My Husbands Instruction Manual

When my husband and I first started dating he was craving meatloaf one night, and pulled out a binder. I asked him what it was and it was a collection of all his favorite foods his Mom used to make. One year for Christmas she printed out all of his favorite recipes and put them in a binder as a Christmas present. Isn't this the cutest idea ever?

My mother-in-law had hand surgery today so I wanted to do something special for her and decided to go to my husband's instruction manual to find a home cooked meal for her. Not to mention something that she didn't have to use a knife for. This is a recipe that her mother used to make for her. The key ingredient according to my father-in-law is the 80% lean meat!! As he says you want a layer of grease at the bottom of the pan while cooking. Good thing I knew this! Otherwise I may have tried to pass ground turkey instead of ground beef.

 The ingredients are simple and most of which you should have around the house.

• 2lbs Ground Beef (80% lean)
• 1 sleeve of saltine crackers crushed (I crushed in a plastic bag)
• 1/2 Chopped Green Pepper 
• 1/2 Chopped Red Pepper
• 1 Chopped Medium Onion
• 2 Eggs
• 3/4 Cup of Milk
• Salt and Pepper
• Ketchup

(I cheated here and bought a pre-chopped fajita mixture for the peppers and onions!!)

Don't forget to take off your rings before you start making this recipe! You don't want ground meat stuck in between your jewels!!

In large bowl, mix ground beef, onion, green and red pepper, eggs and milk. In a plastic bag, crush crackers until fairly fine and uniform in size. Add crackers to the meat mixture, along with salt and pepper. The key here is to NOT over mix the meat. You want to make sure it is combined but you don't want to handle the meat too much. 

Grease a baking dish, put meat mixture in baking dish and form into a log shape. Pour ketchup on top. Add about a 1/2 inch of water to baking dish, so the meatloaf is like an island. 

Bake at 350 degrees for about 45-60 minutes. Make sure to cut into the middle and check for doneness. You don't want any pink in the inside!

And Voila! You have Paul's instruction manual meatloaf! I served with some homemade mashed potatoes and corn. 

Since my mother-in-law can't use her hand I also prepared for her some chicken salad for lunch! This is also from my husband's instruction manual. I chopped 2 cooked chicken breasts, added some mayo, pecans, celery, Craisins, and pepper. Super simple to make and now she has lunch for the next few days!! I forgot to mention I also brought her some bread as well to make sandwiches.

Last but not least I also made her Lemon Poppy and Coconut Choclate scones to eat for breakfast. I included some lemon curd as well to eat along with the scones. However, I forgot to take pictures!!

I know these recipes didn't come from Pinterest but I thought I would share some family recipes!

Tomorrow I am going to make my in-laws baked ziti with pesto! Super excited to try out this new recipe and I will make sure to report back!

Happy Pinning!!

By Jennifer Shelton