Betty's Meatloaf

I had a big ole Sunday dinner tonight, just for me. Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, salad made with farmers market veggies, and Trader Joe's two-buck chuck cab sauv. All enjoyed while watching episodes from the third season of The Walking Dead. Nothing beats watching people stab zombies in the head over a good vegan dinner, right?

For the meatloaf, I used Annie and Dan Shannon's recipe for Vegan Bacon Cheese Meatloaf in Betty Goes Vegan.

Match sent me samples of so many of their vegan meats a few weeks ago. And I remembered that when I first flipped through Betty Goes Vegan seeing a lot of recipes that called for Match meat. But you can't buy Match meat in Memphis (a damn shame). Of course, many of those Annie and Dan recipes have alternatives in case Match isn't available.

But since I have Match meat in my freezer now, I wanted to try one of the Betty Goes Vegan recipes that use it. This vegan meatloaf is made with Match vegan ground beef, chickpeas, garlic, onion, breadcrumbs, fresh herbs (from my front porch herb garden), bacon bits (I used Phoney Baloney's coconut bacon), and vegan cheese (I used Teese cheddar). It's topped with a glazed made from A1 steak sauce and brown sugar.

The meatloaf was just like mama used to make. Okay, that's a lie. I can't remember my mama ever making meatloaf. Maybe she did a time or two, but you know how kids feel about meatloaf. But now that I'm all grown up (okay, not really), I love meatloaf, and this one did not disappoint. The Match meats are the most realistic vegan meats I've tried. This was really beefy. But the ground chickpeas added a wholesome hippie taste. The bacon and the Liquid Smoke in the recipe made it super-smoky. After snapping this picture, I topped the meatloaf with ketchup and served with a side of pickles.

Funny story (okay, not so funny): My oven has been acting crazy. Sometimes it will heat up, and sometimes the preheat light will stay on for 30 minutes or more, and the oven just doesn't heat. And that happened tonight. Luckily, three of my best friends live in the same neighborhood as me. So I "borrowed" an oven. Anyone else have an on-again/off-again oven problem? What should I do about this? Is there a such thing as an oven repair-person?

Anyway, the mashed potatoes were from my own basic recipe, which I'm including below because, hey, it's Mofo. I should stop being lazy and give you more recipes this month, right? Granted, this is a really easy recipe. I feel like I should apologize for how easy this is, so I'm sorry. As for gravy, I used Road's End Organics vegan savory herb gravy from a package, so .... you're on your own there.

Bianca's Vegan Mashed Potatoes
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2 medium baking potatoes, washed and scrubbed
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
2 Tbsp. vegan margarine
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
Salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste

Cube the potatoes, and place them in a pot of water. Bring to a boil and allow to boil for 20 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender.

Drain the water from the potatoes and mash them with a potato masher. Add the almond milk, margarine, and garlic powder. Stir to combine. Taste and season with as much salt and pepper as needed.