Review: Crockpot Italian Zucchini Meatloaf

Crockpot Italian Zucchini Meatloaf

My room mate and I are low-carbers and I'm a devotee of the crockpot. It was my turn to cook Saturday night and I wanted to try something different so a little Google-fu and this recipe popped up. Crockpot Italian zucchini meatloaf.

I like meatloaf as much as the next guy and the roomie's okay with it too so that sounded good. The problem with meatloaf, as you can see on the right, it's not terribly photogenic. It looks like a poop on a plate. It didn't taste like it though!

The first thing that drew me to the recipe was the binder wasn't cracker crumbs or oatmeal, it was shredded zucchini that sat and wept the water out for a while. I squeezed it out repeatedly and let it sit longer. It stayed shredded and didn't turn into mush. I wondered how it'd take the weeping in a strainer. It took it fine.

The second thing about the recipe that caught my eye was the idea of using aluminum foil to make "straps" to go under the meatloaf so when you're done you can just lift it up out of the crockpot and set it on the plate. That's what I did here, and as you can see it came out in one piece really nicely. I forgot to put the cheese on so that was added later. I microwaved it for a minute to get that much melt on it. Oops, my fault, not the fault of the recipe.

Flavor? Good. If I made it again I'd increase the garlic and the salt and now that I've eaten it and am sitting here about half an hour later... I'd probably decrease the oregano. I'm burping it. He isn't so it's just me and he probably wouldn't notice if I dialed it back a bit.

The ultimate question is did I keep the recipe? Will I make it again? No. Probably not. I will use the techniques IN the recipe again though. Those foil straps are genius and the zucchini binder was good too. I'll use that in future recipes as it adds vegetables to the diet and doesn't increase net-carbs unduly.

So, the recipe wasn't one I'll make again, but it'll change the way I cook and that counts as a win in my book.

New Favorite Low-Carb Recipe

I'm not sure how I found this recipe but it became an instant hit at the house and is my favorite... so favorite I immediately made it again to take to work for lunches.

Slow Cooker Pepperoni & Chicken over on the SkinnyMom blog is delicious. Seriously, and easy too.

Go to Skinny Mom's blog to get the actual recipe. What I'm going to do is describe it. Start with a crock pot, any size, and layer the bottom with one layer of chicken breasts. On top of that I deviated from the recipe because I had no chicken broth so I dumped half a can of tomato sauce and about the same amount of water over the chicken. No, I didn't mix it.. either time. I dumped. On top of that I sprinkled Italian seasonings from McCormick I think, until it looked right. Next I dealt pepperoni onto the mess like they were cards and I was covering the whole thing in them. Slap on the lid, turn on the crock pot and enjoy as the house starts to smell like pizza is cooking. Six hours went by as it cooked on low and the roomie finally woke up (he works nights, and I had to wait for him to wake up enough to feel like something decidedly unbreakfast like for his breakfast) I put some cheese on it, generous amounts of shredded mozzarella and put the lid back on while I steamed some broccoli which I sprinkled with lemon pepper and then dumped more shredded cheese on as I plated the rest the cheese mostly melted.

It. Was. Delicious! Cut it with a fork chicken, the spices were perfect, the whole thing, seriously great. My hat's off to Skinny Mom and I love this recipe. Low carb, delicious, and easy... also, relatively inexpensive.

Note: The recipe on the site calls for black olives but a) I didn't have any and b) I had no clue what I'd do with the other 3/4 of a can of black olives this would have left me with so even if I had had them I probably would have left them out. I just can't see throwing away that many olives and I don't eat them enough to justify the expense. Roomie says he'd eat the rest of the can just with a fork... if he buys 'em I'll use 'em I guess, but I'm not going to buy them. Not worth it to me. Bacon would be worth it to me... not black olives.

Note: The knife was completely unnecessary. I didn't know that when I grabbed it. Seriously tender and delicious. Make this. You won't regret it.

Low-Carb Cooking: Flax Meal Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting

I've been doing low-carb for a long time and one of the things that I crave is desserts and pastries. I'm not a big bread person but who doesn't love a cupcake? One recipe that I see a lot are low-carb flax meal muffins made in a cup in the microwave and they've always been a little... flaxy. I decided to play with the recipe a little and try and make it a dessert.

I started with the recipe linked to above and modified it. I used cinnamon in it, about half a tea-spoon and added 4 Tablespoons of Stevia and nuked it for about a minute 40. It rises up really tall, but don't panic, it calms down and gets back down in the cup where it belongs.

While it was cooking I stirred a little over an ounce of cream cheese, some of Penzey's double strength vanilla, just a splash, and a splash of almond milk along with 3 Tablespoons of Stevia. It stirred up pretty thinly, not thick like a frosting but more like a glaze like you'd find on a cinnamon roll.

As soon as the cup was out of the microwave I dumped it onto a paper plate and let it cool for a bit before scraping the frosting onto it. When I cut it with the fork and ate it it was light and not packy and the cinnamon and frosting helped to tone down the nuttiness of the flax meal that typically bugs me with things made with flax meal. I think this would be really good with a banana and walnuts chopped into it. Maybe some banana extract in the frosting instead of vanilla.

I'm a fan of low-carb because I feel good when I'm on it and my bloodwork from the doctor's point of view is consistently good and better than before I was on Atkins. I'm happy when I find something good enough to share.