Family Chow Hall

This is the meatloaf for meatloaf haters everywhere. Made with sausage, beef, ham and mozzarella, this is one meatloaf that can’t be beat. The great thing about it is that meatloaf lovers like it, too.

I love it when everybody’s happy. And Full.

This does take a little more effort than your run-of-the-mill meatloaf, so roll up your sleeves and turn on some good music. You might get your hands a little messy and you can’t be afraid of raw meat to make this dish.

Plan on serving with some old-fashioned mashed potatoes or any other potato favorite, and maybe something green (like broccoli or salad) to add a little color to the table.

Tasty Meat Roll
serves 8 / prep. time: 20 minutes / cook time: 75 minutes

1 pound of raw ground beef
1 pound of raw bulk sausage
1/2 c. tomato juice or V-8
3/4 c. soft bread crumbs
2 eggs
1 t. dried parsley
1/2 t. oregano
1/4 t. black pepper
1/2 t. salt
2 t. minced garlic or 2 cloves
1/4 pound sliced ham
6-8 slices of mozzarella cheese

Wash your hands and then manually combine everything except the ham and cheese. There really is no better way to do this than with your hands. When done, get all the gunk off your hands (try dishsoap) and lay out a piece of waxed paper about 12-18 inches long. Form your meat mixture on the waxed paper into a rectangle. Lay the ham and the mozzarella on top of it. Have a 9×13 pan ready. Now, using the waxed paper, gently lift one end and roll it up, just as you would for a jelly-roll type cake. Carefully move to the baking dish.. keep the seam side down.. pinch the edges to keep the cheese from escaping.

Phew! When that’s done, you just have to bake it for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Lay a couple more slices of cheese on top 10 minutes before it’s finished. Before slicing, let it cool for a 5 minutes.

The leftovers are good in the lunchbox, too.

No kidding, there really is such a thing as a picky eater gene - it’s called the phenylthiocarbamide gene.

Your picky eater isn’t trying to make your every meal a nightmare. He/she may truly taste certain foods differently than you do.

You see, back in 1931, a chemist named Arthur Fox discovered that a certain compound - phenylthiocarbamide - tasted extremely bitter to some people, while others could detect no taste at all. After a little research, he realized that it is a genetic characteristic. Read more.

Those of us who don’t do cartwheels over foods like broccoli, cabbage, and radishes probably have the bitter-taste gene, while those people who will munch on a wider variety of foods probably don’t have it.

That means good news and bad news for bitter-sensitive people…

The Good News: Bitter tasters have less tendency towards smoking and alcoholism. Hooray!

The Bad News: Bitter tasters tend to have less variety in their diet and eat fewer fiber-rich vegetables. They also get nagged by their mothers alot more.

If you pay attention to people you know well, you can probably guess the tasters from the non-tasters. I don’t smoke, don’t drink much, don’t like broccoli, etc. I can also think of some people who are the exact opposite.

The long and short of this message is this: If your child is a picky eater, lay off a little and be understanding. Give him or her options. I’m not saying he should be allowed to live on cheese puffs, but don’t expect him to dance a jig of glee over sauerkraut, either. I like to make my kids try foods, but I don’t force-feed them large amounts of them. We have a bag of carrot sticks in the fridge that they can help themselves to if they want. That way I can feel like they got their veggies and they are not fighting the urge to gag on their cauliflower.

Oh boy, I think I bought too much fruit at the grocery last week.

I already had clementines, apples, and bananas in my fruit bowl.

One market had strawberries, fresh pineapple, apples, mangoes, and melon on sale, so I took advantage of that.

A few days later I purchased some more apples, bananas, and kiwi.

I can’t even put it all away, so this morning I made a big breakfast smoothie for my hungry kids….

Breakfast Smoothie
serves 3 / prep. time: 5 minutes

2 kiwis, peeled and cut in half
1 banana, peeled and cut in half
1 c. chopped pinapple
3/4 c. plain or vanilla yogurt
1/2 c. milk
1 t. vanilla

Blend it all up in the blender until smooth. No, I don’t have a juicer, or a Mr. Smoothie-maker, or anything fancy like that. Just a blender. It works great and is easy to clean and put away. When I’m not in the mood, the kids can use it themselves.

Stay tuned… this week I’ll be making a Sicilian Meat Roll (for meatloaf-haters and lovers) and I’ll explain why some kids are pickier eaters than others.