January 26, 2012

• Dressing up Food

  There are times when I buy take out food.  Recently I got some meatloaf from the Healthy Butcher.  It’s a local store that specialize in organic meats and food.  I don’t make meat loaf and I thought it would be good to have a change from my own cooking.  But the meatloaf looked a bit bare and dry.   So I thought it would be good to just dress it up a bit. It’s a very simple thing to quickly improve take out food.

  Here’s what a slice of meatloaf looked like.  It has some cheese on the top.

  

  I sliced up some onions and caramelized them over low heat.  As it cooks, you can add a bit of water or stock near the end if it looks like it’s getting too dry.  You just have to be patient with this.  Turning up the heat doesn’t really help. It’ll be sweet and soft when it caramelizes. 

  

  Slice up some mushrooms.

  

  I used a separate pan to saute the mushrooms w/ olive oil and a bit of garlic.  I also added salt, pepper and some paprika. 

  

  I added a bit of garlic to the onions (optional).

  

  Then threw in the mushrooms.

  

  Take your favorite tomato sauce and pour it into the pot.

  

  I added the meatloaf as well, covered the pot and & gently simmered them.  I uncovered it after a few minutes and waited till the meatloaf absorbed the sauce and the sauce was a bit thicker. 

  

  Since I was hungry, I added some lots of pasta.

  

  All you have to do afterwards is eat.  The meatloaf was nice and soft but still had a lot of texture and flavour.  I had lots of pasta and sauce leftover which I used for dinner the next day. 

  

  I also cook this for my dad since it’s easier for him to eat soft foods.  The tomato sauce with onions adds some vegetable to his diet as well.  Sometimes I’ll finely dice carrots into tomato sauce.  When it cooks down, it’ll just blend into the sauce.  It’s just another way to increase his intake of vegetables. 

  • 9:50 PM
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