The View From Here – Comfort Food

It’s a comfort food kinda night in my house.  The food I’m making might not SEEM like the most delicious meal.  It sure doesn’t seem like anything you would typically crave. But as I cleaned out the fridge and freezer, and took inventory of the food in my house this weekend to make my weekly meal plan, I saw that we had ground beef.  Lots of ground beef.   And I don’t know about you, but I get tired of eating the same food all the time and really tired of making it.

So this week I was determined to come up with something different for dinner.  Instead of “chicken again” I looked at that ground beef and thought of something my mom used to make.  I dug out her old recipe book and came across an old favourite “Meatloaf pinwheel”.   I am pretty sure when I was younger, this was one of the meals I probably made fun of, or rolled my eyes at, or refused to eat.  Picky eater right here.  I know I was awful to my mom.  I know because I get that kind of stuff from MY kids now.  The eye rolls and the “I’m not eating THAT” look.  I wish she was here to apologize too, because now I truly understand the struggle to not only make the meals every night, but to make it different and find something that everyone likes. Without the eye rolls and looks of disgust. (smile)

Tonight’s meal will be a challenge in my house because I know not everyone will love it, but I’m making it more for me.  It’s my mom’s recipe.  Her handwriting.   As I put it together this morning, and as I read her words, I felt her presence and feel connected to her, and that is comforting to me.

Pretty simple recipe.

Ground beef.  Bread crumbs.  An egg.  Salt.  Cheez Whiz.  Rice.  That’s basically it.  Mix the beef, crumbs, Cheez Whiz, egg and salt.  I didn’t have bread crumbs so I crumbled some Ritz crackers.  Mix the rice with the Cheez Whiz and parsley.  Lay beef out.  Add rice mix on top.  Roll up.  Refrigerate.  Cut up into slices.  Bake.  Eat.  Enjoy.

Comfort food for so many reasons.

What is YOUR GO to food?  What is something you make that has been passed down generation by generation?  It’s not as much about the food as it is about the feeling you get making it and the memories you get eating it.  I’ve never been a big meatloaf gal, but there’s something about this that makes me smile.  Even if my kids roll their eyes and refuse to eat it. (smile)

Categorised in: Afternoons

This post was written by Carrie Buchanan