Just another Meatloaf Monday!

This post is late…about a week late to be exact.  Last week, we had Sunny Anderson’s meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans for dinner.  The actual name of the meatloaf dish is, “Meatloaf is the Way to My Heart as Long as it Has a Kick and Potatoes are Around.”  LOL!

It debuted on “Cooking for Real” that Sunday and we ran out to get the ingredients the very next day.  What I like about Sunny’s dishes is that they are relatively straightforward and don’t require a boatload of ingredients that you’ve never heard of or don’t have a chance of finding.  There might be one out-of-the-box ingredient, but she almost always tells you what you can substitute for it if you can’t find it.  So, when she said purple mashed potatoes I got a little nervous since I had never even heard of a purple potato.

It looked downright WEIRD, but we figured if anyone would have it, it would be Wegman’s.  To no avail, we stopped first at the grocery store closest to home cuz gas is almost 4 bucks a gallon.  Instead, we trooped all the way across town knowing we would strike gold (or purple, rather).  Not quite.  The grocer said they only get them sporadically and in fact, just had some yesterday but they were all gone. Who ELSE is buying PURPLE POTATOES????  Was everyone watching “Cooking for Real?”

😦 😦 😦 😦

Sunny said we could use Yukon Gold instead (I think), so that’s what we got.

Ingredients:  Ground beef, ground turkey, egg, sea salt, black peppercorn, garlic, thyme, potato bread, apple cider vinegar, smoked paprika (couldn’t find sweet paprika), vidalia onion, worcestershire sauce, ketchup, sriracha hot chili sauce, and more.

Per the recipe, I chopped and diced and mixed everything together for the meatloaf.  I took a quick taste of the chili sauce and it was HOT!  Just like I like it!

Tore the meat into small pieces and gently interspersed it with the toasted potato bread.  Mine was a little toastier than Sunny’s (I forgot I had put the slices in the toaster and started doing something else); hopefully not a deal breaker.  Once it was all layered, I very carefully mixed it with ONE hand so it wouldn’t be over mixed.

I happened to have a bread loaf pan that I bought to make banana bread and it was perfect for the meatloaf.

Packed in and ready to go into the oven, I topped it with the ketchup and chili sauce mix.

….and into the oven she went.

Started the potatoes boiling with a few garlic cloves.  Man, I wished they were purple.  This was around the time I considered using food coloring…..what?  Who would know???? I wanted purple potatoes!!!  WAAAAHHHHH!

In the meantime, I cut the ends off of the green beans and cooked the onions.

I added the chicken stock and let the onions and green beans cook until tender.

Once the potatoes were firm, but tender with a fork, I mashed and added the cheeses and panko to the top.  The thing that really sounded good about this was the Pepper Jack, one of my favorite cheeses.  I could only imagine how it was gonna taste.

In about an hour, the meatloaf was ready.  Poured off the juice and sliced.

Plated and ready to go!

So what did I think of this dish?

Another WINNER for Sunny!!!

The sriracha chili sauce added a whole other dimension to the meatloaf.  Talk about a kick!!  I could taste it on top as well as infused nicely throughout the meat.  Very nice touch.  I also liked the texture of the meatloaf.  Meatloaf is not one of my favorite dishes because of the soft texture in most common recipes.  But, this was firm, almost burger-like, but not quite. I also couldn’t tell that there were two different meats mixed in, which is good when trying to cut back on ground beef.  There was a lot of juice that I poured off, but it was still juicy and yummy. We normally put bacon on top of meatloaf so that the grease from the bacon seeps into the meat.  Sort of defeats the healthy eating attempt, but still might be an interesting twist to this dish in the future.

Since I’m not REAAAALLY a cook, I often go for canned veggies, but I’m trying to get away from that.  So, the green bean side was right on time.  The freshness of the green beans was…refreshing…no residual can taste.  They had a slight crunch because I didn’t cook them as long as Sunny suggested.  Overall, the onions and chicken stock gave a smooth, buttery taste that I really enjoyed.

Finally, the purple mashed potatoes that weren’t purple… Again, the combination of ingredients was perfect.  The slight spiciness (is this a word?) of the Pepper Jack, the crunch of the bread crumbs, and the rich heavy cream made for something quite exciting going on in my mouth.  It was rich and decadent and smelled just as delicious as it tasted.  All buttery and cheesy and yummy!

As you can see, I thoroughly enjoyed this meal, as did my family.  The only complaint was that the green beans weren’t “as tender as hers.” <—–(Sunny’s) My hubby taped/watched the episode with me.

Next time, next time…..

If you decide to try it, let me know!

Good work, Sunny!