Well, the holiday season is officially over. It’s been fun, but I’m ready for some normalcy again. The decorations and tree are down, and the house is back in order. I’m usually a little blue after the holiday season, but I’m doing just fine this year. There are so many things to look forward to that I’m not too sad. I’m excited about 2015 and know that it’s going to be wonderful. It will be a great year because I’m going to make it great! Remember, that you choose what you want to create in your life and you choose your attitude.
On another note, I had to pick a new winner for the Paleo Eats giveaway. I tried notifying the first winner numerous times and allowed about two weeks for her to get back to me. So, the new winner was picked at random again and is Julie K. Julie left this comment, “I’d like to win this book so I have something tangible to reference when I’m at home, hangry, and about to go against my clean eating habits.” Julie, please email me your mailing address at paleoinportland@gmail.com. Thanks!
Meanwhile, this recipe turned out even better than I imagined, which made me happy. It’s total comfort food and hits the spot when you’re wanting both meatloaf and spaghetti. It’s seriously the best of both worlds. We ate ours on a bed of sautéed kale with marinara on top and a sprinkle of raw Parmesan, since we both tolerate it. It was perfection.
Enjoy and cheers to a New Year!
Ingredients:
- 1 Tbsp grass-fed butter
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup crimini mushrooms, sliced
- 1 lb grass-fed ground beef
- 1 lb ground spicy Italian chicken sausage
- 1 egg, preferably pasture-raised
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste
- 1 Tbsp coconut flour
- 1.5 Tbsp Italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp sea salt or to taste
- Pepper to taste
- No sugar added marinara sauce, for serving (I like this one and this one)
- If tolerated, raw Parmesan for serving, optional
Directions:
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Once melted, add the onion, garlic and mushrooms. Sauté a few minutes, or until onion is softened. Set aside to cool.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Once onion mixture is cool, place in a food processor or small prep blender like this one and pulse until big chunks are broken up into fine pieces.
- Then, in a large bowl, mix together the onion mixture, ground beef, ground chicken sausage, egg, tomato paste, coconut flour, Italian seasoning, sea salt and pepper. Mix everything well with your hands.
- Place meat mixture in a large loaf pan and spread out evenly with your hands. Bake for 60 minutes in the preheated oven.
- When the meatloaf is nearly done, pour some marinara sauce in a saucepan and let warm over medium-low heat.
- Serve meatloaf slices with warm marinara sauce and garnish with raw Parmesan, if tolerated and desired.
We love meatloaf–it’s so easy and there are always leftovers! Your Italian version looks so good–adding in chicken sausage is a great idea and I’d love to try it. I did just make one a few days ago with ground venison, pork and a pretty clean bottled BBQ sauce.
I’m a meatloaf lover too, although I didn’t always like it. I actually detested it as a kid. I didn’t even really like pizza meatloaf, which was a variation my mom used to make. It had mozzarella cheese in the middle and pizza sauce on top. I loved pizza, but pizza meatloaf — no way! Anyway, I think you’ll really like my Italian version if you love meatloaf. I want to try the variation you made with the pork and venison. It sounds delicious!