During my trip to the grocery store I had to make a last minute adjustment to my meal plans. The green beans did not look good, so I picked up some broccolini instead. I forgot to get potatoes, but fortunately there was a bag of small potatoes already at home. These potatoes were an assortment of red, white, and blue potatoes and each one is small enough to be eaten in one to three bites.
I used a lot of ingredients in my meatloaf, going beyond the recipes I found in my research. I added a small amount of green bell pepper, thyme leaves, garlic powder, and dill weed. I also used crackers instead of bread, oats, or bread crumbs. Once I had all the ingredients in the bowl with the meat, I mixed it all up with my bare hands, making sure the evenly distribute the seasonings, onion, and bell pepper. After placing the meatloaf in an iron skillet and topping it with some ketchup, I covered the meat with strips of bacon.
In my 20% Time experiments, this is the first full meal consisting of side dishes that I have made. There was quite a bit of work to it, and it could easily have gotten overwhelming. But I learned this--if you're going to make more than one side dish at the same time, make sure they are both easy to prepare without too much micromanagement. This way you're much less likely to overcook one thing because you were too busy managing another.