Meat Logs

Have you ever tried to eat a meatball sub and lost a ball? Or had a meatball sub and had the meatballs all sliced up so they aren't even close to being ball-shaped anymore? I have. It stinks. At this point, I had a great idea - meat logs! How come no one ever tried it before? I have no idea but I think it's pretty genius. Just shape the meat into a log that fits into the bun for your sandwich and you'll never lose a ball again!

HA! Way too many dirty jokes I could include in there but I'll steer clear... with that said, meat logs!

Meat Logs

Recipe makes 4 logs - serves 2 very hungry people

INGREDIENTS

• 1 package of ground meat (we used beef)
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp basil
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/3 cup italian flavored breadcrumbs
• 1 good squirt of ketchup
• 1 good squirt of mustard (we used the grainy kind)
• Tomato sauce - about a cup or two depending on how much you like on your sandwich
• Franks Red Hot Sauce
• Bun - that can handle the meat log!
• Cheese (optional)
• 1 tablespoon oil for the pan to cook the logs

STEPS

Mix the spices, ketchup, mustard, bread crumbs and meat together in a bowl till well combined

Prep the buns - make sure they are sliced, and I add a little cheese to the bottom of the bun also

Form the meat into logs that will fit into your bun, we ended up doing two logs per bun since the longer logs wouldn't fit into the pan that we cooked them in

Add the oil into the pan and turn it on to medium

Add the logs one by one into the pan

Brown the outside of the logs by rolling them around in the pan

Add a few drops of Franks to each log at this point, this will sear the Franks to the outside of the log.

Cook the logs till they are cooked through

Cover with tomato sauce and let cook for about 1 minute to heat up the sauce

Plop the meat logs into the bun and top with a bit more cheese

Enjoy! Yum.

Matt's Spicy Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

As with any family, we too have a few recipes that we eat at least once a week (and sometimes twice). I make 1 or 2 of them and Matt has a few goodies up his sleeves as well. Once in particular that we eat at LEAST once a week is spaghetti with meat sauce. I'm not going to call it Bolognese because it's got a little twist to it.

Ingredients:

• 1 package of ground beef
• 1 package of spaghetti
• 1/4 cup Frank's Hot Sauce
• 1 jar tomato sauce (about 3 cups)
• 1 tsp steak seasoning
• Sea salt
• Vegetable oil - a dollop

Steps:

1. Boil water according to the package directions for the pasta but add the sea salt to the boiling water. Add in the pasta and get those noodles cooking.
2. Add the vegetable oil to a frying pan and heat it up, add in the ground beef and start to cook. You can season with a little salt and pepper if you like. Add in the steak seasoning.
3. Cook the meat till it starts to smell like a well done burger - you want the meat to be almost well done. 
4. Drain the grease off. 
5. Add in the tomato sauce and the franks. Make sure you stir in the franks really well otherwise you'll have a few hots bites and the rest will be fairly mild. This is key.
6. At this point, your pasta should be ready. Strain the pasta and serve to each dish. We like to add the pasta to the dish first then add the meat sauce on top.
7. Enjoy!

Matt hard at work.

Polenta and Ground Beef

I don't cook a lot of beef. Honestly, I don't cook beef at all. I've spent most of my life not eating beef. One day when I was 7 my dad just stopped eating it, so my mom stopped cooking it and as a result I stopped as well. Recently over the past few years, I've picked it up again. Beef is really delicious. I don't think I could eat it every day but once a week is good.

Last night, I cooked ground beef. Yep. I sure did. I cooked it all by myself. Yay! Not really that hard... but if you've never cooked it before, it's ok to pat yourself on the back once in awhile. *pat pat pat*

It was a very simple recipe - I had some polenta lying around that I had been iching to cook as well. I love polenta - it's so easy to cook! It comes in a wonder tube that you just slice open and cut up! Yum!

Polenta and Ground Beef Lasagna-Casserole-Thing! HA! I need a better name - suggestions welcome.

Here's there recipe - very simple, not too terrible for you either (always an added benefit.)

Ingredients:
1 Shallot - (or you could use a small onion)
5 Garlic cloves - diced
8 Baby carrots - diced (or 1 large carrot)
1/2 cup Peas
1 pound Lean-ground beef
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 18 oz tube of polenta - cut into 1/4-inch slices
1 cup cheese - shredded cheese

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. In a frying pan, on medium heat, plop a little olive oil and add in the shallots, peas, carros and garlic. 3. Let that get a little soft then add the meat.
4. Cook the meat till it's no longer pink and add in the Worcestershire sauce and tomatoes
5. Let that cook for about 10 minutes till the sauce reduces and thickens
6. In a pan - I used a 6 x 12ish pan? You could probably use a 8x8 as well - 9x13 may be a bit big... either way in a pan, put about half of the meat mixture on the bottom, a layer of polenta with a little cheese, then the rest of the meat and top with the rest of the polenta and cover that sucker with cheese!

7. I baked mine for about 25 minutes - I wanted the cheese to get a little crispy then I let it cook for about 10 - 15 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!