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This never fail homemade gingerbread recipe is super easy and includes a tasty comfort food meatloaf meal plan that’s sure to please your family!
Never Fail Homemade Gingerbread Recipe And Easy Meatloaf
Tips:
- Today’s menu is really easy in the sense that you can make the meatloaf and gingerbread recipe ahead of time and keep them in the freezer. Make a list of 2-3 meals like this that you can keep in your freezer. Keep staples in your pantry for that unexpected company. Then, use them on those days when you are meeting yourself coming and going and dinner is the last thing you want to worry about.
- For a new twist on meatloaf, add a little chili powder to your meatloaf. Mix and bake. When it’s done, top it with a jar of warmed picante sauce.
- If you don’t have whipped topping for your gingerbread, you can use some vanilla frosting on it.
- Adding a little sugar to most vegetables enhances the flavor of them. 1/2-1 tsp. for a small bowl of vegetables or about 1 Tbsp. for 4 potatoes when mashing.
Sometimes, especially if we have been watching a lot of cooking shows on TV, we forget that every meal doesn’t have to be a gourmet meal. Today’s menu is one of those simple, back to the basics menus that is sure to please!
Menu:
Meatloaf
Mashed potatoes
Peas
Tossed salad
Never Fail Freezer Gingerbread w/whipped cream
Recipes:
Meatloaf
Instead of giving you aspecificmeatloaf recipe here, here is a link for the recipe from Dining on a Dime, along with a bunch of different meatloaf and meatball ideas all together.
This gingerbread recipe can be made ahead of time and frozen before baking it.Don’t let the long list of ingredients make it feel daunting. It is mostly spices and is very easy to mix together.
Never Fail Freezer Gingerbread Recipe
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. each of salt, baking powder, soda
3/4 tsp. ginger
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves
Pour boiling water over shortening. Add sugar, molasses and egg. Sift remaining ingredients together and add to liquids. Beat with an electric mixer. Pour into a greased 8×8 pan at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
If you want to Freeze the Gingerbread Dough for later:
After mixing the gingerbread dough and placing it in the pan, freeze it. Then when you’re ready to use it, place it in a cold oven and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
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Reader Interactions
Comments
- Tammy
When you say shortening you are meaning something like Crisco correct?
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- Jill
Shortening is the solid Crisco. Usually in recipes when you see oil that means the liquid oil that never becomes solid and when it says shortening it is the solid oil that may turn to liquid when you heat it but as soon as it cools it becomes solid again. I know it can sometimes be confusing.
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- Cheryl illinois
I have been saving little slivers of soap whicvh are too small to be used any more. I have a large jar full of them. Any ideas on what to do with them?? Thanks
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- Jill
Make into liquid soap. You can put them in the blender with a little water and blend for about 20 secs. then just keep adding water to get the consistency that you want. Pour into pump bottle. Add small leftover amounts of body wash to this too and this works great for shaving your legs.
If you are a sewer use it in place of chalk to mark things. It comes out very nice when washed.
Get some mesh or tulle fabric and sew squares of it together to fill with the soap to use in the bath to wash with.
You can also make smaller squares or skip the squares all together and place the soap in drawers and with clothing to get rid of the musty smell.
These are a couple of ideas to get you started.
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- grandma
Jill I just watched war time farm and Ruth showed what was done with the little bits when soap was rationed.
She took a cloth put all the bits into it. dipped it in hot water and formed it into a ball.
If you have many different colours the ball would make a nice looking decoration in the bathroom until needed.
I was thinking of buying different colours of soaps and doing these balls up as an add in to gift baskets at christmas. Nice and colourful but useful.Reply
- Jill
Sounds like a good idea grandma. I wonder if a person could add a cord or rope to it like those soaps on a rope that guys sometimes like to use in the shower.
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- Cat
The gingerbread recipe sounds wonderful, not to mention I have all the ingredients on hand. The only item I don’t have is a sifter. Can I just mix all of the dry ingredients together and dump them in? I’ve always wondered why some recipes called for ‘sifting’ and others don’t.
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- Jill
Join the crowd Cat. I usually put “sift ingredients” because that is what the original recipe calls for but I can’t remember ever sifting anything I bake. I think I tried it a couple of times years ago to see if it made a difference and could see none so stopped sifting. Part of sifting use to be done because things weren’t quite as fresh or couldn’t be stored very well and they would sift because there would be lots of lumps but mostly they would sift out the bugs before using the ingredients.
