixture in the bottom of a baking dish. Spread the cream cheese mix on top, and then put the other half of the hamburger mix on top of that. Drizzle ketchup and brown sugar over that, and bake at 350 degrees for one hour.

When it comes out and you take a bite, you will be addicted, too. Thanks, Pam, for the introduction to this lovely dish, and Dr. Capper for the great information.