Kristel's Blog

So having meatloaf for dinner tonight (along with some sort of potato, probably mashed, and something vegetable, probably peas). And while it’s cooking, I thought I’d tell you my recipe! If for no other reason than to distract me from the wonderful smell it’s making. Okay, and maybe to hold you over long enough for me to get around to the “Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and OMG It’s Been A Long Time” post. Picture to come… like after it’s finished.

All set to make meatloaf? I probably should warn you on how I measure things though in my own recipes — namely, I take the “Rachael Ray” approach. I will list the “actual” or at least the “rough estimates” at the bottom for you though. Oh, and I tend to cook with things I have leftover in my fridge. Anyways… Ready? Set? Go!

Ingredients:

Loaf:

• 3/4 of the family pack of ground beef you bought for a heckova lotta tacos
• A mugfull of bread crumbs
• The last two eggs
• Leftover half an onion
• Pepper (to taste)
• Cheese, sticked. (You can use about 3 cheese sticks cut into thirds. If using a block, cut enough for about 10 sticks, tall as the width of the block, about a small finger wide.)

Topping (choose one!):

• 1/2 a mug of salsa (what I always use if I have it!)
• Few squirts of ketchup, few squirts of mustard, palmfull of brown sugar mixed up together.
• Or as a last resort, 1/2 mug spaghetti sauce.

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
2. Except for the cheese, mix all the ingredients for the loaf together. Squish into loaf pan, or if you don’t have one, go for the free form look on a cookie sheet.
3. Push the sticks of cheese, lenthwise, into the loaf. Don’t ask me why my family does this; we just do. Tracey reads this blog, maybe she knows?
4. Spoon & spread the topping evenly, or not-so-evenly if you’re going creative, onto the loaf.
5. Put into oven and back for an hour and a quarter/hour and a half or so until cooked through.
6. Take out of oven, and if you let it “rest” for a few minutes it’s easier to cut.

Some final notes: if you’ve run out bread crumbs, I’ve used oatmeal. A little healthier for you, tastes good, but I like the bread crumb taste better. If you’re sticking with the healthy kick, choose something labelled “lean” and substitute at least part of the ground beef for ground turkey or chicken. Slightly different taste, but still good. If you’d like to go even healthier… I suppose you could leave out the cheese. I’ve heard of people putting sliced hard boiled eggs, and eggs are good for you right? If you’d like to go the total opposite of healthy, I wouldn’t put it pass some people I know not to put some bacon chunks in addition to the cheese.

Ingredients for those who like to measure: (please note, these are approximations! not actually tested…)

Loaf:

• 1 1/2lbs ground beef
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 a medium onion, or 1 small onion
• 1 tbsp Pepper (or more if you like that sorta thing)
• Cheese, sticked. (See my notes above.)

Topping (choose one!):

• 1/2 a cup of salsa (what I always use if I have it!)
• 1/4 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup of mustard, 1 tbsp brown sugar mixed up together.
• Or as a last resort, 1/2 cup spaghetti sauce.

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