Chicken Parmesan Meatloaf

It's been a little while since our last few blog posts, my apologies! We're only just getting used to this whole blogging thing.
Anyways, I figured why not give you a view into my day to day food world, the week day meal.


As you'll come to learn, I'm personally not a serious beef eating type of girl. Don't get me wrong, I will devour a delicious burger or steak in no time, but for weird personal reasons (like health and the environment, mostly) I don't like to buy and consume a lot of beef. I do, on the other hand buy and prepare a lot of chicken and turkey. I'm always searching around for the perfect turkey or chicken meat loaf recipe (the ultimate in easy throw-together-in-10 minutes type of lazy week day meal) so when I came across this little gem of a recipe I could not wait to try it.
I must say, hands down, best - meatloaf - of - all - time! I even think it's better than real chicken parmesan, if that's possible!


So why don't we get right down to it then..

First of all, I must give credit where credit is due! This recipe is courtesy of Joelen from Chicago of the 'What's Cookin, Chicago?' Blogspot. (Find her at www.joelens.blogspot.com).


The recipe:


First you put 1 lb of ground chicken (or turkey) in a large bowl.

Then add one whole egg and 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs (I use the Italian seasoned breadcrumbs for extra Italy flavour).

Then add your seasonings: 1/2 tsp dried basil, 1/2 tsp dried thyme, 1/2 tsp dried oregano, 1-2 cloves of minced garlic (I'm a garlic girl so it's more like 3-4 cloves for me!), one small minced onion, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp ground pepper. 

If you have one of those fancy pre-mixed 'Italian Seasoning' shakers then you can use that instead of the basil, thyme and oregano (add 1-1/2 tsp). 

Then the yummy part.. the cheese! Add 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese

Now that you have this lovely mound of flavour in your bowl, all you need to do is mix! I find a fork works best. 

Once you've mixed to perfection, stuff it all in a greased regular sized loaf pan. 

Then top the meatloaf with your favourite pasta sauce (I've also found Marinara to be delicious). 

And voila! Your work is complete. 

Now place meatloaf in a 350 degree oven uncovered for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and cover in grated cheese, return to oven until cheese is melt-y perfection. Remove and let sit for 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with fresh parsley or basil if you desire. 

(photo courtesy of Joelen, What's Cookin, Chicago? blog)

What I love about this too is that it is easily freezable. Just seal and pop it in the freezer once you've assembled it. Cook from frozen (for 55-60 mins instead of 45).

YUM! Hope all of you who try it love it as much as me! Meatloaf will never be the same for me, that's for sure.

Here's the full recipe:

Chicken Parmesan Meatloaf
original Joelen recipe

1 lb ground chicken (ground turkey can be substituted)
1 egg
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1-2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 small onion, grated
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup pasta sauce (homemade or store bought)
1/2 cup shredded Italian cheese blend
minced parsley for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a loaf pan with cooking spray, set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the ground chicken, egg, breadcrumbs, thyme, oregano, basil, garlic, onion, salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese. To not over handle the mixture otherwise it will get tough. Place the mixture in the greased loaf pan and form into a loaf. Top the meatloaf with pasta sauce.

Talk soon, 

Anna xo

Valentines Day

So this year for Valentine's Day I decided to take the day off and surprise my boyfriend Mike with a delicious dinner! He had no idea I was taking the day off and was very surprised to come home to candles, wine, appetizers and dinner cooking away! For dinner I made pulled pork soft tacos, and Mexican rice, it was delish!
For dessert, chocolate cheesecake.

I also made him some oreo truffles!

Hope you all had a great Valentine's day!

Michelle
xo

Where Did "Tina" Come From?

It's the one non-food question we get asked the most.. "What does 'Tina' mean?"

Unfortunately, it's less of an exciting story and more of an embarrassing story, but we may as well throw it out there and stop all the funny looks and wondering.

Well, Tina is a nickname that Michelle, myself and our small group of friends call each other. We've all stuck together through thick and thin and we just can't seem to shake off the Tina name.

I should probably try to save all of our embarrassment and leave the story at that.. but how lame would that be?

It all started about 8 years ago, when a certain ridiculously stupid, yet funny movie was released. Of course our group of friends latched on to the many quotes of this movie and being the outrageous ladies that we are, especially liked one particular part (or should I say - animal). (This is the embarrassing part.... the moment of truth).. 

Now, for those of you who haven't seen Napolean Dynamite, you should. Actually, you should see it twice, because the second time is when it's funniest. As you can see, it's maybe the dumbest (but again - pretty funny) movie of all time, but that damn llama just stuck with us.

Long story - short, we called each other Tina for the next couple of months, which led to other people calling us Tina, then it ballooned from there.

Blog world, meet the Tinas!

picture circa 2006

Left to Right: Anna, Megan, Kelsey, Holly, Michelle, Kristin & Julia

*Note the Tina shirts

Yes, we had shirts made.. don't judge. (This only seems to get more and more embarrassing as the story goes on.)

To ease the pain of how hilarious we all look circa 2006, here's a photo of us circa 2008 (I know - two whole  years later, but humour me here people, okay?)

Plus Monty & Walter the Hancock dogs :)

To reiterate this seemingly unnecessary story, we still call each other Tina to this day (we have also added one cat and one dog to the Tina-name clan). So, when faced with the task of coming up with a business name, naturally we thought Tina would be appropriate. 

And that is that! Hope you enjoyed our story (and haven't judged us too much)- and my first blog! 

Talk soon,

Anna xo

I will now leave you with this lovely tid-bit of a video. You're welcome. 

First Blog, First Child's Birthday Party!

Okay, this is my first ever blog post, how exciting!

For my first post I decided to talk about the most recent event Anna & I have done. It was a birthday party for a 12 year old girl, which turned out to be lots of fun and a great success, it was also lots of work and very tiring, but we pulled it off without a hitch!!

 It was an interactive cooking party. With the kids we made, homemade cheese ravioli (yes, we made pasta from scratch!), Caesar salad with homemade dressing, and cheesy garlic bread. YUM! it was delish!

 The kids had so much fun putting the ravioli together!

 After all the food was made and bellies were full, the kids got to decorate their own little cakes, with fondant, which they loved. It was so fun  to watch them get creative with their cakes, they all did a fantastic job!

Check 'em out!

  

Children's Birthday Party...Success! I hope we have more in our future adventures!!



Hope you enjoyed reading my first post. We are really starting to up our social media game, in addition to starting our new and exciting blog, we have opened a Pinterest account, and we also have a Tina Event Planning & Catering page on Facebook! We also hope to construct a website in the near future. I hope you will check us out and let us know what you think of our work!

Anna (left), Me(right)

Talk to you all soon!
Michelle
xo