A post from Kelli–

No matter what time of day, if you ask Jason what he would like to eat, chances are if you suggest some combination of meat and potatoes, he will happily agree.  And if you add green bean casserole to the mix, he’ll probably love you forever!

With the lovely weather that we’ve been having here in Iowa–ya know…windchills up to -60 below–and the accompanying wind with that, travel on gravel roads and other secondary roads is going to be minimal….unless you have a plow or skid loader!  To make things even better, they have pulled all of the plows from secondary roads in our little 4 county area.  This literally means that there is no way I’ll be getting home anytime soon!

Luckily, Mom lives much closer to a state highway than I do!

I was got up on Tuesday morning and realized all of these happenings…so I decided that I probably should pack up stuff to be gone for a few days.  I made myself a batch of salsa soup with a few alterations–here’s the link–http://www.joscountryjunction.com/from-salsa-to-chicken-tortilla-soup/.

I usually make mine with a pound of sausage.  I also didn’t have any good canned salsa on hand, so I used a jar of Walmart’s store brand with black beans and corn.  It usually turns out pretty good–especially on a cold day like the ones we are having.

Then I got to thinking and feeling bad for Jason.  On Monday, he put in a 19 hour day trying to get things done up ahead of time as much as he could so that all of the critters would be bedded and so that he could minimize the amount of time he would be out in the cold over the next few days.  He ended up coming in at 1 in the morning and was up and out the door again by 6.  I honestly don’t know how he does it day in and day out, but he does and he’s happy doing it…And that’s the important part!

I realized that one of the only things worse that being cold and tired, was being cold, tired, and hungry.  I couldn’t do much to help with the first two, but I sure could help with the third one!

I grabbed one of my favorite church cookbooks and flipped to my favorite–and Jason’s favorite–meatloaf recipe.  As you can tell again, I don’t do well with keeping the cookbook away from where I’m cooking at…or I’m just a messy cooker….or possibly (actually, definitely) both!

Our favorite is the middle recipe.  It’s a bit blurry in the picture, but I like it because you just mix it all together, throw it in a pan, cook it and its done.

Here is the recipe–

2 pounds hamburger, 1 cup oatmeal, 1 small diced onion (optional), 2 beaten eggs, 1 cup milk, and Greek Seasoning to taste.  You mix that all up, put it in a pan and top it with the sauce–1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 cup ketchup, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, and 1 tsp dry mustard.  Slather that on top, cook it at 350 for 45 to 60 minutes….and that’s it!

I was running a bit behind and knew I didn’t have a full cup of ketchup, so I ended up just adding some BBQ sauce on top.  It didn’t have time to cool before I had to leave for a meeting, so this is how I left it for Jason–

For some reason, he actually likes instant mashed potatoes.  I don’t know why.  I used to try to convert him, but in the past year or so, I just decided to go with it!  If he likes it and will eat it, I’m all for it…especially if it means less work for me.  And he even had a choice of what flavor….hwo fancy right?!?!?!

Note–I knew he would be home for a quick lunch not long after I left, so I felt okay leaving it out to cool off for him before we put in in the fridge.  After he eats his lunch, he’ll put it in the refrigerator and all will be well.

It worked out perfect for me today too because I made it and popped it in the oven, did a few things around the house, jumped in the shower and by the time I was done, the timer on my Echo just started going off.  I’ll tell you in another post how much I love that Echo!

I love when I’m able to get my adult skills together to get a meal made and get other things done at the same time!  Hopefully I am able to hone in on that skill a bit more in the coming days….because you know….baby!