Meat loaf and sweet potatoes.

First off, our family eats early! Casey has to be out the door by 5pm. So by 2pm I am working on dinner. I get myself to a stopping point and go pick up the kids at 2:50 and get back to the dinner thing while I help the kids do homework. It can be a little trickie so I have to plan. Tonight I got everything ready to go in the oven before I left for school and had everything in a few minutes after I got home.

I made the most amazing meatloaf. It is the Souperior Meat loaf from the back of the Lipton Recipe Secrets Beefy Onion box. Of course I have made a few "improvements" and now it is amazing. Here is the recipe:

1 envelope Lipton Recipe Secrets Beefy Onion mix.
2 lbs. lean ground hamburger
3/4 cup bread crumbs, I just use what ever bread is laying around and crumbles easy
2 eggs
3/4 cups water
1/3 cup ketchup
1/4 cup brown sugar!!!(the brown sugar was my addition)
Half an onion cut into wedges.
A little more brown sugar to sprinkle on top of the loaf

Preheat oven to 350. Combine all ingredients, except the onions. Put it all in to a bread loaf pan and arrange onions on top, so it looks pretty. Now sprinkle the last of the brown sugar on top of the loaf. Now bake the meat loaf for 1 hour or until done. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

The brown sugar sounds off, but trust me.

Now for the veggie:
Orange Sweet Potato Casserole
3 lbs. sweet potatoes (about 6 medium potatoes), Peel and slice about 1/4 inch thick.
6 T. melted butter
2 T. honey
3 T. molasses
1 T. Grated fresh ginger or 1 t. powdered ginger
3/4 t. salt
4 t. grated orange zest
1/4 t. cayenne pepper
1-1/2 T. cornstarch

Preheat oven to 375. In a large pot boil sweet potatoes in water until parboil or until you can stick a paring knife easily into the flesh of a sweet potato. Drain potatoes well and put in a pam sprayed baking dish.
Meanwhile in a bowl whisk melted butter, honey, molasses, ginger, salt, orange zest, and cayenne in small bowl; set aside. Mix cornstarch withe 2 T. cold water in a small bowl until totally smooth, then whisk into butter mixture; pour over sweet potatoes and toss to coat well.
Cover dish tightly with foil and bake until liquid is bubbly, about 50 minutes. Remove foil, stir potatoes gently, and bake until liquid thickens to glaze potatoes, about 20 minutes longer. Cool slightly and serve hot.

You may have noticed the temperatures for the two dishes did not match and the sweet potatoes took extra long to cook. So here is how I fixed that. I cooked the potatoes a little longer than recommended and put them in with the meat loaf. As for the temperature I raise it up to 365. Some times we must make a compromise.