Meatloaf

I never had meatloaf as a child since my mom really doesn't like ground beef at all. So one day I decided to experiment and make it myself. So I have no idea if this is traditional, but my husband and I like it, so, good enough. I made this awhile ago, but hadn't written it up yet. Since I've been insanely busy at work (My last day off was February 13th) I haven't really had much of a chance to do any cooking. My lovely husband is so kind and has been picking up a lot of my slack. Eventually things will calm down though. It has to! Right?
Anyway, here goes!

You will need:
Ground Beef (Lean is better if you're using a loaf pan, if you're using a roasting rack the fat drippings will collect in the bottom and you can use a higher fat content since it will drip off.)
Bread Crumbs
Milk
1-2 Eggs
Ketchup
Mustard
Italian Seasoning
Paprika
Cayenne Pepper
Salt and Pepper
(Not pictured today, but often I will cut up chunks of pepper jack cheese and mix them in)

And here are your wet ingredients:

Soy Sauce
Maggi if you can get it
Tabasco Sauce
Worcestershire Sauce


Here's my pro tip. You could totally mix all the ingredients together in a bowl like a peasant. ;) I however put all the ingredients in a big gallon sized bag, seal it, and then mix it by squeezing the outside around.

There, you've added the ground beef.

Next add the additional ingredients: about a cup of bread crumbs, two eggs, a couple of squirts of mustard, Italian seasoning, Cayenne, Paprika, Salt and Pepper.

Add a couple squirts of Worcestershire Sauce, Tabasco Sauce, Soy Sauce, and Maggi if you have it.

Now that you've squeezed out the air and sealed the bag, start squishing. Get it all really mixed up. (If you're adding cheese do it now.)

Now when it's all mixed up you can start getting it ready for the oven. You can see I will be putting it into loaf pans. However if you are adding cheese, I recommend shaping it into two little loaves and using roasting pans. The cheese will add a lot of extra fat/grease, so it'll drip down and away from the loaves.

If you're using loaf pans squish your meat mixture into them and smooth the top over.

Squeeze ketchup over the top, it'll become almost like a glaze. On the back one I also sprinkled some brown sugar. Obviously you can also experiment with whatever flavors you like.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour. You can use a meat thermometer to check and see if they are ready.

Here you can see I served it with roasted potatoes and cucumber salad.

I hope you will enjoy this recipe and make yourself a delicious meal.


Hopefully when things settle down I will get to cook a lot more for fun and make funnier posts.