Meatloaf Formula

This is one of the first things I learned how to cook post-vegetarianism. It's easy, delicious, and highly flexible.

This recipe scales well to a 1/2 recipe using: 2 lbs. meat, 2 eggs, and half of all other ingredients (including the sauce) & a 1 hour cook time. A full recipe is a quite large, so I recommend starting with a half.

Meatloaf Formula

makes 12 meal-sized servings

Ingredients:

Loaf:
3-4 lbs. ground meat*
0-3 cups vegetables, diced small**
6 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 cups grains***
3 eggs

2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

2 Tbs. herbs and spices****
8-16 oz. cheese***** (optional for cheese-stuffed)

Sauce:
1/2 cup onion puree (~1 onion)
3/4 cup BBQ sauce
1/4 cup mustard
1/4 cup sweetener (honey, agave, maple syrup)
1/4 cup hot sauce (sriracha, valentina's)
4 Tbs. tomato paste

Pan:

vegetables for bottom of roasting pan******

Instructions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 375F.
2. Combine ground meat, diced vegetables, garlic, grains, eggs, s&p and herbs/spices. Combine well with hands or sturdy wooden spoon.
3. In a 11" x 9" pan (large roasting pan) spread Pan vegetables to cover bottom of pan.
4. Dump meatloaf mix onto counter.
- If stuffing with cheese: flatten into a rectangle shorter than long side of pan, 1" thick. Place cheese filling in the middle, and gently roll up sides of  loaf and pinch seam together. Carefully transfer to pan, flipping so seam side is down.
- If NOT stuffing with cheese: form loaf that is several inches shorter than long side of pan.

5. Make sure the meatloaf is centered in the pan, not touching any of the sides. This will create better texture on the meatloaf and prevent sticking to the pan. Flatten the top to give maximum surface area for the sauce.

6. Combine all sauce ingredients. Pour over loaf, trying to keep sauce from dripping over side of loaf and down onto pan.
7. Cook for 1.5-2 hours, until internal temperature reads 165F. Let rest 10-15 minutes before cutting into after taking out of oven.

* Ground Meat Examples:
- Traditional: 2-3 lbs. ground beef + 1 lb. ground pork
- Premium: 2-3 lbs. ground bison + 1 lb. lardons
- Poultry: 2-3 lbs. ground turkey + 1 lb. bacon

** Loaf Vegetable Examples:

Vegetables need to be diced very fine so they don't compromise the structural integrity of the meatloaf. I recommend using raw veggies but you can use cooked.
- Traditional: 1 onion + 1 green bell pepper
- Summer Garden: 1 cup shredded & squeezed zucchini + 1 cup onion + 1 cup shredded kale

*** Grain Examples:
- Traditional: oats (any) or bread-crumbs
- Alternatives: rice, barley, quinoa

**** Herb & Spice examples:
- Traditional: Italian seasoning
- Indian: garam masala, turmeric, chili powder, toasted cumin and mustard seeds
- French: oregano, rosemary, thyme

***** Cheese examples:

- Cheddar, mozzarella, herbed goat cheese log, brie chopped with cranberries, cream cheese mixed with chopped pecans

****** Pan Vegetables:

You want, at minimum, a thin layer of veg at the bottom to prevent burning and sticking of the meatloaf to the pan. The meatloaf drippings also make the vegetables delicious. You can go heavy here on the veg though if you'd like it to be a built-in side dish. Do not slice or chop your veg too small, as the meatloaf has a long cook time and you may run the risk of burn and over cooked veggies.

- minimum; 2 lbs. onion, cut into big slices/wedges/half moons or large diced

- heavy: 5 lbs. potatoes, large cubed and 2 lbs. onions

Quiche forumla

First post!

After many years of blogging on finderseaters.blogspot.com, I find myself wanting to start anew. I started FindersEaters while I was a student at college, during my decade of vegetarianism. After having a lot more cooking experience, and life experience in general, I'm ready to get back to serious blogging. The reason I blog is to have recipes and a document of what I have made, to be able to refer back to and reproduce/improve on in the future. Also, I blog to be able to share what I've found and done with friends.

I've picked up quite a few skills and hobbies that I wish to blog about as well. I will continue to tinker with and improve old recipes from FindersEaters, in addition to finding and create new recipes, but I aim make this a much more thoroughly tested and polished living instructional blog than what I've done previously.

To start off, I'm going to give the equation for my quiche recipe. Quiche is something I've been making for a very long time, and fairly consistently. It's easy and cheap to make, you can make it over the weekend and it lasts well as a quick warm breakfast throughout the week. I may post specific quiche recipes over time, but this the generic quiche formula I use. As you will see, it's extremely forgiving and, like stir fry, you can pretty much use whatever you happen to have on hand! Great way to use up left-over meat, vegetables, cheese, or milk.

