Veggie-laden food

I have some secrets for feeding a big family economically. This week when I did my grocery shopping I picked up a club-sized pack of lean ground beef and 2 carrots, 1 zucchini, some mushrooms, and an onion. Yesterday when Nick was napping I took the carrots and zucchini and ran them through my blender until they were 1 step away from liquid. I took half of the carrot/zucchini mixture out and put the rest into my largest mixing bowl. Then I blended the onions and mushrooms and added them to the big ol' bowl. To those veggies I added 2 eggs, some seasoning salt, some bread crumbs (oats would have worked too) and some minced garlic. I mushed all that goodness up with the ground beef and formed 16 individual meatloaves and froze them on plastic-wrap lined cookie sheets. Today I stored them in Zip-loc bags. I've made these type of meat loaves before and my family raved about them. They refuse to eat mushrooms but of course they had no idea the forbidden food was hiding in there. All the veggies make the meatloaf so moist and the taste is rich and varied.

With the rest of the carrots/zucchini, I made some delicious snack bread. To the veggies I added 2 eggs, some vanilla, and some oil, along with sugar. You could use honey for sweetener; I didn't have enough on hand. In a separate bowl I mixed the dry ingredients: equal parts white and whole wheat flour, salt, baking powder and soda, some cinnamon, and flax seed for good measure. Then I added the dry mixture to the veggie mixture. Because I don't use recipes or exact measurements, as you can see, I had to add some liquid to the batter to make it pourable. I used milk, but water would have worked fine too. I baked it in two 4x8 loaf pans for about 40 minutes at 350. It rose nicely and the kids LOVE it.

Last week Don and Waneta brought me some of their garden harvest, which is always appreciated when one doesn't have a garden! I de-seeded and steamed a delicata squash (but any winter squash would have worked). Then I blended it, skin and all, along with water, to make it a lovely pudding-like consistency. I added a couple of cored and de-seeded apples, also from Don's parents, to the squash mixture and blended that up too. In the big ol' mixing bowl, I added 2 eggs and some oil to the mixture and stirred it up until it was blended well. To the liquid mixture I added basically the same dry mixture I used for the bread with the exception of the cinnamon and the flax seed. Although the cinnamon would have been an excellent addition! And then I cooked up that batter in the waffle iron and we ate delicious "harvest" waffles for dinner. Again, the kids loved it. They would have balked at eating squash, but loved the rich and moist waffles.

I'm pretty sure I spent a little more than $10 for all of the food I prepared today, which is pretty good for three dinners for 7+ people and 2 loaves of a healthy snack, which will be gone by today : ). I don't know what I'd do without my blender!