In today’s installment of “Kristina the snarky chef makes things, sort of,” (it’s a working title), we’re going to make meatloaf. Because I thought, “hey, meatloaf is delicious and seems not super hard. Why not?”

I’m going to preface this post by saying, why the heck does meatloaf have such a bad rep? I feel like most people stick it in the same category as brussels sprouts and mayonnaise (both of which are delicious, by the way) where people turn their nose up at it out of habit, but really, most people actually sort of love it. So, I decided to conquer my fear of cooking meat today and give it a go.

Here’s what you need:

1. 1 1/2 lbs of lean ground beef
2. 1 cup bread crumbs (I used a seasoned variety, but use whatever you want)
3. 1 egg
4. 1/2 an onion
5. 1 cup milk
6. 2 tablespoons brown sugar
7. 1/3 cup ketchup
8. 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce
9. salt and pepper

Let me just say – cooking meatloaf is FUN. You stick a bunch of random stuff in a bowl, squish it around with your fingers, build a bust of yourself out of the gooey substance… unbuild the bust of yourself, and finally just sort of shove it all in a cooking pan. So easy. It’s like playing with play-doh, but even more delicious. I mean look at this:

In this bowl, you mix the ground beef, egg, milk, bread crumbs and salt/pepper until it looks like Meatwad from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. In the mean time, you should chop up and sauté the onions until they’re cooked-ish, otherwise they’ll be a bit too crunchy in your meatloaf.  My roommate Liz thought it would be funny to organize the sautéing onions into a heart shape for you guys:

Dump the onions into the meatloaf, and then mix it again. Careful touching it with your hands, as the onions are hot. Set the completed mixture aside for awhile while you prepare the final step, the sauce. Mix the ketchup, brown sugar and a couple spoonfuls of your favorite BBQ sauce in a small bowl.

Once it’s smooth, you can arrange the meat mixture in your baking loaf tray (5×9″ works best) and then dump the sauce evenly across the top. Yeeeeah meatloaf!

Stick the whole thing in the oven for about one hour at 350 degrees F. To check if it’s done, just cut into it. If it’s still pink on the inside, put it back in the oven for another 5-10 minutes. Or eat it raw, vampire. I’m on to you.

When it’s done, combine it with other wholesome “family” type foods, and trust me, you’ll super impress your grandma once you put photos online. As long as she has Facebook. Your grandma has Facebook, right?

Let me know if you have any suggestions for other easy foods for me to try! Also, let me know if you try any of the recipes I post on my blog, and send pictures! I would love to see them.

Welcome to Round Two! The theme this time? “Kristina likes this semi-exotic food, and then her mind is blown when she realizes it’s so easy to make that she’s embarrassed she never tried it before.” Let’s begin.

So, let me preface this by saying all you really need is the Squash itself. I thought it was going to be super complicated, but you literally just cook a squash and spoon out its guts.

Ingredients:

1. Spaghetti Squash
2. Big Knife
3. Muscles

Ah, a problem. Muscles. Right. I don’t have those. So, there are two tricks here. One, ask your roommate who is much stronger than you to cut the squash in two, lengthwise. Don’t have a strong roommate? Dang. Okay, plan B. This is to cut a few little ventilation slits into the squash (even someone lacking muscles can do this) and then stick it in the microwave for 5-10 minutes to soften it up. Then, using an oven mitt to steady the squash (because it’s hot now, duh), cut that sucker in half.

Yummmm. Look at all those guts. I’m just kidding; get that junk out of there, you’re not a monster. Using a spoon of some sort, scoop out everything that looks like seeds or other unappetizing squash innards.

Much better. You can either keep the guts to bake the seeds (they’re just like pumpkin seeds!) or you can toss them because duh, Halloween is right around the corner and we’re going to have more pumpkin seeds than we know what to do with — and right now we’re only concerned with Spaghetti Squash. One thing at a time!!

So next, you place the two cleaned out halves of the squash on a cooking sheet, and stick it in the over. No sauces, no seasoning, nothing. Just get that thing in the oven. And make sure the oven was preheated to 350 degrees. It’ll take anywhere from 30-45 minutes, depending on how big your squash is and how well it wants to cooperate. This is much too long, in my opinion, and led to a lot of whiney impatience in the kitchen.I call this one the “are you kidding me, it’s only been two minutes since I last looked at the timer?”

This one is the “what are you even doing in there you ungrateful vegetable, can’t you see I’m hungry?”

Once it finally finishes (it takes it sweet time, I must say) you pull the squash out and the insides should be nice and soft and stringy. Gently pull the soft parts out with a fork and dump it into a bowl. Make your favorite spaghetti sauce (my favorite is a secret home recipe called “from a jar”) and dump it over the squash. Ta-da! Spaghetti, and even more delicious than using pasta.

My favorite thing about this recipe is that as long as you don’t tell anyone how easy it is, everyone you make it for will think you’re so fancy. Wait. ….I’ve made a huge mistake.

Have you ever tried Spaghetti Squash? Have you ever made it yourself? Let me know in the comments, or let me know if this post inspires you! It’s very delicious, and one of the many reasons I look forward to fall.