how to turn a gingerbread house into a meatloaf

One of the best parts of Christmas is the gingerbread house making. I wish I did it more often every Christmas but with this channel now, I had the perfect excuse to buy gingerbread house kits, so I decided to turn them into a meatloaf! 

A lot of the parts of these two kits(see HELPFUL LINKS) had candies that I didn't like, such as the colorful dots from the gingerbread house kit(not the chocolate cookie house). I like chocolate candy more than non-chocolate candy- and I certainly hate candy canes(or anything that tastes like peppermint. Yuck!). If I wanted to have a peppermint flavor in my mouth, I can just brush my teeth right now, there's no need to deliberately ingest that flavor in my food. End peppermeint rant. 

You can't build a house without people that are going to end up inhabiting it(and that goes for gingerbread houses too), so I crumbled up some gingerbread people(the politically correct term, because 2016). This is the only socially acceptable way to eat people, even if they are just cookies made (loosely) in the shape of people. 

The meatloaf wasn't too sweet, but my dad still didn't try this meatloaf. 

I also added Froot Loops, only because it bring back childhood memories. When I was in 1st grade(which was over 20 years ago and way before the USDA put a stop to kids eating sugary desserts in school or parents bringing foood in), we were advised not to discard our milk cartons in December, for the classes would use those to hold the gingerbread houses together(with frosting as the glue). 

The only other thing I remember about that day in 1995 was that I was eating the Froot Loops we were using as decorations for the houses and my teacher told me(as a 5 year old) to stop eating the cereal. I was so mad because my 5 year old-brain thought that "why hold off on eating the food we're putting on the gingerbread house if it's only going to end up being eaten anyway when we're done making them?"

Surprisingly, the icing I used in the meatloaf held the shape of the mixture together, even after it was long been melted in the oven. That, of course gives me ideas to use icing instead of eggs in future meat-based meatloaf recipes. 

After doing over 100 videos for this channel in the span of less than 2 years, I wanted to change up the format of the videos, which is why I did a gingerbread house unboxing. Opening those boxes felt like Christmas- oh wait, that''s tomorrow! :)

The gingerbread cookie pieces made the meatloaf extra heavy, yet so good! 

HELPFUL LINKS: Hershey's Chocolate Christmas Cookie House Kit: 
https://www.amazon.com/Hersheys-Chocolate-Christmas-Cookie-House/dp/B01M4P24AF/ref=sr_1_7_s_it?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1482599395&sr=1-7&

Jelly Belly Gingerbread House Decorating Kit: https://www.amazon.com/Jelly-Belly-Gingerbread-House-Decorating/dp/B0170PZX90/ref=sr_1_3_s_it?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1482604287&sr=1-3&

You will need: 

For the cooking equipment: 

A large bowl
Ziploc bag
Nonstick cooking spray 
Lasagna pan

For the meatloaf: 

2/3 tbsp. onion powder
2 beaten and whisked eggs
The following components of the 2 gingerbread kits: 

The candies
 1 icing bag
 All of the gingerbread house pieces
1 large chocolate cookie house piece

2 Gingerbread people
Froot Loops cereal
Pinch of salt
Pinch of black pepper
1 pound chopped, drained, crumbled up firm tofu

1. Put the onion powder and eggs into a large bowl. 
2. Put the gingerbread house pieces and the large chocolate cookie house piece into a Ziploc bag. Crush them up with your fists or a hammer until they resemble crumbs. Put the crushed up pieces into the large bowl. 
3. Cut the tip of the icing bag open with a scissor. Pour as much of the icing as you can into the large bowl. 
4. Crumble up the gingerbread people and put them into the large bowl, along with the salt, black pepper, and tofu. 
5. Mix all the ingredients up until they form a firm meatloaf mixture. 
6. Spray a lasagna pan with nonstick cooking sprauy. Form 2 loaves from the meatloaf mixture. 
7. Bake in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 40-45 minutes. 
8. Bon appetit! 

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