Sort of Thai-Influenced Meatloaf

Howdy! Aren't three day weekends the best? I especially love Labor Day weekend because it's relatively mellow. Barrett and I spent both Saturday and Sunday cleaning out the garage, which involved dragging almost everything in it onto the lawn into piles of: to the city dump, into the garbage can, to Goodwill, to keep in the garage, and to take into the house. It was very tiring and totally worth it. It's that much closer into being made into the band's practice space, which is the eventual goal.

Yesterday was my day to cook. I first made a pot of French Spring Soup as a filling and low fat meal to take to work for the rest of the week. As usual, I blended about half of it to make it creamier.


I also made a Vietnamese Bun Ga salad as part of a bbq potluck at my friend Gregg's later that afternoon. People seemed to like it. It is really tasty!


For tonight's dinner, I made a meatloaf. And I created the recipe myself! This is a huge deal for me--I tend to follow recipes to the letter and then tweak them after time. I don't usually make up recipes on the fly like I did tonight. Necessity was the mother of invention--I had a huge bunch of Thai basil that was starting to turn brown and decided to use as much of it as I could, along with powdered ginger and the rest of a bottle of Trader Joe's Soyaki sauce. It's delish! Thank goodness for Trader Joe's condiments.

Sort of Thai-Influenced Meatloaf

1.5 lbs very lean lean ground beef
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup shredded carrot
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 large egg
2 tbsp ground ginger, or as much as you want, OR I'm sure ground jarred ginger would work
1/4 to 1/3 cup chopped Thai basil (I didn't measure it, so I'm guessing here)
1/2 bottle Trader Joe's Soyaki sauce

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Fish out your meatloaf pan and coat it with oil a bit.

2. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Be sure and take off any rings you have, or else the mixture gets all caught in them and it's grody.

3. Smoosh mixture into loaf pan, making sure it's even on top so it cooks evenly.

4. Bake for 60 minutes. Take out, let sit for a few minutes, then dig in! Have seconds! Eat a salad with it!