Day 106: Cheeseless Comfort Food?

When I was little, my mom made meatloaf a lot. And, if I recall correctly, I liked it okay. But I did NOT like the sticky red sauce she put on top. In fact, to get me to eat meatloaf, she had to keep a particular section of it sauce-free, and then I would add plain ketchup later. So I figured I should revisit this sauce as an adult.

I also had some more spumoni today, and Good 'n' Plenty (I knew I liked licorice, but there was a time when Good 'n' Plenty were on my gross list, so I thought I'd go for it--they are awesome), and the rest of the peach salsa. But back to meatloaf.

Now, it's true that my favorite meatloaf is capitalized, two words, and has a key role in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (see right). Well, in that role I like him. I'm not sure about the rest of the time. But I digress.

This is about sticky red sauce, made of ketchup, mustard powder, and brown sugar. I made my sauce with dark brown sugar, since that's what I had. I tasted it before and after it went on the meatloaf, and I actually liked it a lot. It was spicier than I remembered. Maybe Mom used more sugar and less mustard powder. But it was incredibly good and I have no idea how I ever disliked it. In fact, when I ate my meatloaf, I wanted more of it.

But here's the big thing I found tonight. I've had a tumultuous week, with lots of emotional problems. As I've mentioned before, my favorite comfort food is nachos, followed closely by mac 'n' cheese, followed closely by any cheese product. But this meatloaf was so warm and comforting. It was a simple recipe. I wondered if I'd screwed it up, actually, because I was out of bread crumbs and had to substitute ground cornflakes, I used one gigantic egg (we've been getting them from a local grower and they're not as uniform as grocery store eggs) instead of two, and I only had almond milk for moisture. Also, I used ground turkey instead of the ground beef, pork, or lamb the recipe suggested. But I had two servings. I enjoyed it more than I think I've ever enjoyed meatloaf. I had to stop myself from eating more. And since the hubby hates meatloaf in general (I set aside some ground turkey and made him a burger), I had the whole meatloaf at my disposal. Self-control was needed.

So I guess I can be comforted by food without cheese. This is a revelation to me. I wish I could rid myself of the urge to comfort myself with food in general. Now my range of comfort foods has expanded, as will my waistline, in all likelihood.