What's For Supper? Meatloaf!

Clean meatloaf that is.

This recipe is one of my favorite clean eating recipes from Tosca Reno's Eat Clean Cookbook. As I made it tonight, I'd thought I'd share it with you.

Now, be forewarned, this recipe takes a bit of prep. It's not something you can quickly whip together after a work day. I usually save it for Sunday dinners. Why? Because two ingredients have to be made before. One is cooked brown rice. I made a big pot of it on Friday as it takes forever to cook and I throw it in a lot of stuff (my favorite - tuna and brown rice sandwiches). The other ingredient that needs to be made beforehand is yogurt cheese.

Yogurt cheese is just yogurt with a lot of liquid drained off. It looks like cream cheese. To make it, set a strainer lined with 4 layers of cheese cloth in a bowl. Dump some yogurt in there and let it sit overnight. Tada, you have yogurt cheese. It should look something like this.

Notice all the liquid in the bowl. I made this up Saturday night so I was all set to make meatloaf today.

The rest of the ingredients.

1 lb lean ground beef or turkey
1 c. brown rice, cooked
1 egg
3/4 c. yogurt cheese
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. chopped celery
1/2 c. chopped bell pepper, any color
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tbsp tamari
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano

I also sneak some mushrooms in there but don't tell RDog (he doesn't like them).

My tip for chopping onions . . .

. . . a Cuisinart Mini Chopper. This was a wedding present and I use it all the time.

I have a confession; I hate to touch meat. For this recipe you really have to get up close and personal with the meat to mix it all up. My solution; latex gloves.

All ready to go in the oven. Bake it at 350 for an hour.

To go with the meatloaf, I cut some sweet potatoes in half and brushed them with olive oil.

I cooked them for an hour too and then scooped out the yummy potato. I do this to avoid doing a lot of potato cutting. Sweet potatoes are hard to cut! I also steamed up some frozen veggies.

The end result.

And then I topped it all off with desert; a square of dark chocolate.

Mmmmm. . . my belly is happy tonight.