Loafing Around

June 1st, 2010 | Posted by Alison Spath in Dinner Time

From my omnivorous days of yore, I think I miss meatloaf the most.  I mean seriously now – how have I been getting by without eating a loaf of meat these past three and a half-ish years? It’s a meatless mystery for sure, and it’s time to do something about it!

That’s a joke in case you couldn’t tell. Actually I miss turkey subs the most. OK that’s a joke too. Who needs turkey when you’ve got lettuce, tomato, onion, red, green and banana peppers and (gasp!) mayo and provolone cheese on a sesame seed roll from Wegmans? I rest my case.

Wait, so what was I talking about? Oh yes. Meatloaf. Meat. Loaf. What does any sensible vegetarian use to substitute meat in meat dishes? Why beans of course. (Except in subs.) Time to grab your legumes and get a loaf on.

Ingredients

Bean Loaf:

2 cans Cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 medium onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 c ketchup
1 c rolled oats
2 eggs, beaten
1 c frozen corn
a dash of salt & pepper
a couple good shakes of dried oregano and dried basil

And don’t forget the most important ingredient:

1 sad three year old who is extremely disappointed that you are using the last two eggs to make your bean loaf instead of making her scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Sad

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and get mashing those beans with a potato masher. Stir in the rest of the ingredients as desired – the order doesn’t seem to matter a whole heck of a lot here – it’s all just going into the loaf pan as a bean and vegetable mash when you’re done!

Ketchup is probably my least favorite ingredient in this recipe – BUT! I must say, if I might jump ahead and spoil the ending, it really gave the bean loaf a great taste! At least it was organic ketchup and contained no high fructose corn fun. You could probably even substitute your favorite barbecue sauce or even salsa to mix it up.

Organic Ketchup

Grease a 9 inch loaf pan (I misto‘d mine with olive oil) and bake at 350 for 50 minutes.

Into the Oven

I just so happened to make this bean loaf in the morning. (Note the Strawberry Shortcake pajamas above, although admittedly that’s really no indication as to what time of day it might have been…) It was nice to have dinner crossed off my to-do list early on.

Cooked Loaf

In other exciting veggie news – this week marks the start of our CSA pick up! Earlier this year we purchased a share of vegetables from a local, organic farm. From now through mid fall we’ll head out weekly to the farm to pick up our share of vegetables.

First CSA Pick Up

And boy oh boy did it feel like we hit the green motherload this week! And to think this is only Week 1!

Spinach Galore Lettuce Bath

One Bunch

Turnips? OK, I have never prepared a turnip before, or even eaten a turnip for that matter… I smell a Turnip Loaf post in our future!

Turnips

In addition to turnips we picked up radishes, garlic scapes, red and green leaf lettuce, bok choi and 1 1/2 pounds of mixed greens including arugula, mustard greens, broccoli raab, red mustard and orach (??)

Mustard Greens

With a produce drawer now positively overflowing with leafy vegetables, re-heated bean loaf was served with a side of steamed mixed greens.

Bean Loaf with Steamed Greens

Before you ask, no – sadly, my kids won’t eat one bite of this. I do have high hopes for the future though! Please let the record show that there was absolutely a time in my life – not even that long ago I might add – where I would have raised one corner of my upper lip like Elvis in his blue suede shoes at the thought of eating a big pile steamed greens like that instead of rice or potatoes.

Beans for meat, dinner for breakfast, greens for grains, that’s a wrap! Or better yet, a veggie sub.


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