how to prepare a speech with meatloaf trail mix!?

You may notice this video is longer than most of my previous videos. Well that's because I recorded my Toastmasters speech with the making of this trail mix. Hence the title of this video. 

I wanted to be creative with this particular speech. Initially, I thought for this speech(Speech 5 in the Communicating on Video advanced manual- Instructing on the Internet),  I could do whatever instruction I liked. But then I read the directions for this speech and it said I had to give speech on how to prepare a speech. 

I'm pretty sure you can search "how to prepare a speech" on YouTube and you'll get countless results. But I wanted to make this version of "how to prepare a speech" my own and i did that using a recipe, albeit a very simple one. 

The venue of my club's Toastmasters meetings is in a county government building, so I don't think they would've appreciated it if I brought some actual cooking equipment, like a George Foreman grill or a portable skillet in. 

In choosing which recipe to use, I had to think of one that involved minimal preparation at home, which actually reminds me of the cooking classes I took at the library as a teenager- they didn't have ovens so you prepared everything in the class at the library, except baking the final product. To this day, my library still has no ovens for cooking classes. :(

​When I was thinking of the beef component for the meatloaf part of the trail mix, the first thing that came to my mind was beef jerky. Only problem was I hate beef jerky(it tastes like leather, but maybe that the point of jerky or maybe I don't like the leathery texture of jerky). Also, trail mix is almost always nonperishable, so I couldn't use cold cuts(i.e. roast beef) or ground beef. So I used dried(chipped) beef instead, which is salty af, but goes well with sweet foods(like raisins and candy)!

For the tomato based part of it, I was going to use sun-dried tomatoes, until I tried it and realized they are tough to chew, just like jerky. That was also the moment when sun dried tomatoes joined the ranks of bell peppers(don't like the smell and they're too bitter) and fennel(tastes like rubber to me) on my list of foods I hate. 

So I decided to "marinate" the dried beef instead in a tomato sauce-mixture. I put the word marinate in quotation marks because in culinary terms, I didn't technically marinate the dried beef. All I did was mix the dried beef and tomato sauce mixture up before cooking the dried beef in the oven. 

I used this recipe for my inspiration for cooking the dried beef, except I used a tomato sauce mixture instead of sriracha, which leads me to my next point. Why did I cook the dried beef at 250 degrees Fahrenheit? 

I did this because any hotter and the coating of the peanut butter-coated dried bananas and Crunch bites would melt just by being exposed by hot, dried beef. 

The trail mix was a bigger hit with my club than I thought. After the meeting, I ended up with only 3 or 4 slices of dried beef when I originally started out with 12! 

The only reason my dad didn't try this recipe was because salty foods make him thirsty and he forgot to bring a bottle of water to the meeting that day. 

Note: The following is just the actual recipe. If you want to know how it relates to actually preparing a speech, then watch the video below!

You will need: 

For the cooking equipment: 

A medium bowl
A baking tray
A large bowl

For the marinade: 

1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tbsp. light brown sugar
A dash of Worcestershire sauce

For the trail mix:

12 slices of dried(chipped) beef
3 oz. of peanut butter coated-dried bananas
Raisins
1 cup of breadcrumbs
Bacon bits
Crunch bites(or any chocolate candy you like)
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Cashews
1 packet of meatloaf seasoning mix

1. Mix all the marinade ingredients up in a medium bowl. Add the dried beef. Coat the dried beef in the marinade. 
2. Separate the slices of dried beef and put each slice onto a baking tray. 
3. Cook the marinated dried beef in a 250 degree Fahrenheit oven for 15 minutes. 
4. Combine the cooked, dried beef with the rest of the trail mix ingredients in a large bowl. Mix all the ingredients up with 2 spoons. 
5. Bon appetit! 

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