BBQ Meatloaf

I recently found a new blog called The Fit Cook. I have already tried several of her recipes and have enjoyed them all. This one was delicious. The combination of barbeque and blue cheese may turn you off at first, but it really does work together beautifully. And because of the intense flavors of both the barbeque sauce and the blue cheese, you don't need to add a bunch of other ingredients. You can make this super low-fat, low-cal by choosing the leanest ground beef you can find. I already had 80/20 on hand, though, so that's what I used. Even so, this is pretty rich, and so a sliver of the meatloaf was plenty to satisfy.

Ingredients
1.5 pounds ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
1 egg
3 tablespoons barbeque sauce
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles
salt and pepper
olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350*. Meanwhile, heat a small bit of olive oil in a skillet, and sautee onions until they are tender. Remove from heat, stir in 1 tablespoon of barbeque sauce, and set aside.

Then combine the ground beef, egg, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper in a bowl, and mix until combined. Add half of the cooled onions, and mix those in. If you're using low-fat ground beef, spray a loaf pan before you put your meatloaf in. If you use 80/20 like I did, you don't need to spray the pan. Put the meatloaf mixture into the loaf pan, and top with remaining onion mixture. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, and set the oven to broil. Top meatloaf with blue cheese, then place under broiler until cheese melts. WATCH VERY CAREFULLY because this will only take a few seconds. Enjoy!

I served this with sweet potato fries and dinner rolls.  M’mm.

What are your favorite combinations of flavors?

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Cream Cheese Tuna Spread

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My mom recently moved, and she got rid of a lot of things to prepare for that. She gave me several of her cookbooks, one of which is called California's Lite 'n Easy Recipes. That is where I got this recipe from. It's in the appetizers section, but I doubled the recipe so we could eat it as a light lunch. My kids loved it. It would also be a great thing to serve at a party.

The only things I did differently from the recipe was I added finely diced red bell pepper and used green onion instead. You could add in any combination of veggies, sweet relish, parsley, etc. And if you really want it to be low-fat, use fat-free cream cheese.

Ingredients:
1 can water-packed tuna, drained
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons celery, finely chopped
1 tablespoon onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Combine tuna and cream cheese, stirring until thoroughly mixed. Then add in the other ingredients. Chill for at least 30 minutes to allow flavors to blend. Serve with crackers, in pita bread, in crescent rolls, etc.

Do you like tuna? When you buy canned tuna, do you prefer it packed in oil or water?

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