#9: Dinner

I rocked out another delicious dinner this evening, thanks to some minor assistance from K. Last night, I mixed up my Southwestern Meatloaf and stored it in the fridge. Just before 6pm, as I was getting ready to leave the office, I called K and asked him to preheat the oven and put the meatloaf in when it was ready. The meatloaf takes 50 minutes to cook, so I knew it needed to get going close to six. I also made green beans (frozen, in the microwavable steaming pouch) and little tasty potatoes. I bought a 1 pound bag of small white potatoes (there's probably a technical name for these, I just don't know it), scrubbed them, and boiled them for 20 minutes until they were fork tender. I drained the water, chopped them into bite-sized pieces. I added a pat of butter, salt, pepper, and a little garlic powder, stirred them up, and YUM.

Southwestern Meatloaf
(adapted from Cooking Light)

Ingredients
1 pound lean ground beef
1 cup frozen whole-kernel corn
1/2 cup + 1/4 cup salsa (divided)
1/3 cup regular oats
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 large egg white
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 375°.
Combine first 8 ingredients in a large bowl; stir well. Shape meat mixture into a 9 x 4-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Brush 1/4 cup salsa over meat loaf.
Bake at 375° for 50 minutes. Let meat loaf stand 10 minutes before slicing.
Note: To prepare the meat loaf in advance, shape the ground beef mixture into a loaf, wrap in heavy-duty plastic wrap, and freeze. Thaw overnight in refrigerator; bake as directed above.