Minding My Matties

This meatloaf recipe has been in my family for years. My grandmother actually added it to the cookbook she created which compiled some of her favorite recipes and she is an amazing cook! Although meatloaf is a more old-fashioned food, or so one of my former co-workers told me one time, we grew up eating this with a few special substitutions. It’s super easy to just throw all the ingredients in a bowl and mix! For instance, instead of breadcrumbs, we have always used one sleeve of crushed regular Ritz crackers (I use Aldi brand since that’s what I usually have on hand and it’s so much cheaper). The other thing that my Mom used to do when she made this growing up was she would pour homemade barbecue sauce on top.  My husband loves it with the bbq sauce so that’s how I always make it now.  What can I say? We are Texan and love everything topped with bbq sauce especially the kind made from scratch.  The recipe calls for ketchup too but if I’m running out, I wil...

This is a super simple recipe that is great for an easy weeknight dinner.  Plus, I usually have all of the ingredients on hand so it makes its way into the weekly dinner line-up quite often.  I think I combined a few things from different recipes to make it easier but it is still super simple and delicious. It’s a great budget-friendly recipe as well! There are a few things I do to make it more budget friendly. First, I use two large or three small chicken breasts, but I slice them in half lengthwise first and then cut them in half again depending on how large or small the chicken breasts are. Then I pound them out with a meat tenderizer mallet thingy. This usually means I will have 10-12 smaller pieces of chicken.  For us, this makes it last a little longer since instead of getting one huge piece of chicken, we each get two smaller pieces. This also means it cooks faster which is great when you need a quick dinner! Here is an example of two chicken breasts sliced lengthwise and then c...