My Sister Cooks

My house is quiet. Too quiet! While I still have one set of little feet (Katie's) going about her business around the house, I am missing the pitter-patter of little Ethan feet running after her, trying to keep up, doing WHATEVER she's doing, and wanting to play with whatever toy she has at the moment. And while Layne and I may not talk about earth-shattering topics, we have some pretty good conversations...those of you with sisters know what I'm talking about! :-) The only thing that would have made the past 3 days better is if our other sister (and Layne's twin), Jessica, could have been here too. The 3 of us are like peas in a pod. Hopefully I will get to see Jessica this weekend, and there is a chance that Layne and Ethan will come back next week while my brother-in-law is out of town, so I hope they do!!

On top of the quality time we had together, she also cooks! She made us the best meatloaf last night for dinner. Seriously, I have now changed my go-to meatloaf recipe! And it's full of veggies, too, which as a health conscious mom is a great addition. She got the recipe from an episode of "Good Morning America" featuring Kate Gosselin of "Jon & Kate Plus 8." Here's the recipe:

Kate's Meatloaf (makes 2 loaves)
Ingredients
2 pounds organic ground beef
2-3 eggs
Finely chopped celery, onion, green pepper, carrots- about 3/4-1 cup of each.
1½-2 cups of breadcrumbs- Italian seasoned if on hand. Otherwise, plain works too. May need more breadcrumbs depending on the consistency of the meatloaf.
3/4 cup shredded or grated Parmesan cheese (whichever's on hand)
¼ to ½ cup ketchup.
2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon of garlic salt
Mix all the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl and divide equally into two separate meat loaves. Add a squirt of ketchup to the top of each in a zig-zaggy design. Cover with foil and bake in either a meatloaf pan or a glass bread baking dish at 350 degrees for about an hour (depending on oven) or until bubbly and center is no longer pink.
During the last 15 minutes or so, remove foil covering and finish baking uncovered.

Anyway, it was delicious! The whole family loved it. Even Katie ate it, and she is always uncertain about trying new things. The week after chemo is tricky for me, too. I may be hungry, but sometimes nothing sounds good...I will just eat because I have to. But last night it smelled so good in my kitchen while this was cooking that I was actually hungry for it! Yay!

I got up this morning and enjoyed a 6 mile run of hills...treadmill hills, that is. I continue to be so thankful for the strength to be able to run. So now Katie and I are getting ready to go into town, run some errands and pick up the boys from school. It's just another day in the neighborhood! Hope ya'll are enjoying your Thursday...yay it almost Friday!