Meal Inspiration

I've been in a major 'what's for dinner' rutt lately.  One reason I'm ready for fall (or so I've convinced myself) is that I'll be able to use the oven again without fear of overheating our already hot house, and hopefully I'll get to trying some new recipes!

I tried a recipe for meat loaf the other night from the Pioneer Women



Im not sure why (other than the fact that the internet is conditioning us to want meat loaf, seriously, it's everywhere!) I've been wanting meat loaf for the past 3 months, but when this recipe came up last week I knew I had to try it.  It is good, basic and wrapped in bacon.  The only problem came when I went to wrap up the left overs, and wanted to gag... then again every time I thought about eating it again... SO, I recommend halving the recipe, unless you are feeding like, 15 people.  I also used turkey bacon, because I am afraid of real bacon and happen to love turkey bacon.  If you're not the person actually handling the meat, I don't think the gag reflex will come upon you, because this actually is good ; )

I also made her Spinach Salad.  It was de-lish!



Since I was cooking bacon anyway, this went perfectly with the meat loaf... actually I guess you could say I had a large salad for dinner with a side of meat loaf.
I didn't use mushrooms and I added cranberries (grape juice flavored... it's true.  Best. Invention. EVER.) and avocado.  SO GOOD.  My mouth is watering just thinking about this salad.  The bacon, sauteed red onion and hard boiled egg made it an entree.  Oh, and I just used a light balsamic vinegarette since I didn't have any grease left over from my *turkey* bacon... but a warm bacon dressing is something I am not afraid of.

To finish the meal, I had made an experiment batch of cupcakes that I will recreate again this week for an event at church, Pumpkin Spice cupcakes with Honey Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting!  (Yes, capitalization is a must)

 (thank you phone camera)

The perfect ending to a lovely fall meal... or for me, the perfect 'break the sad news that summer is over but that fall has good things too' meal.