Note: I make my quiches in a traditional French tart pan, ~10.5" like this. Normal pie-pans are generally smaller, and you will need to adjust your recipe sizes accordingly. 

Quiche

Ingredients:
crust:
1 cup flour
1 stick butter, softened
pinch of salt
2-6 Tbs. ice water

fillings:
1.5 cups cooked meat
1 - 2 cup cooked vegetables
seasoning of choice

custard:
6 eggs
1 cup milk, half & half, or cream
salt & pepper
seasoning of choice

toppings (optional):
2 cup cheese, shredded or crumbled (optional)
1 Tbs. mustard
3-4 tomatoes, cut into cross-section sandwich slices (as thick or thin as you like)
salt

Instructions:
crust:
1. In a food processor*, add flour and salt and pulse a few times to combine. Add butter chunks to processor, and pulse until mixture crumbly in texture.
2. Add cold water, tablespoon at a time, pulsing only a couple of times between additions until dough looks like it is JUST starting to come together.
3. Dump out dough onto lightly floured surface, and use your hands to just combine dough into a ball. Flatten into a smooth disk, cover with plastic wrap, and let rest in fridge for 30-60 minutes**.
4. After dough has rested in the refrigerator, pre-heat oven to 350F. Unwrap dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll out into a circle. Line your tart pan with the dough, gently pressing into crevices. Trim excess dough, or fold back down over into edge.
5. With a fork, poke holes all over the bottom of the crust***. Blind-bake the crust in the over for 10-15 minutes, until just starting to turn golden-brown in places.
6. Let crust cool before using.

filling:
1. Cook your meat of choice, adding a bit of salt, pepper and spices/herbs of choice. Drain fat, and shred/dice/crumble meat. Set aside.
2. Dice/slice/grate your vegetables, and cook adding a bit of salt, pepper, and spices/herbs of choice. Drain excess liquid and set aside. You should have about 1 - 2 cups cooked vegetables.

custard:
1. In a large bowl, combine eggs, milk, salt and pepper, and seasoning of choice. Whisk together until well combined. Set aside.
2. If using cheese that you want incorporated throughout, whisk into custard mix.

quiche assembly:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350F.
2. In your cooled, blind-baked crust: lightly brush mustard on the base of your crust, just enough to cover.
3. Place meat into crust, spreading out evenly.
4. Layer vegetables over meat, spreading out evenly.
5. If using filling cheese that is crumbly, chunky or sour cream; dollop across quiche now.
6. Pour custard over quiche.
7. Sprinkle shredded or sliced cheese
8. Place slices of tomato across surface of the quiche. As much or little as you want. Sprinkle tomato slices with salt.
9. Bake quiche for 35-50 minutes, until cheese on top is golden-brown and center of quiche does not jiggle.

* If you do not have a food processor, you can do this process by hand using a pastry cutter or a fork. You can also use a pre-prepared crust.

** You can skip this step, but I don't recommend it. Your crust will be much less flaky, and will shrink in the pre-baking.
** You can freeze your dough at this point. When you want to use it, let defrost in the refrigerator overnight, or on the counter for 30 mins to an hour, until pliable. Don't let it get to room temperature, you still want it cold when you roll it out.

*** Alternatively, you can line your crust with parchment paper and use pie weights (or dried-beans). I find the hole method easier and faster, personally.

Suggestions and Variations:
vegetarian: instead of meat, use vegetarian meat substitutes like vegetarian breakfast sausage cooked and diced up, or vegetarian crumbles. You can also just add more vegetables in place of the meat and this will still be a filling nutritious entrée.

sour cream: instead of using cheese in the filling, you can dollop in sour cream after layering the vegetables. This creates delicious baked-cheese clusters across your quiche.

ricotta: instead of using cheese in the filling, you can dollop ricotta after layering in the vegetables.

spinach: if using spinach as one of or your only vegetable, I recommend whisking in the cooked spinach with your custard. Otherwise, the spinach forms an impenetrable layer across your quiche and the custard has difficulty making it down to the meat/bottom crust layers.

asparagus: instead of placing a layer of sliced tomatoes on top, place full lengths of blanched, lightly-sautéed, or grilled asparagus with the heads pointing to the center of the quiche like a wagon wheel.

potato crust: you can make a potato crust using layered potatoes, lightly tossed in olive oil and salt.

crust-less: you can go crust-less and make this a frittata. Instead of using a quiche pan, you can just leave your meat/vegetables in the pan where you cooked them, pour in the custard and cheese and mix everything together before baking.

bacon + broccoli + cheddar

sausage + spinach + ricotta

shredded chicken + red bell pepper + onion + asparagus instead of tomato on top