I just wrote a tip in one of our new books on this and said if you must sift at least don’t use a separate bowl and set it aside but mix the wet ingredients and then sift the dry on top of them.
One last tip though there may be a time when you really do have to sift something and if you do just use a whisk or a fork to fluff it. I know I will probably receive a ton of e mail from baking fanatics who will give me all the scientific reasons why you have to sift but this is what I have learned from experience and I like to keep my life as simple as possible.
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- Brenda D
I don’t own a sifter either. I do however have a small mesh collender that I will use if I’m needing to sift or dust powdered sugar over things. I have sifted flour using this method when the summer humidity got the best of some flour that the container lid didn’t get closed on and on some baking soda.
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- Lili@creativesavv
When I don’t have whip cream or frosting to top a cake, like gingerbread, I make a cornstarch pudding to pour over it. My family loves this.
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- grandma
I simply melt some butter and brown sugar together and pour it over a heavier type cake like gingerbread or war cake. you can put some holes in it and the sugar and butter (margarine) melts down into the cake.
the sugar hardens a bit so it is like a fudge on top of the cake.Reply
- DJ
Please do tell me what is war cake?
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- Jill
It is a cake that was baked during a war or the depression that was usually butterless, sugarless, milkless and eggless. All of which were either very expensive or the ingredients were saved for the soldiers. Usually they were made with raisins, boiling water, flour, spices, solid shortening and sometimes brown sugar or molasses.
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- grandma
If you do a search for Boiled Raisin Cake that is one version. My MIL gave me the recipe and called it war cake.
I made it and my mom thought it was wonderful. I said didn’t she have it as a kid and she said no she had never heard of it.
Raisins were not common on a farm but eggs butter and stuff like that were.
So I think each region had their own version.Reply
- Bea
You can also put soap slivers and pieces in a washcloth and put a rubber band around it to hold it together and use like that. Also, you can add some dried herbs or oatmeal inside and use.
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- Jill
Good idea Bea. Never thought about adding the herbs or oatmeal.
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- Pat
In germany they have pocket wash cloths. I grew up with them and really miss them. You could put the soap inside them and just go from there. You could fit your hand in them but without fingers.
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- Cat
Cool idea Bea, about the wash cloth. I hate throwing away those little pieces of soap. I’m such a miser and your tip just totally made my day. :)
As for the sifting, that does make sense, people couldn’t just go to the market on a whim like we do now. I think I will have to give that recipe a try tonight. Thanks Jill!Reply
- Bea
I’m so happy Cat that you liked the washcloth idea. When you put some oatmeal in with the soap, in the washcloth, and wash with it in the bathtub or shower, your skin feels so soft and soothed. The same if you use lavender buds or chamomile and a combination of soap, oatmeal and herbs.
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- Marcia
In regards to topping the gingerbread, if you don’t have whipped topping or don’t have whipped cream if you have some vanilla ice cream on hand that’s great to top warm gingerbread. And as regards to the soap slivers, I have had good luck with net soap saver pouches you can sometimes find in drug stores or stores like K Mart or Wal Mart. I just slip the slivers inside the pouch and they work great. And if you don’t have a sifter try using a wire mesh strainer. I would rather use that than a conventional flour sifter anyway, it’s bigger, and it’s a lot easier to keep clean. Usually the only reason I sift the flour, baking powder soda and salt together is so I don’t get a big clump of soda or baking powder in a piece of cake or a cookie. That doesn’t taste so good!
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- Jill
Yes it is good sometimes to sift soda so it won’t clump. I usually just pinch it between my fingers as I add it to get rid of the lumps. I’m lazy when it comes to making too many dirty dishes and baking because most of my life I have not had a dish washer.
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- Marcia
By the way I mean a big wire mesh strainer like a colander. You can use it for other things too, that’s another advantage. I like my kitchen tools to be useful for more than one purpose if possible.
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- angie
Years ago, when i started cutting down on our carb intake, I started using spicy pork rinds in place of oatmeal or breadcrumbs in my meatloaf. It added enough kick to keep my guys happy, but it wasn’t too spicy for me. If I can remember to purchase them, and keep people from EATING them before I get the meatloaf made, we still enjoy them that way!
