Meal Plan Monday and Random Recipe Review

Last week's Random Recipe was Pot-Roast Meatloaf from Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food (p161). If I had been as organised as I had planned to be it would have been better, but I was having a lazy day so skipped half the recipe! I was going to make the meatloaf earlier in the day and then just pop it in the oven when dinner time rolled around but I got caught up in other things so I had to do it after I picked Elliot up from Kindy. By the time dinnertime rolled around I really could not be bothered dirtying more dishes to make the tomato and chickpea sauce that went with it so we just had it as it was. I think the sauce would have made it, without it was just another boring meatloaf. Not bad, just nothing special. As we're not big meatloaf eaters at the best of times it definitely won't be on our list of regular meals.

Pot-Roast Meatloaf

1 medium onion, chopped finely

olive oil

1tsp groun cumin

1tsp ground coriander

12 Jacob's cream crackers*

2tsp dried oregano **

2 tsp Dijon mustard

500g minced beef

1 large egg

4 rashers of bacon ***

1. Fry the onion in a little olive oil with cumin and coriander until soft and fragrant. Put in a large bowl to cool.

2. Smash up crackers until fine **** and place in bowl with cooled onion mixture.

3. Add remaining ingredients except bacon and mix with hands until thoroughly combined. Shape into a log/meatloaf shape and rub with a little olive oil.

4. Place the meatloaf in a casserole dish or baking pan and then cook in a preheated 200C oven for 30 minutes.

5. Lay bacon over the top of the meatloaf and return to the oven until crispy - this took another 15 to 20 minutes.

* I subsituted these for a good handful of breadcrumbs

** I substituted oregano with some finely chopped rosemary from the garden

*** The original recipe called for 12 rashers but 4 were enough to cover my meatloaf

**** Omit this step if using breadcrumbs

What I'd do differently:

• I'd definitely make the sauce that is in the recipe. It was a basic tomato sauce with some chilli, Worcestershire sauce and balsamic vinegar thrown in along with a tin of chickpeas.

On to the plan for this week! We're having a short week, heading to Brisbane for a long weekend so only three nights of cooking here and then I'll plan with Mum the meals for the weekend. Also, we're trying to eat the freezer and pantry down so apart from some fruit and veg from the markets on Thursday morning I won't need to grocery shop! Hurrah!

Monday:
Sausages, mashed sweet potato and steamed veg

Tuesday:
Marinated steak, steamed veg and some sort of potato side dish

Wednesday:
Pasta with lentil sauce

Don't forget to link up if you're menu planning this week!