Recipe smoosh: Keto Friendly Crockpot Zucchini Meatloaf #20170718

I seem to be unable to follow just *one* recipe.

Yesterday, it was my night to host our weekly friends-dinner. The weather forecast was hot n’ humid, and since I was going to have zero time after work I pre-made the mashed taters, cut up a bunch of veggies, and made a couple of crockpots full of meatloaf. The first meatloaf was this basic recipe but with about 1/3 cup of ketchup in the meat mix, and topped with even more ketchup. The other meatloaf was a recipe smoosh, described below.

Here’s a little background: A few of my friends have been following a ketogenic diet, and after doing much research and being *really* dedicated they have had great results. The rest of us do not have that kind of dedication, but we all generally find keto recipes tasty, and I enjoy cooking challenges so I hit the interwebs. I started just researching ketogenic meatloaf recipes, but didn’t want to buy or make almond meal in place of breadcrumbs. I considered just making meatballs instead of a loaf, and found a recipe that used zucchini instead of breadcrumbs or almond meal. It was a lightbulb moment, and it set me off on a whole new Google search.

The first recipe I found was ok, but called for lean ground beef (a keto no-no, they want the fat calories), and had tomato sauce on top (which is high in carbs, even if they are from a fruit). The second recipe I found was tailored to a ketogenic diet, but I didn’t want chunks of zucchini in my meatloaf and I didn’t want to use the oven. Without further ado, here’s the recipe!

 

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Keto Friendly Crockpot Zucchini Meatloaf

Here’s the master list of all ingredients for this recipe:

• 1 small-to-medium yellow onion
• 3 TBS Olive Oil
• 1 medium zucchini, mine was about 5 oz
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 TBS crushed red pepper
• 1/2 tsp whole fennel seeds
• 2 lbs of 80/20 ground beef
• 2 large eggs
• Salt
• Black pepper

Now with more detail!

I prepped these ingredients the night before, but it doesn’t need to sit overnight. That’s just what I did to get a jump-start on my prep.

• 1 small-to-medium yellow onion, chopped to yield about 3/4 cup
• 3 TBS of Olive Oil
• 1 cup shredded zucchini (started as one 5 oz zucchini, which I shredded, salted lightly to draw out moisture, then it sat for 15 minutes while I did other things, and I squeezed it dry)
• 4 cloves of garlic, smashed to remove the skin then chopped up (size between a mince and a chop)
• 1 TBS crushed red pepper
• 1/2 tsp whole fennel seeds that I ground in my mortar and pestle. If you have pre-ground fennel seeds I’d say use a scant 1/4 tsp.
• Plenty of freshly ground black pepper
• 4 oz low moisture, part skim mozzarella (Grated freshly to avoid the anti-caking agent found in pre-shredded cheese. It makes a difference! I used the “normal” size grater, not the “fine” grater)
• 3 oz Parmesan cheese (I used the “fine” size grater for this one, not the “normal” grater. Once again, grated freshly to avoid the anti-caking agent found in pre-shredded cheese)

Chop up the onion and saute it over low heat in the 3 TBS of oil, stirring occasionally while you shred your zucchini, then grate all the cheeses and chop up the garlic. Set the cheeses aside in a big bowl (larger than a standard cereal bowl, you’ll need the space). When the onions are translucent, add in the garlic, crushed pepper, black pepper, and salt. Stir for a while, then decide to go squeeze the extra water out of your shredded zucchini. Panic after squeezing out two handfuls of zucchini, and go stir your garlic/onion mixture before the garlic goes past golden. Turn off the heat, breathe a sigh of relief that you caught it in time, stir a bit more til it’s done sizzling, and go squeeze out the rest of your zucchini. Dump all the squeezed-dry zucchini into the glorious smelling onion/garlic/spice mixture, turn the burner back on medium low, and stir to combine. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the zucchini is just starting to turn a bit clear but is not fully cooked. Turn off the heat and let cool to room temperature while you go chop up veggies for other things. After the veggie mix is all the way cool, combine it with the cheeses in the bigger-than-a-cereal-bowl, toss to combine, cover with plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge. Make sure you have two pounds of 80/20 ground beef defrosted and ready to go tomorrow.

To assemble your meatloaf:

• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp salt
• Veggie mix from yesterday/whenever you made it
• 2 lbs of 80/20 ground beef

In a large mixing bowl, crack in and whisk up the eggs, then throw in the veggie mix and the tsp of salt. Stir that all together with your hands (after you wash them, please), then regret not taking out your meat and go wash your hands again to get it out of the fridge. Add the meat into the egg/veggie/cheese mixture, and mix thoroughly.

At this point, you could bake it at 350F for as long as you would bake any other meatloaf, or you can be like me and cook it in the crockpot, lined with foil, on high for 3 hours. After it beeps, use a large spatula and pair of tongs to maneuver it into a baking dish, spoon some of the juices and fat over the top, then cover it with foil to let it rest for about 10 minutes before slicing.

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Alfredo-ish Sauce

I served the meatloaf with a quick “alfredo” type gravy, whisked together in a sauce pan:

• 1 and 1/4 cup half and half
• 1/2 cup finely grated parm (another three ounces or so)
• 1 finely grated garlic clove
• Two dashes of nutmeg
• More black pepper
• 2 TBS of salted butter

I whisked all of that together til the cheese was melted and let it bubble away for a bit. Even after whisking it was a bit chunky, so I blitzed it with my immersion blender before serving in a gravy boat alongside the meatloaf. It was a delicious addition!

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Since my friends are truly dedicated to their Ketogenic diet, I plugged the ingredients into MyFitnessPal as a recipe so that they could see some basic nutrition facts. I’m not sure how accurate the fat grams are for the meatloaf, since it gave off quite a bit of fat and liquid during cooking, but I wanted to be sure to respect their need to avoid carbs. Here are the results:

• Zucchini Cheese Meatloaf
  8 servings per recipe
  Simplified nutrition facts per serving
  Calories: 408
  Fat (g): 28.9
  Carbs (g): 2.3
  Protein (g): 34.1
• Alfredo
  10 servings per recipe
  Simplified nutrition facts per serving
  Calories: 71
  Fat (g): 6.4
  Carbs (g): 1.1
  Protein (g): 2.6

So there you have it. A very long, drawn out, oddly written, but original-ish recipe. I hope you’ll try it!