I’ve also made mini meat loaves in muffin pans before and they are done super-fast! We’ve also taken the meatloaf and made it into hamburgers and grilled them. Also good and fast.
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- grandma
Angie we have gone to low carbs and my husbands sugar readings are always in the normal range now. Just cut down on the amount of filler I use in the meat loafs. Don’t think we can get the pork rinds around here but they sound pretty good.
I make mini meatloafs but without the muffin tin. I just roll some in my hand and make them about 2- 3 inches in length and about 1″ thick. Very little grease is reabsorbed and a flat cookie tin is easier for me to clean up especially if I use tin foil to line the pan. They can also be done on the bbq so that is an even easier clean up. They freeze well for later meals.Reply
- Marcia
Jill, I wouldn’t call saving on dishwashing lazy, I would just call it good sense! I had a dishwasher for years and since there’s only hubby and me I hardly ever used it anyway except for company and when I did canning. It was left here when we bought our current house. It recently kicked the bucket and I haven’t replaced it, but I keep it around for the extra work space it gives me near my stove, since it’s a portable and has a butcher block top. I don’t have much counter space, so it really helps to have that space. Hubby agrees so it is still here, we need other things worse than a dishwasher that works, but it’s still earning its keep…ha ha!
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- Angie
Reading a couple of comments about dishwashers has me curious…
Who wouldn’t want to live without their dishwasher?
Who thinks it is just as easy to wash by hand?I personally think it’s just as easy to wash by hand. Maybe it’s just how one is raised…maybe it’s just personal preference…
Growing up, we had a non-working dishwasher in our kitchen. Mom and Dad built their house and had a dishwasher installed. I guess the hard water ruined it and it wasn’t important to them so they didn’t ever replace it. As a teenager, when I was washing dishes, I would always ask my Dad why we couldn’t fix our dishwasher. His reply was always “I didn’t know you were broken…” Ha, ha! :) Then he would go on to explain that in his opinion, by the time you rinse the dishes and load them, run the dishwasher and then rub off the spots when unloading, you could have just washed the dishes.
In the 14 years of my first marriage and then my time as a divorced mother after my ex-husband left, I did not have a dishwasher. I didn’t ever feel deprived. :)
When I remarried and moved in with my husband, he had a dishwasher in the home he rented. I lived there for 3 years and used the dishwasher because it was there. It was an older one and the dishes did have to be scraped and rinsed before loading or they would not come clean. I used a rinse agent to prevent spots. It didn’t dry dishes that well though and I had to dry some things before putting away. Call me crazy…but I kind of missed the simplicity of just handwashing dishes as they were dirtied and putting them in a drainer to dry. :)
We bought a house and just moved in last week. There isn’t a dishwasher. I’m fine with this. My husband wants me to have a dishwasher. His Mother and Grandmother both love their dishwashers and call doing dishes by hand an inconvenience. He was raised with a dishwasher always being in the home so he thinks I’m crazy. LOL! I’ve told him before though that doing dishes doesn’t really take all that long. I think since we moved into our house last week, he has been surprised by how quickly I have the supper dishes done. He works nights and our routine is to eat together with the kids and then sit together and watch some tv until he has to leave for work. Whenever my husband gets up to go to the restroom or pack his cooler for work or put on his boots for work, I’ll jump up and start the supper dishes. I’m usually 1/2 to 3/4 of the way finished before he comes back to the living room to sit down.
I don’t know why I find housework so satisfying sometimes but I do. I have a stressful job that requires lots of thought and there are revolving issues that drag on for weeks before being resolved. I find it so satisfying to run a sink full of hot, soapy dishwater and wash my dishes and then see them drying in the drainer. Job done, feels great! Ok, just how weird am I? Anyone else weird like me?
Angie
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- Jill
Angie join the crowd – well maybe not the crowd but a few of us. I am weird too. I love doing housework and I do get a sense of satisfaction of a job well done when I do it. I know we are not maybe “normal” but there are a few of us others out there who do. We all have different things we enjoy for example when I see someone sitting and watching grown men running around with a little ball on TV I do wonder about them in the same way I know many wonder about me for enjoying doing housework, laundry or ironing.
