Valentine's Dinner

I hope everyone had a beautiful Valentine's Day. :) We take it easy on Valentine's - no big gifts or celebrations - just a good dinner and time together with, maybe, a card or flowers.

Ryan had to work til 7 last night, so dinner was my treat. He requested meatloaf, which I shaped into a heart to make it more Valentine's-ish.

Here's the meatloaf before baking...

My Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground chuck from The Choppin' Block
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, minced and cooked in skillet until almost clear
• 1 green bell pepper, diced and cooked in skillet until soft
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 can of diced tomatoes or Original Ro Tel, drained (optional...I don't always used tomatoes)
• 3/4 tsp oregano
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup Panko Bread Crumbs
• 1/4 cup spaghetti sauce - keep the jar of sauce out, you'll use more after you combine all the ingredients to make the loaf (I used Ragu Light Tomato Basil, but you can use any kind)
• 1 egg, beaten

Put dry ingredients in a small bowl and stir together well. Break up the ground chuck with your hands into a large mixing bowl. Put all ingredients in the bowl with the meat and mix together with your hands. Be careful not to handle it too much, or it won't stick together as well.

Form the meat mixture into a loaf (or whatever shape) and pour spaghetti sauce over the top to cover the whole loaf. Put it in a meatloaf pan, if you have one. I don't have one, so I just layered a sheet of aluminum foil along a glass baking dish, sprayed it with non-stick spray, and placed my meatloaf heart in it. Cook at 425 for approximately 45 minutes.

Our sides were Broccoli and Garlic Creamed Potatoes. I cut the fresh broccoli into florets and cooked in a medium-sized pot on the stove...brought water to a slow boil with broccoli in it and then turned off the eye. The heated water will continue to cook the broccoli to the perfect texture.

For the potatoes, I peeled and cubed two small Idaho potatoes, and put them in a small pot with water and two finely minced garlic cloves. I let it simmer until the potatoes were very soft. Then, removed them from the heat and added a Tbsp of butter, a tsp of salt, a tsp of black pepper and a splash of 2% milk. Combined it all with an electric mixer. I continued to add milk until the potatoes were as creamy as I wanted them (probably a total of approximately 1/4 cup of milk was used). I taste-tested and added a couple of dashes of garlic powder and a few more dashes of salt and pepper. Remember when it comes to salt and pepper: you can always add but you can't take away.

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