Magic Loaf and SS Success!

Click on the picture for a link to a cool application, courtesy of Vegan Lunch Box. You input the ingredients you choose and it spits out a recipe for you. So easy! We had my creation tonight and it was really good! Paul isn't a meatloaf fan (it was his younger sister's FAVORITE dinner, so of course it became his LEAST favorite, but he tolerated it.) After going on a nutritional shopping spree at Vitamin Cottage, I was psyched to use all these yummies in my loaf, especially the walnuts and flaxseed, per Dr. Fuhrman. Here's my recipe:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup walnuts
2 TB olive oil
One large carrot, peeled and grated
2 cups cooked garbanzo beans, partly mashed
1 cup wheat germ
1/4 to 1/2 cup tomato juice, as needed
1 heaping TB flaxseed meal
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
2 TB nutritional yeast flakes
2 TB ketchup
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 tsp. celery salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350º. Spray a loaf pan or 8x8 square baking pan with nonstick spray and set aside (an 8x8 pan makes a crisper loaf).

Grind the walnuts into a coarse meal using a food processor or spice/coffee grinder. Place in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Sauté any vegetables you've chosen in the olive oil until soft. Add to the large mixing bowl along with all the remaining ingredients. Mix and mash together well, adding only as much liquid as needed to create a soft, moist loaf that holds together and is not runny (you may not need to add any liquid if the grains and protein are very moist). Add more binder/carbohydrate as needed if the loaf seems too wet.

Press mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until cooked through.

Let the loaf cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes, then turn out onto a plate or platter and slice. Serve with potatoes, vegetables, and vegetarian gravy, if desired.

Cold leftover slices of make a great sandwich filling.

Yum!! I served it with roasted fingerling potatoes and more raw carrots. I think I'll be trying a new loaf each week, just to try out different bean/nut combinations. FUN! Tonight I'm baking pumpkin bread with all the nutritional yummies packed inside and disguised with help from chocolate chips! We'll see if the boys fall for it; they have with my homemade banana bread, so this should be similar!

And my MOST successful story from today: WE HAVE MAE'S SS#!!!! This was not easy. After finally getting all her documentation from Boulder County, we sat for about 2 hours waiting to apply last time in October. After waiting more than the 2 weeks it should have taken to receive the card, I called, and found that the card could not be delivered because the name (Xiang Huai) did not match the address. Apparently it is illegal to deliver government mail to the wrong address. So it was returned and I had to apply for a REPLACEMENT card. *sigh* So we went back today and not only was the wait only about half an hour (with a sweet little 22-month old named Sophie to play with!) but they are going to mail the replacement with a C/O Ellen Moeller on the address AND the kind man gave me a printout WITH her SS# on it. HUGE sigh of relief...that is what we need for taxes. Hopefully her citizenship papers will arrive sometime this year and then we get to RE-apply for a name change and another SS replacement card. *whimper* Oh well. WE DID IT! Yippee!! And swimming went well again today. She put up quite a fuss but was awesome. Tomorrow I don't have to get in so watch for a video of my little fish tomorrow night! She may be vocal but she is very strong and very physical. She and Ted are going to have a blast this summer! Sam and I can hang out and eat bonbons.