I have to agree with the washing dishes too. I can have them done up before most can get the dish washer loaded. One thing I wish someone would explain to me is why so some people who use dish washers wash their dishes in soapy water then load them in the dish washer. Why not just rinse them after they wash them and call them done. Why rewash them in the dish washer? Never could understand that. I could see rinsing a little but to totally wash them in soapy water I just have tried but can’t seem to understand the reasoning behind it. Oh well like you say we each like to do our dishes differently and it really doesn’t matter as long as the get them done. There are as many opinions on how to wash dishes as who will make the best president so I had best quit while I am ahead.: )
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- Angie
Jill, it’s good to know I’m not completely alone! :)
I actually know a lady who washes her dishes in soapy water and then loads them in the dishwasher!!! I didn’t know others did this also. It’s my husband’s Grandmother. I asked her about it one day and she said she washes the dishes in soapy water to get them clean and then uses the dishwasher to sterilize them. She thinks handwashing dishes is not sanitary as the dishes are not sterilized. I didn’t even try to argue with her about it. I guess to each his/her own…
I do wonder though if the water in the dishwasher actually gets hot enough to technically sterilize anything. I thought only boiling water sterilized things…
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- Jill
Angie I have been taught over the years, have checked with county extensions and health departments and researched over the internet the answer to that same question and here is what everyone has told me – hand washing dishes with soap kills everything. For years people thought that dish washers were sterilizing their dishes more but what they didn’t know was they were using the same temperature hot water in their dish washer as for hand washing dishes. For some reason they didn’t realize the hot water for both came from the same place.
Now a day you can buy a dish washer that has a special sterilizer setting on it but in a way it really is just over kill. It is like for years everyone sterilized baby bottles – I mean they really sterilized them. The whole time the baby was on a bottle. But if you think about it why? How many germs does a normal baby get putting things in it’s mouth, chewing on things etc. By the time my daughter had kids and she was on #4 it was down to let’s just rinse it real good and refill it. : ) Guess what he survived and probably has been less sick then the others.Bottom line. Washing in hot soapy water kills all that needs to be killed. Anything else is just over kill. No pun intended.
- grandma
I actually used to enjoy washing dishes. When the boys were young and then teens one night on and one night off they helped with the dishes.
What a great time to talk about anything they want. Nobody interrupts or they get roped into helping.
Now that I am alone doing them it is not as much fun but it is a quiet time for me.
Gave my dishwasher away as it took 3 days to fill and I always had to take something out and wash it anyway as I needed it for a meal.
Why bother.Reply
- Angie
Grandma I agree about washing dishes together being a good time for bonding/talking with children. I always enjoyed working in the kitchen with my Mom or Dad…or doing yard work with my Dad for that matter.
Some people these days make such a big fuss about spending ‘quality time’ with their children. My Mom and Dad always had plenty of quality time with my sister and I just by doing the everyday things with us…dishwashing included! It’s silly that something so simple seems to have fallen by the wayside but it sure has!
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- Jill
I’m the same way. I have even written articles about how I never spent special bonding time with my kids but we were together all the time working and do things like that. One thing I did for when my kids and I did dishes was I had a small bulletin board attached to the cabinet by the sink and I covered it with cartoons, jokes and funny sayings. The kids and even visiting friends never got tired or reading those silly jokes while they washed dishes. I don’t have a place to hang it by my sink now but I still keep a bulletin board in my kitchen with nothing but cartoons. It is the second place the grand kids and kids go to when they walk in the door. The first place it the candy jar right by it. :)
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- Angie
Jill I thought the same thing about sterilizing baby bottles, etc. My kids’ pediatricians advised me to sterilize the bottles, etc. for a specified period of time…I can’t remember now if it was 6 weeks or 3 months…(hey, my youngest ‘baby’ is now almost 11 LOL!). Anyway, I did as I was instructed but it seemed odd to me. I mean, can an unsterilized bottle hurt my baby at 5 weeks old but magically not be able to hurt my baby at 5 months old? Also, my babies would like to hold on to my fingers while I was holding/feeding them and then the fingers would go into their mouths later and I did not sterilize my hands before holding them. Wash my hands frequently in hot water with soap, yes but not sterilized.
