Meat, Spuds & Dessert!

Tonight for dinner I made meatloaf, potatoes and green beans. The meatloaf recipe I used was the same as I have previously posted (see Meatloaf post - I even added a picture!). I really like this recipe, and this time instead of chopping an entire onion I decided to grate 1/4 of a large onion. I love the flavor of onion, but didn't really like the chunks of onion that I had last time. I love this modification and will continue to use it in the future.

Instead of making plain old mashed potatoes to go along with the meatloaf, I tried my hand at twice baked potatoes. I had never made them before, but I think they turned out great and Nick really liked them! They were a little bit of work but I'd definitely make them again.


Ultimate Twice Baked Potatoes

2 large baking potatoes
4 slices bacon
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk
2 Tbsp. butter
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, divided
4 green onions, sliced, divided (I didn't have any so I ommitted these)

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees.

2. Bake potatoes in preheated oven for 1 hour.

3. Cook bacon, crumble and set aside.

4. When potatoes are done allow them to cool for 10 minutes. Slice potatoes in half lengthwise and scoop the flesh into a large bowl; save skins. To the potato flesh add sour cream, milk, butter, salt, pepper, 1/2 cup cheese and 1/2 the green onions. Mix with a hand mixer until well blended and creamy. Spoon the mixture into the potato skins. Top with remaining cheese, green onions and bacon.

5. Bake for an additional 15 minutes.

Source: Allrecipes.com (I halved the original recipe posted)

The green beans I made were extremely simple - a bag of Steamfresh cut green beans nuked in the microwave and then seasoned with butter and salt. Nothing to write home about ;-)

Since we had a relatively heavy dinner with the mealoaf and potatoes I wanted to make something light for dessert. I was thinking of something with either angel food cake or pound cake and decided to go back to a recipe that I made once before from Kraft Food & Family and it was a hit!


Angel Lush with Pineapple

1 pkg (4 serving size) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling
1 can (20 oz) crushed pineapple in juice, undrained
1 cup thawed Cool Whip
1 pkg (10 oz) round angel food cake
10 small fresh strawberries

MIX dry pudding mix and pineapple with its juice in medium bowl. Gently stir in Cool Whip. Let stand 5 minutes until thickened.

CUT cake horizontally into three layers. Place bottom cake layer, cut side up, on serving plate; top with 1-1/3 cups of the pudding mixture. Cover with middle cake layer and additional 1 cup of the remaining pudding mixture. Top with remaining cake layer; spread top with the remaining pudding mixture.

REFRIGERATE at least 1 hour. Top with strawberries just before serving. Store leftover dessert in refrigerator.

**EDIT: We had about half of this leftover after dinner, so I cut it into individual slices and wrapped in Glad Press n' Seal Freezer and then put them into a Ziploc freezer bag. They froze and thawed out perfectly! I think I'll definitely keep this around and in the freezer during the summer.

Source: Kraft Food & Family