Yeah, that’s going to be tough, if not impossible, to completely mimic it. But, seriously, try the potato flake, mashed potatoes, Rice chex, or gluten free-Rice Krispies (which I forgot to mention) suggestions. One of those should come close. Personally, I like using mashed potatoes in my meatloaf–my dad used to do it sometimes when I was a kid and he made a lot of meatloaf or meatloaf burgers, and I thought it worked great. I’ve never tried the rice cereals version, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Now, whether it mimics your meatloaf is another story… I personally would start with trying the potato flakes and substituting 1:1 for the breadcrumbs you use and see how it goes. Or, better yet, go all Cook’s Illustrated style and make several smaller meat loaves at once using different stretchers and see what works best for your tastes.
Yes brine. Basic brine
1 cup of salt
1/2 cup sugar/ sweetener
1 gallon of water
Optional herbs and spices to taste
You can multiply/ divide the recipe as necessary. For a couple of pork chops I would divide the recipe by 4. For a turkey I would double it. The sweetener can be sugar, maple syrup whatever. (Actually maple syrup sounds very good!)
Bribe your pork or chicken for between 2 and 8 hours.
If you belong to Sam’s Club or Costco you can buy a whole pork loin for about $2/lb.
Buy one and you can cut chops or roasts out of it. If you are doing a roast brine for a longer time to ensure penetration.
Can he eat bacon?
Yeah, and even the sugar part is optional. You can put in maple syrup (and that would be tasty for pork), but I typically brine without sugar, myself.
Damn, that’s a bitch and a half. I tried to avoid just soy for a couple months (until my allergy scratch test disconfirmed the blood test result) and it suuuuucked. I feel for you.
For weeknight meals, explore soups. Roasted garlic and potato soup is fabulous. I make a spin on minestrone and leave out the beans and pasta a lot of the time (though mine does have zucchini - maybe you could use green beans instead?). Recently I’m into a sweet potato soup that is entirely unlike eating sweet potatoes in any other preparation, so perhaps he would try that? It’s a pureed soup with onion, sweet potato, apple cider (I’ve used hard cider and leftover white wine as well), and coconut milk.
Soups also incorporate rice, barley, and probably quinoa easily, and give you a chance to use some bits of meat without the meal being a big slab of MEAT, you know?
My favorite sandwich right now is a slice of bread topped with whipped goat cheese, radish slices, chopped green onions, salt and pepper. He could have the non-wheat bread of his choice and you could have something nicer like La Brea’s whole grain.
Sounds like he would enjoy rosti. You can make it with just shredded potato and onion, but it works better with some binders–egg if he doesn’t mind (it disappears into the dish) and a little of whatever kind of flour he can eat. And salt and pepper. And some kind of creamy sauce on top.
I’d be making lots of rice and browned beef, well seasoned, stuffed into whatever vegetables he’ll eat and baked.
If you slice a pork tenderloin down the side (but not all the way through) you can stuff it with (hard) goats’ cheese and fresh herbs, tie it up, brown all over and bake for 12-15 mins at 200 centigrade. A bit fiddly but delicious.
And is the entire fish kingdom ruled out under seafood? Walmart fresh fish is ludicrously cheap where I am (UK) and some really aren’t too ‘fishy’. And they take no time to cook.
Are his vegetable preferences more about taste, or about texture? Because I’ve found that many people who dislike a whole category of veggies are often objecting more to texture than taste, and will happily eat pureed soups, say, made from the offending veggie.
He doesn’t like soups. Soups don’t feel like a meal to him; he likes stews but they have to be stew-y.
And yes, no fish. Yes, the entire fishy kingdom. Anything Ariel boogied down with is off limits. Yes, everything. Yes, even your special recipe.
I’m looking for a good recipe for stuffed bell peppers, but I’m a little cautious since that was a staple of, like, my college cafeteria and they were always bland. Any tips to make it tasty?
Ok, I made a meatloaf with kasha. I used two pounds of ground meat, beef, veal, and pork. I took one cup of roasted coarse grain kasha in a bowl and poured in one cup of hot beef broth to soak while I diced an onion. Mixed it with the meat, onion, and some seasonings. I was worried about it holding together, so I added 3 eggs when I’d usually top out at just 2.
It’s delicious. It’s holding together fairly well, but still a little crumbly, and the kasha flavoring is more intense than I expected. Next time I’ll drop down to half a cup of kasha.
I like going Creole-style and doing a dirty rice kind of thing with a little more meat than usual and stuffing it in peppers. Like meatloaf, stuffed peppers (and other vegetables) are open to endless variations. Just find a good rice & meat dish you like, and stuff it in a pepper. It’s really that easy. You can also stuff zucchini, kohlrabi, cabbage leaves, eggplant, mushroom caps, etc.
ETA: Here’s one recipe. It’s not the recipe I use, as I’m not a recipe kind of cook in general, but that’s pretty close to my basic approach (except I use celery in mine, and omit the Italian sausage. I mean, basically, for me, it’s celery-peppers-onions, fry 'em up, add some gar;oc , ground meat and creole seasoning to taste. Add in some crushed tomatoes. Mix in with some cooked rice. Adjust seasonings [mostly meaning salt for me], stuff in peppers, bake.)
Oh, and if you want to have fun, stuff them in a poblano. For that matter, this is a great Rick Bayless recipe for stuffed poblanos. Feel free to omit the panko bread crumbs.