The recipe for Meat Loaf in the Women's Circle Home Cooking magazine (April 1990) is a little odd-- subbing in All-bran for the usual bread or cracker crumbs. (Frankly, you don't see a lot of recipes mixing All-bran cereal with tomato sauce, onion, mustard, and chili powder.)
But that's not why I picked it.
You might notice a theme: the Cherry Coffee Cake that shared the page also features All-bran, this time with the more expected dessert-y ingredients, like sugar, pecans, and maraschino cherries.
The reason I really picked the recipes, though, is because of the section of the magazine where I found them.
I don't think Mary Pledge Peterson was very committed to the bit, considering that one recipe in the "Cooking for Two" section serves six, and the other serves eight to nine. Yes, the headnote for the meat loaf insists "You'll welcome the extra servings for sandwiches, to reheat in the microwave oven or on a griddle," but nearly any food that home cooks make can also be eaten as leftovers. Same thing with noting that the coffee cake "Freezes well." Sure, but a lot of desserts do. I didn't major in math, but I'm pretty sure "Cooking for Two" is meant to imply that the recipes will serve TWO without leaving a bunch of leftovers. Otherwise, pretty much every recipe in this booklet fits the "cooking for two" requirement, in which case... WHY BOTHER WITH THIS SECTION AT ALL?
Maybe I'm overthinking this, but I don't care. And no, a slab of microwaved leftover meat loaf will not calm me down.
And I'm sure that half cup of all bran divided 6 ways makes that meatloaf way healthier than the regular version. Maybe the multiple servings are a nod to the fact that those recipes are a lot of work, and it would be really annoying to put all that effort into one meal.
ReplyDeleteThey also make me glad that I cook for one. Heat up trusty skillet, toss in whatever I'm going to eat and cook it. If my friend is dining with me I simply repeat the process or double the amount of ingredients used. It's not rocket science.
Yes! I actually figured out how to use Aldi's just-add-water protein pancake mix to make exactly one pancake every morning so I can have a fresh, hot one and not have to figure out what to do with leftovers. I know a lot of people love reheating things, but I generally don't. (It's less about flavor or snobbiness, though, and more about finding it calming to go through a familiar process of making something by hand. I feel kind of cheated if I'm just reheating something that's already been prepared. Even on nights when I have to teach until 8:10 and have dinner super-late, I still mix up my own microwave dinner rather than buying a pre-made frozen dinner: an individual serving of pre-cooked brown rice, a bag of seasoned veggies for steaming, and a vegetarian sausage patty. Mix and microwave. Season with tomato paste and various herbs. Sprinkle cheese on top at the end. It's just so satisfying to be able to whip up something "fresh" even though it's not really. Gives me a chance to wind down...)
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