Hmmmm meatloaf!

Salaaam y'all! I didn't cook last night; Aaminah ate a banana, a meat stick (ok ok a Slim Jim but Allah, I'm ashamed to say that! LOL), a cheese stick and a small roll with butter. Yeah. Didn't win any "Mom of the Year" awards with that meal but... I was soooo tired and sometimes we just gotta deal. :)

I decided I should really up my game today so for breakfast we had turkey sausage with some fried potatoes (a very southern any-time staple!) and then I made a kickin' dinner masha'Allah. :) Homemade meatloaf (with one shortcut), homemade "smashed" potatoes and peas.







Hmmm that's some good eatin' y'all! ;) If anyone is interested in the recipe, here goes:


2 lbs ground beef (I typically use 85/15 but all they had was 80/20 that day so I had more fat to drain)
2 eggs, beaten
half a sleeve stale crackers (doesn't everyone have some of these lurking in their cabinet?? lol)
about 1/2 a cup uncooked quick-cook oats
1 tbsp (more or less to taste) of Turkish red pepper paste. I adore this stuff!!!
salt n pepper
half an onion, finely diced

Now I typically add a grated carrot, some chopped (dry sauteed) mushrooms... really any veg I wanna round it out with. However, we have been trying to not keep as much food around the house that might spoil so I opted not to buy carrots this time. Just keep in mind you can use more veg and less meat. Spinach is good in it too as well as cabbage, finel chopped or grated. Trust me.

OK so normally I would use tomato paste thinned with milk or just ketchup but they had the meatloaf fixin's by Hunt's on sale for $1 a can. It has more spices and some "vegetables" in it so I went with it.

Mix everything, adding the beef last. You never wanna overwork it if possible to keep it more tender. Then bake, in a 350 oven for 1 hour. Take out, try to drain it off (I ended up using a plastic syringe as my turkey baster is out of commission!) and squirt a lil ketchup on top. Pop it back in the oven for 15 to 20 more minutes and you're done! We like to be sure our meat, especially ground, is cooked through. I don't overcook food but meatloaf is better with a crusty outter edge. Trust me. :)

It turned out very moist (thanks to the fillers of crackers and oats) and tasty. We made a BIG batch (2 lbs!) but we will eat it for a couple of days, maybe give some away. That's just how we roll. ;)

Oh I got Aaminah the cutest lil outfit at the used store the other day for $7! It was brand-new, one of those little boutique outfits with the ruffly legs. We had actually made of them before but when I saw this one in the store, well I changed my mind. It was so cute! Here is the pic:



New look, new direction?

Spanish ruins Jamaica 2012

Salaam my sisters! It's been a while again since my last update. I've noticed most of the blogs I follow have been pretty quite; I don't know if these things come and go. As for me, my ongoing illness coupled with single parenting and as always my uber-private husband equals little inspiration for blogging.

I decided to start by re-doing my blog. I was tired of the old look, all those muted blue flowers. :) Just realized I went with flowers again but this is my own pic of the Tennessee state flower, the iris. I took this outside my sister's house. These particular iris also came from a patch from my Mamaw's house which means this strain has been in our family for years. Masha'Allah this is the type of hand-me-down I like!

Also, the loss of all my pictures on blogger did dishearten me. As I said, it did save me A LOT of work, going through and taking out all photos that were too personal for Cap'n's taste but really... I feel defeated. I had a lot of pics of Aaminah and food I had made. It's not that I miss the pictures so much but if someone clicks on a link on my blog they will be greatly disappointed! We all know pictures help make the post. Alhamdulillah for it all, and this will be the last time I mention it.

So I decided I would read the "Twilight" series by Stephenie Meyer. Allahu rabbi! At first I liked it; I'm a sucker for intense love stories but kinda felt like a teenager watching it. However, the writing is just dismal. It is NOT "novel worthy" writing by any means. I like the premise (I've never been a vampire fan, I just liked the story line) but it was not executed well. This is one time I liked the movie more than the book! Trust me, that doesn't happen that often. :)

I've read books I and II. Now I want to read the rest just because I like to finish what I start but I've been buying them for my Kindle and I just can't justify $7 for a book that seems like it was written by a 17 yr old. Guess I'll netflix the movies and watch those. I'm sure there is hardly anyone out there still wanting to see/read this series but if you are on the fence, don't waste your time or money unless you are just really hard up for something to do. :)

I'll leave you with a bit of advice I've picked up from my husband that will serve you well in ANY situation: if it's not your business don't get involved. :D This has saved me from countless pointless, time-consuming discussions with people who really don't want my opinion after all, they just want someone to say they are right. :) So alhamdulillah for husband's with common sense. lol

So I'll leave you with this random pic. This is evidence of a horrible compulsion I've passed onto Aaminah. Be warned: it's addictive: