Slow Carb Diet Friendly Meatloaf! Yes, it's true!

OK, so I'm not going to lie....I've been testing recipes trying to get into Tim Ferriss' next book, "The 4 Hour Chef"! Of course I'm taking into consideration the rules of the Slow Carb Diet and mostly I've been testing pressure cooker recipes. While testing a recipe for Lentils w/Mushrooms I dug deep into my pantry and pulled out a couple of packages of dried mushrooms I buy from the Asian markets. Dried mushrooms are really inexpensive in Asian markets but the variety is limited. I find Shitake the most common at the Korean and Japanese markets while Porcini seems to be predominant in the Vietnemese markets.

I use dried mushrooms mostly for beef and barley soup w/mushrooms or mushroom soup in the fall and winter months and usually I don't find myself using dried mushrooms in
the spring and summer. But since my focus has been on Slow Carb Diet friendly recipes in the PC, dried mushrooms are a perfect pantry item to use in the PC. They easily rehydrate while being cooked under pressure eliminating the "pre-soak" step while adding a ton of flavor.

So how did I go from lentils and mushrooms to meatloaf? Well, I remembered how I used to make fish crusted with mushrooms years ago and to do that you take dried mushrooms and crush them in a spice grinder (coffee grinder especially used for spices, NOT coffee!) until they resemble bread crumbs.....hmmnn....bread crumbs.....viola!

Slow Carb Diet Friendly Mushroom Meatloaf

1 lb ground meat (I used full fat ground beef)

1 onion diced

2 celery stalks diced

big handful of baby spinach

Cook onion and celery until translucent in 1 tbl olive oil, and then add spinach to wilt in residual heat. Cool and add to ground meat along with:

1 egg
1 oz dried mushrooms, crushed in spice grinder
1 t. kosher salt (if using iodized or sea salt use slightly less)

Mix all ingredients together and form into a loaf, cook at 375 degrees for 35-40 minutes, or until a meat thermometer comes out 165 degrees.

I normally would make a meatloaf 1 1/2 - 2 lbs, but I only had one pound of ground beef. If using more ground meat add two eggs instead of one, and double the amount of dried mushrooms. You can use a mixture of ground meats, like pork and beef, turkey and pork, lamb and chicken, but DO

NOT use all lean meats or your meatloaf will be dry as a bone! Also I find that 1 teaspoon of kosher salt to every pound of meat has never failed me as far as the correct seasoning. Black pepper is up to you....I find black pepper pairs well with mushrooms. Sorry, no ketchup! But it's so delicious you won't miss it!

You can use this same mixture for meatballs, only use chopped spinach if adding greens, Of course the veg addition is always only optional, but not in my house! I add extra veggies to everything (even my smoothies!)

Lentil and Mushroom recipe coming soon.