Wonder-ful Meatloaf

The wonder oven really comes in handy when I can't be home, or when I don't want to heat up the house with the oven.  Seems like the older I get, I get more nervous about leaving home with things plugged in.  Maybe that has something to do with our RV catching on fire right next to our house last year.  We could have lost everything if we hadn't been home.

Recently I decided to try cooking meatloaf in the wonder oven.  I've realized I can really cook just about anything I want if I think about it long enough!    I mixed up my usual meatloaf recipe and put the mixture in a greased stainless-steel pot I purchased just for the wonder oven.  This "pot" is actually a stainless steel utensil holder.  If you don't have one, you could also use a can.  In fact, you could use smaller individual cans and make individual meatloaves.   Get creative with what you have.

I put parchment paper over the top and secured it with a rubber band.  Some people use aluminum foil, but I don't like having it touch my food.  The parchment paper has enough wax in it that it keeps the condensation from falling back into the food.  If you're unsure, go ahead and use the aluminum foil, or even better, put the foil on top of the parchment paper so it's not touching the food.

Next, I placed that pot of meatloaf inside my stock pot.  I filled a couple of pint jars with water and placed them in the stock pot, too, to help keep the meatloaf pot from flipping over during cooking.

Almost as an afterthought, I decided to cut up potatoes and put them inside those pint jars.  I could have used quart jars, but two pint jars worked just fine.

So now I had the meatloaf container and the jars filled with potatoes inside the stock pot.  I added enough water to fill it about half way.  Then I placed the lid on top, turned up the heat, and brought it to a boil.  Once it started boiling, I set my timer for 15 minutes.  Water boils at 212 degrees, and it's important to keep that temperature for 15 minutes so you don't risk food poisoning.

After 15 minutes, I placed the pot in my wonder oven and made sure that the beads surrounded the pot.  It's important for the beads to touch as much of the pot as possible to help retain the heat.  I placed the "lid" of the wonder oven on top and left it for several hours.

When we were ready to eat, I took the pot out of the wonder oven.  It was still too hot to touch without a hot pad.  I turned the meatloaf pot on it's side and it slid right out onto the plate.  It was fully cooked, but I missed the catsup and green pepper on the top.  I cut the meatloaf in half, lengthwise, so it looked like two mounds.  Then I brushed catsup on the top of each half, and placed some green pepper on top before sticking it under the broiler for just a few minutes to finish off the catsup.

The potatoes were cooked, so I put them in a bowl while I made gravy out of the juice from the meatloaf pan and the potato water.

My husband is a pretty picky eater, but I asked what he thought about the results.  He said he thought it was just as good as when it cooked in the oven.  The texture was firm, but moist, and definitely not dried out.  We both proclaimed the process a success!