Old School Meatloaf

A few years ago, a very hungry (and handsome!) man came into my life...and he loved to eat. And while he loves to dine on fine foods and ethnic delights, there is also a special place in his heart for hearty meals of meat and potatoes.

Thus, I set out to find a delicious meatloaf recipe — one that even I could enjoy despite the fact that I've never craved meat in loaf form. It just doesn't sound tasty to me. I promise, however, that this recipe will not disappoint! And better yet, the recipe makes about 6 servings, so I split it into two loaves and pop one or both in the freezer...which means easy and delicious weeknight dinner!

This recipe is from Sara Moulten (she used to be on the Food Network) — I tried to find the recipe online but couldn't find the same one. I made some adjustments to the original recipe and included them in my version below.

Blueberry Cruffins

What's a cruffin? A word that Brad created for this recipe, which is for blueberry "crumb muffins." It works. This treat started with an Ina Garten recipe for Blueberry Crumb Cake, which I decided to make into individual servings — hence the cruffin. It's a lovely recipe for this time of year when berry season is inching closer (although you can use frozen blueberries as well).

Chocolate Chocolate (Chocolate) Chip Cookies

I was looking for something sweet to bring to work tomorrow, taking into account that I was limited on ingredients and time tonight. I decided on these cookies, which would feed a lot of people and hopefully be a crowd-pleaser.

I'm pretty sure that they are one of the reasons that Brad and I are together today...I'm just sayin. I used to send him "care packages" with Ziploc bags full of them!

Side note: You know how sometimes you're making cookies and you eat some of the dough because it's so delicious? And you feel a little sick by the time you're done baking, and you don't want to eat a single baked cookie? Yeah, me neither. Just a heads up that, for this recipe, the baked cookies are a lot tastier than the dough for some reason. Maybe it's just too much chocolate for me to handle pre-bake.