October 11: Feet Loaf

We've had several days of sweet treats up in here, so I thought it was time to kick it into high gear with a savory dish.

You may recall that last year I made these Dead Head Meatloaves. This year, in searching for some new spooky dinner dishes, I found a new batch of gross-looking meat loaf options (because, apparently, meat loaf lends itself to this sort of thing). Among them: hands, a baby, even a rat-shaped loaf. Yum!

But the one that had me jumping up and down this year was...Feet Loaf!

Or, more accurately since I only made half of the full recipe, foot loaf. (But let's be honest, the singular doesn't have nearly the same ring to it, so let's keep running with the plural, shall we?)

Honestly, you can use whatever meatloaf recipe you usually use. The real magic of this recipe isn't in the meatloaf itself but in its shape.

I found this idea over at My Name is Snickerdoodle's blog and it was so simple to put together, yet it's a step above normal meatloaf.

My younger daughter helped me make this--she gathered ingredients for me and added spices and measured out the panko and beat the egg--and I did the rest. Oh, except the ketchup "blood." She took care of that part, too. She got a real kick out of it!

Just in case you don't have a fave recipe, I'll share what I did this time. It wasn't my standby recipe, but I was going for something simple and it ended up tasting good.

For reference, however, plan on one pound of beef per "foot." The original recipe called for 2 pounds to make the two feet, so just keep that in mind and adjust accordingly if you need more.

Feet Loaf

Yield: 1 foot (easily doubles to make the pair of feet)

Ingredients:

1.15 lbs 93% lean ground beef

1 egg

1 cup panko breadcrumbs

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

half a medium onion

ketchup

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In medium bowl, beat egg with seasoning. Then add meat and breadcrumbs and mix with your hands until combined.

On parchment-lined baking sheet, form meat into the shape of a foot as per the picture.

 

Add cut onions as toenails. 

Add an onion round to the "ankle" area of the foot to stand in as a "bone." 

Spread ketchup to serve as "blood" around the onion "bone." 

Bake for 30-50 minutes, or until meat is cooked through according to an oven thermometer. Let rest 5-10 minutes before serving.

We served ours with mashed potatoes as a border, and had green beans almandine as our vegetable. 

Run, don't walk, to your kitchen to make this now!