April 25, 2007

Better than beef

Last night I made meatloaf for dinner. Normally, I make meatloaf with half beef and half lean turkey. Last night, though, I used 1/3 beef, 1/3 turkey, and 1/3 mushrooms. I buzzed the mushrooms in the food processor until they were the consistency of ground meat. Then I made the meatloaf using the other carefully measured ingredients I always use (i.e. - whatever I find in the pantry that looks good).

It was SO good. I didn't put salt in it, because I thought that the salt would pull too much moisture out of the mushrooms. The meatloaf was still pretty moist and fall-apart-y, so I'd use a little less mushrooms in relation to the meats next time, but MAN, was it good. The mushrooms took on the beefy flavor while cutting way down on the grease. The texture was great, and it made EXCELLENT cold meatloaf sandwiches today.

Who would have thought that mushrooms made it so much better?

Posted by Jen at April 25, 2007 11:37 AM
Comments

Interesting. I love mushrooms. Too bad I don't eat meat. Meatloaf was one of the last things I gave up when I gave up eating red meat. There were times when I just craved a meatloaf sandwich. And I made great meatloaf. I bet mushrooms would have made it even better. Maybe I should try mushroom loaf. :)

Posted by: susan at April 25, 2007 12:16 PM

I didn't realize that you were a vegetarian, Susan. Why did you give up meat? Or is it just red meat you gave up?

Posted by: Jen Rodis at April 25, 2007 1:42 PM

Makes sense to me. Where is my meatloaf sandwich?

Posted by: Yiayia at April 25, 2007 3:50 PM

I don't really call myself a vegetarian. I cut back on red meat a long time ago for the health reasons and eventually lost the craving for it. Then I cut back on the pork but I've never completely given up bacon. Finally a couple years back I just decided chicken isn't that appealing to me. If I'm at someone's home and they serve meat I eat it. If I'm in a restaurant and the soup has chicken or beef stock I may order it anyway. I guess I'm a semi vegetarian if there is such a thing. And I LOVE fish and eat a lot of it so that probably contributes to me eating a lot less meat.

Posted by: susan at April 25, 2007 7:12 PM

I couldn't become a vegetarian simply because of bacon. Delish!

Posted by: JennySmith at April 30, 2007 10:19 AM