It’s all interesting…
I actually read a study one time that said washing hands by rubbing them briskly under running water with no soap got rid of almost as many germs as washing them with soap. So, yes I think a lot of what we do is over kill. (I like that pun!) :)
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- Jill
It is interesting you said that about the rubbing the hands together Angie. When I was researching dish washing by hand and whether it killed germs enough etc. most of the scientific data said it wasn’t the soap or the hot water that really killed the germs but the rubbing action. The soap and hot water more or less made the germs release or let go easier is all. This goes for any place – counters, floors even clothes. That is why I have used the new wipes they have for cleaning now once in awhile but in the back of my mind I am not too sure about them because they have none of the “roughness” that a good old dishrag or rag has for rubbing things. That includes baby wipes. My good old wash rags had much better rubbing action then they do.
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- Liz A
I have an easier meatloaf recipe that anyone can do! It comes from Kraft Kitchens:
WHAT YOU NEED (8 servings)
2 lb. ground beef
1 pkg. (6 oz.) STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix for Chicken
1 cup water
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup KRAFT Original Barbecue Sauce, dividedHEAT oven to 375°F. Place meat, stuffing mix, water, eggs and 1/4 cup barbecue sauce in bowl.
MIX just until blended.
SHAPE into loaf in 13×9-inch baking dish.
TOP with remaining barbecue sauce. Bake 1 hour or until done (160ºF).I like to throw in sauted onions and a can of mushroom pieces, and if you’re lucky enough to find Kraft’s BBQ Sauce that’s smokey/grill flavored, your in-like-Flynn with the gents.
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- Mary Jane
The only reason that I have gathered from old recipes for “sifting” flour or other dry ingredients, is as follows. Some older or delicate cake recipes call specifically for cake flour, which is finer than regular flour. Mill ground flours tended to be coarser with more bran in them, and sifting also helped to remove that fiber. With the advent of all purpose flour, and the shelf life of commercially produced flours, the necessity of sifting has disappeared. If you have an older recipe that specifically calls for cake flour, you can substitute all purpose flour, at a slightly reduced volume. For example, if the recipe calls for 1 cup of cake flour, use one cup of all purpose flour, minus about 2 tablespoons of flour. Of course, you can sift it to lift and lighten the texture if you like.
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- Jill
This is true Mary Jane but another main reason people would sift things was there was a big problem with ants, weevils, roaches and all sorts of things. Even though we think food prices are high now they were way worse many years ago and you did not waste food so you would sift the bugs out and still use it. My mom tells me how she had to eat syrup with ants in it on her pancakes at her grandmas because you didn’t waste anything.
Also if you don’t have a sifter when you do need to sift something just use a fork or a whisk.Reply
- G. DePury
I grew up in the South and my Mother always served Gingerbread with a Lemon Sauce. A dollop of Lemon Curd works too.
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- Ja
COMMENT: I’ve been ‘icing’ my cakes with walnuts! When the batter is in the baking pan or dish, I coat the top with the walnuts (I use broken), then when I take it out, they are shinny and crunchy. The walnuts provide a new level of texture, and while enjoyable of themselves, the ‘stern’ flavor of the walnuts calms down the sweet of the cakes. (I am now using apple sauce instead of oil, which does add more sweet, and the walnuts work PERFECTLY)! Gingerbread and walnuts will be so yummy! And it IS ‘that’ time again! lol.
QUESTION: Could one use coconut oil for the solid shortening? Its solid until heated. I’d appreciate knowing if it would work???
Thanks!
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- Jill
I have never used it before myself just because I am a little leary of it and not sure how good the studies have been on coconut oil. I do know it is higher in calories and am a little concerned that many are jumping on the coconut oil bandwagon and because they think it is so healthy for them they are using it by the gallons with the idea of “if it is good for me then the more I can eat, drink or slather it on me the better” and I am afraid that not too far down the line we are going to have an even bigger problem with people being over weight. That is why I don’t use it. Plus it is much more expensive and since the jury is out on the studies of whether or not it is truly better for us and I can’t afford it, I don’t use it.
You can replace it with shortening but you can only replace part of it and the ratio is a little odd so you would have to look it up. Sorry I couldn’t be more help.Reply
- Tiffany @ Dilesia
Gingerbread? That sounds like an excellent idea. I am on my way to the kitchen to try this amazing recipe. Thank you!
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- Hofterzielbeek
Thanks for sharing such an awesome recipe. I will definitely try this Gingerbread Recipe at home.
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