Meatloaf is the answer...

Are your cupboards bare? Do you have 2 lbs of ground turkey already two days thawed in your fridge? Are you out of spaghetti sauce and the only thing you can come up for a "ground turkey" meal involves pasta, which involves spaghetti sauce? Did I mention I'm out of sauce? Well, after much being in a rut about all the uses of ground turkey which I couldn't do because it would mean I'd have to pay a visit to the store, I came up with MEATLOAF. Yay!

Tonight's featured dinner:


Nutritional Info: Mashed Potatoes/Turkey Meatloaf

Total POINTS: 7

Side note: I'm overwhelmed by the responses I received when I posted my "before" pics. We are not made to be alone for many reasons but in this realm we just need people who will be there to be what we need. I hope that I or something I write inspires or is something that you can nod to because you know just what I'm feeling.

You all are so beautiful! Thank you, thank you, thank you for your support!

do you know what you just ate?

Clam Chowder
We met when I was about 7 or 8. I remember smelling it when I came home from school one day. Please note that what I am about to describe is not a discredit to my mom's cooking because she is faboo. Trust me. But the smell of NE clam chowder, clams and potatoes simmering in HOT MILK... ugh. I said to mom, "Mom, I don't think I will like it". In spite of my protests, I found myself sitting in front of a hot bowl of chowder. I dunno, even the name "chowder" sounds like a way to purge your body. "Eat it!" I stared. "Eat or you get nothing else". I still stared. I could tell my dad was starting to get uncomfortable. I could see his almost pleading glances for me to at least try it. But I COULDN'T. It was HOT MILK & CLAMS! Didn't anyone understand? They didn't but I was forced to eat it and almost all of it. It was only when I began to "purge" that I was never forced to eat the evil clam chowder ever again. I have two other foods that fit into this food group: Brussels sprouts (which I can now tolerate) and liver (don't EVEN post that it's because I haven't had it cooked the right way because I can't even stand the smell, let alone the taste).

Lamb
This food group is the one where mom was at her finest. Every now and then, mom would serve up something a bit "kid untraditional" like lamb or periwinkles. She's creative but that's not what I'd call it when she got me to eat these things. She would flat out trick me. She'd cook it up, make it look like a burger and then when I was done eating, all the while "mmm-ing" thru it, she'd ask me "do you know what you just ate?" Many of you posted that my mom looks like a blast. Oh she's a blast all right. Trouble in its' highest. UP TO IT... always.

Peas
Now, there were things I would have preferred to not eat but for the most part, I cleaned my plate. Vegetables weren't my thing but I usually ate them all because I didn't have the option to not eat them. Sometimes my stubborn streak would flare and there would be something on my plate that I was NOT gonna eat. That meant pullin' an all-nighter at the kitchen table. Peas, sometimes, was one of those things. I am like my dad. He enjoys cookies, cakes, pies, donuts, the occasional fruit (like watermelon), meat and potatoes. We are like two peas in a pod. Speaking of peas, he would eat my peas for me - it was either that or I would probably STILL be sitting at the dinner table.

When I moved about a 6 hour drive away from my ever feeding mommy, I rebelled and to be honest, I think I ate maybe zero vegetables for the first few years that I was away from home. I'm not including salads here. Now, I'm a little older (11 years to be exact) and realize that I cannot fulfill my vegetable requirements with iceberg lettuce alone so last week I branched out into another section of the grocery aisle. I actually picked up zucchini, fresh tomatoes (which I really love) & carrots AND used them. That's a big deal for me because my veggies always go bad... always. Tonight, I made spaghetti with turkey meat sauce. While the onions, garlic and fresh tomatoes sautéed, I decided to spice up my life a little and add some zucchini and canned corn to the mix. At 7.5 pts per serving I had a pretty darn good meal.

Chourico & Salad

So tonight there's a little lesson about my heritage. I am part Portuguese. You can thank this woman for all that entails.

Meet.. my mom. The Portuguese are Latin, romantic, passionate and hospitable. Please interpret that last word to mean that everything and I mean everything revolves around food. Now my mom, bless her heart, weighs about 98 lbs soaking wet but eats enough to sustain a baby elephant. Where the food goes, only the Lord will reveal it to me? And yes, THIS is the burning question I will ask when I sit on God's lap and uncover the hidden things. But I digress.

The Portuguese love to cook, eat, cook & eat and most importantly FEED YOU. I can remember when I was a little girl the first thing my vovo (Grandma) would do is sit me down at the kitchen table and start bringing food over to me. This leads me to one of my favorite foods that I grew up with.. Portuguese chourico. Basically, chourico (as seen on Emeril.. BAM!) is pork, fat, wine, paprika and salt. Then it's smoked. For more info, click here. Once that whole process is done with, you can eat it unheated in a sandwich or like many of us like to do, we sauté it with a bit of olive oil, throw in some onions and call it a day. I have a 'thing' when I visit Massachusetts which if you are all caught up on your reading know that I was there last week. I stock up on Chourico because it's very hard to find outside of New England. I found chicken chourico in Maryland once but that was almost blasphemous.

Tonight, my featured dinner:


It turns out to be approximately 4 pts per serving. Then throw in a salad lightly dressed with olive oil and red wine vinegar and you have a 6 point meal... YUM!