Thanks to whoever it was who told me to sauté the vegetables first. I can't
remember now who it was, but I think it was either Wendy, Evelyn, Susan or
Peppermint Patootie. Maybe all of them.

This time I used a large onion, a small zucchini, three huge cremini
mushrooms, several handfuls of spinach, a green pepper, and several baby
carrots. I sautéed them until almost dry. They were chopped well prior to
cooking. To help dry them out I added some "Just Peppers" red bell peppers.
These are freeze dried. Then when I mixed it all up today, I decided to add
more of those peppers, some white onion of that brand, and also some dried
celery and parsley.

I used a single serve can of V8 and quite a lot of ketchup. Also a couple
of small handfuls of gluten free oats that had been whizzed in the blender.
Plenty of black pepper, Italian seasoning, some salt and three pounds or
organic ground beef. Really lean. Oh! And two little containers of baby
food squash.

My only complaint is that I used a different brand of chili sauce. I
normally buy some homemade stuff at Central Market, but Angela wanted the
Heinz because it says "gluten free" on the bottle. There is something I
don't quite like so much about the flavor. I don't know what it is. A
seasoning I think. And it seems pretty salty. If I use it again, I will
mix it with ketchup. It's not really bad. I just like the other kind a lot
better! I put the chili sauce over the top.


I wound up with 9 good sized meatloaves. Angela was unable to finish hers
and that's rare for her. We each had one and I will put the rest in the
freezer. Have to put them up individually because there is precious little
room in the freezer!