Every family has its own meat loaf recipe and many of them start with a soup mix. However this family recipe, given to me years ago by my mother-in-law, is made-from-scratch meat loaf. I’m not talking about the mushy, mystery meat loaf you may have eaten at restaurants. No, I’m talking about all beef meat loaf with ketchup and brown sugar topping.
Quality ingredients are what make this meat loaf so good. First of all, the recipe calls for only one kind of meat – ground beef. The bread crumbs are fresh, not something from a can. The onion is also fresh, though I’ve used dehydrated in a pinch. As for the topping, it makes every mouthful of meat loaf extra delicious.
To make the meat loaf healthier I’ve changed a few of the ingredients. I use 90% or 93% lean ground beef, not the cheaper, fattier kind. Skim milk replaces whole milk. Instead of white bread crumbs I use whole wheat bread crumbs. Often I use no-calorie brown sugar instead of regular.
You can make this meat loaf in minutes. A family of four, including two teens, will proably eat this meat loaf at one sitting. If you have any leftovers you can make meat loaf sandwiches or crumble the meat loaf into spaghetti sauce. Here’s the recipe, a gift from my family to yours.
THE BEST MEAT LOAF IN THE WORLD
INGREDIENTS: 3/4 cup fresh wheat bread crumbs; 3/4 cup skim milk; 1 1/2 pounds 90% or 93% lean ground beef; 2 large eggs, beaten; 1/4 cup grated onion; 1 teaspoon salt; 1/8 teaspoon frershly ground pepper; 1/2 teaspoon dried sage
Combine ingredients in a large mixing bowl with a fork. (Don’t over-mix or the meat loaf will be tough.) Turn meat mixture into a meat loaf pan. Smooth the meat loaf with the tines of the fork. Prepare topping with 1/4 cup ketchup, 3 tablespoons brown sugar (or no-calorie brown sugar), 1 teaspoon dry mustard, and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg. Spread topping over meat loaf. Bake in 350 degree oven for 1 hour. Let meat loaf cool for 10 minutes before slicing. Makes 8-10 servings.
Copyright 2005 by Harriet Hodgson.
By default, Microsoft Word automatically changes straight quotation marks ( ‘ or ” ) to curly (smart or typographer’s) quotes as you type. This is fine if you are only authoring your works for applications not relating to article marketing. When smart quotes are converted to HTML, the quotes are converted to non-standard characters which end up littering your document with question mark symbols and/or other garbage code.
When in doubt, don’t allow your Ezine Articles to contain smart quotes:
Most articles that are put into article distribution eventually end up being sent to an email newsletter audience. Email newsletter servers have near zero-tolerance for MS Word smart quotes; they will not recognize them as valid ASCII characters (because they are not valid). They are a figment of the Microsoft ASCII imagination. In most cases they will show up as garbage code; thus making you, and your article, look like a real novice lacking proper formatting skills.
At risk are: quotes, apostrophes, double dashes, and 3 periods in a row.
This is what smart quotes looks like when properly displayed:
smart quotes arent very smart
This is what STANDARD quotes looks like when properly displayed:
“smart quotes” aren’t very smart…
This is what smart quotes looks like when NOT properly displayed:
âsmart quotesâ arenât very smartâ¦
Do you see the downside potential of leaving smart quotes in your articles that you put into distribution? Standard quotes use the lowest common denominator in the ASCII character standards world and this ensures that your articles will look great in any HTML or TEXT format.
How To Disable Microsoft Words Smart Quotes:
1. On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect Options, then click the AutoFormat As You Type tab.
2. Under Replace as you type, select or clear the “Straight quotes” with “smart quotes” check box.
Alternatively, you can copy your entire MS Word document over to a non Microsoft text editor (EditPlus, UltraEdit, TextPad, etc) and do a simple search and replace. Search and replace the smart quotes into standard quotes, apostrophes, dashes and dots if applicable.
Caution For Authors Who Do HTML Code For Their Articles in MS Word:
Unless you have smart quotes disabled, it should be noted that smart quotes are not valid HTML code. Therefore, dont even consider using MS Word to do HTML code unless you have the smart quotes feature disabled.
Article Marketing Smart Quotes Conclusion
Smart quotes are best left for e-books, physical books in print, PDF documents and any non-HTML related document. If you want to increase the portability of your EzineArticles, do the smart thing and turn off Microsoft Words smart quotes or do a search/replace before you upload your next article to the web.
Now obviously you know that you can buy Amazon gift certificates at Amazon itself, so the question about where to buy Amazon gift cards that occurs to most people is really about where to buy them offline. Sometimes you just can’t buy one online. Often, if you have a party you suddenly need to attend and so you need a last minute gift, it is just easier to find a place locally where you can buy a gift card, rather than futz around with figuring out how to do it online.
Thankfully, a lot more stores today are selling gift cards that can be used online as well as at your local brick & mortar store. CVS, for example, carries gift cards for dozens of different companies, including Amazon. All you need to do is take the gift card to the cash register and the clerk will activate the card once you pay for it. You can usually find Amazon gift cards at CVS for the values $25 or $50.
If you don’t have a CVS pharmacy near you, there are several other chains that carry Amazon cards too. Rite-Aid and Longs Drugs both carry them as well, in the same dollar amounts. So just get a nice birthday card to go with it, and you will be all set. They work just as well for anniversaries and wedding gifts too!
If you are in a pinch and none of these stores are near where you live, or they are just out of the gift cards you want, Coinstar also issues Amazon codes when you turn in your change. Many supermarkets now have Coinstar machines so you should be able to get that gift card taken care of before you have to arrive at the party.
