Meatloaf and Cookies

  Happy Saturday. we have full sunshine but cool weather which I am liking better than those mid 90's F for March.

 Yesterday for our main meal I decided to make a meatloaf for us. Have not made one in a very long time, so looked for a recipe online using one pound of hamburger. I had a package left from one of the ranches I was buying beef from.  I had the perfect small loaf pan too. I forgot to get a photo. Here is the recipe I followed I used gluten free saltine crackers instead of bread. I loved the baking method-bake half way and then put the sauce on top and finish baking. I loved the sauce-it was ketchup brown sugar and ground mustard. I keep no sugar ketchup on hand, for the brown sugar I used swerve "brown sugar" (a keto sugar) and I did not have the mustard spice so I used dijon mustard. This was sooo delicious

  Here is a photo from the recipe site I would make this again for sure. The recipe had you forming the loaf and then bake on a cookie sheet-I had the perfect loaf pan size so I used that.

Larry does not eat much these days so I will serve this again today and then freeze the rest.

  I have not made cookies in some time so I mixed up chocolate chip cookies for the both of us-wheat and gluten free versions.

  I still have keto sweeteners around so I used those in both recipes. For mine I used plant butter instead of butter since that is not good for acid reflux (gerd)

 When you change up the ingredients you are never sure how they will bake up. Larry's did not bake flat the way I like chocolate chip cookies baked, but mine did-go figure as my ingredients were all changed up.

  Chocolate is a huge no no for acid reflux you can have a little at a time but better to use chocolate chips with no sugar or other additives. Awhile back I had found Ghiradelli 100% cacoa dark chips with nothing added-now I can no longer find those even online. The 60% cacoa dark has sugar and other ingredients added-sigh. So I have been checking out cacoa nibs.

 So for my cookies I used the last I had of the 100% cacoa chips and added these

I grew up with toll  house chocolates for baking, but now for my nutrition needs they will no longer work for me-they have soooo much additives in the chips that I don't want. These nibs are crunchy which is ok in my cookies but I am still looking for dark chips 60 to 100% cacoa with nothing else added.

  When I was mixing up the cookie doughs I thought I had run out of vanilla extract but then I remembered I stopped buying that so I can use up my own handmade extracts. The two bottles I have left are soooo good now-much aging involved haha. I also have a bottle of lemon extract I had made as well.

 Making these extracts were so much fun during those early years of retirement at the woods house. Now that this has been aged for years it is very high quality extract. I also found a couple bottles same year of amoretto and kahlua I had made.

  Here is a photo of my cookies just out of the oven- will freeze most of these. 

 I switched to this brown parchment paper that I found on amazon-It is a huge roll and I really love it. 

That's it for me today-even though it is quite chilly here there are fisherman out on the lake as spoonbill season is still on.

Happy weekend