Mom's Meatloaf

Okay, first of all: don't be jealous of my really expensive china pictured there. It's an heirloom, and has been in our family for at least two generations. Thank you, Hefty.

Tuesday night we went to dinner with friends before heading out to a screening of "Ender's Game."  The restaurant we picked was Del Marva's Southern Cafe. They have such a yummy variety of food on their menu that I always have trouble deciding on what to get.

Admittedly, I was eyeballing the meatloaf pretty hard, but the Monte Cristo sandwich won out. I mean, come on...a ham, turkey, swiss and cheddar cheese sandwich, batter dipped, deep fried, sprinkled with powdered sugar and served with raspberry jam? Yes, please...even though I can only eat half of it. That's okay, I had hungry men who were more than willing to pinch hit for me on that front.

The waitress told me she'd never tried the meatloaf there because she "makes the best."  I know, likely story...right? However upon reflection, she has a valid point: as far as meatloaf goes, everyone says they have the *best* recipe.

Of course, that put me in the mood for making meatloaf after that conversation. Recipes for this dish vary as much as the "ultimate" burger recipe, and I don't know that I can say that I have the best recipe ever, but I can tell you it's fantastic.  Realistically, it's actually pretty healthy if you use ground beef only and not sausage as well - which is something I frequently do, and it's still great.

What's even better about this recipe is how EASY it is as well. I'm not kidding. Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuper simple.
So I grabbed a package of 90/10 ground beef that measured in at just under a pound. The little roll of sausage is a cute little baby version of a mere 12 ounces, so the total meat ratio is about 1.75 pounds. Don't worry about being too accurate. I use the same ingredients with a little over a pound of ground beef alone.

The next thing is to chop up 1/2 a large onion and 1/2 a large green pepper. I really am not picky on my knife skills. My kitchen in no way is ever going to be on Food Network, and I am fine with that. So to help out with my chopping, I have a Pampered Chef food chopper. It can be a little pricey, but I got it as part of a wedding gift.

There are other brands that work just as well, (like the more well-known Slap Chop) and it is definitely one of the kitchen gadgets I highly recommend. I am all about something that is going to get me done with fixing dinner faster and back to my Xbox. Batman Arkham Origins came out recently, and my caped crusader beckons to me insistently...and I answer the call embarrassingly more than I kind of want to admit.

So add the ground beef, the sausage, the chopped onion and green pepper, one 8 ounce can of tomato sauce and 1/2 cup of instant oatmeal. I usually just grab a handful of oatmeal and just eyeball it, but I figured not everyone has my sized hands (small), so I actually measured this out for you guys. Season with salt and pepper, then wash your paws and get in there and squish it all together until just combined. Don't over-mix it because that will make the meat tough.

I stopped there and looked at my mixture. It looked pretty good, but I happen to really like a lot of green peppers in my meatloaf, so I chopped up the rest of the pepper and gently worked them in. They give it such a great flavor!

After it is combined, grab a little bit larger than a baseball sized but smaller than a softball sized hunk and form it into a little loaf. Keep doing this until you have used up all of the meatloaf mixture. I got six single serving sized loaves from this recipe.

Line a 9x13 dish lined with foil and spray it lightly with nonstick spray, and arrange the loaves to fit. Squirt a little ketchup on top. The foil isn't necessary unless you want cleanup of your dish to be super simple...and I do...because Batman is waiting.

Oh and sorry for my less than perfect ketchup squiggly lines on top. I was at the end of a bottle and it got all farty on me, which made me have to shake it...and then when you squeeze it a huge blob comes out. *sigh* Never neat. Never neat.

And frankly, I'm just not anal enough to wipe it off and make it look all purty for a blog entry. I gots things to do, yo. Like play Batman.

Preheat your oven to 350° and pop them in there for about 35-40 minutes. Depending on how much fat is in your meat, they might be sitting in a little bath of grease. When I take them out of the oven , I sit them on paper towels for a few minutes to drain. Or you can get a turkey baster and drain some of the fat off as it cooks, but ain't nobody got time for that.

And mom, just in case you're wondering why I only served this with mac & cheese...it's because the veggies are in the meatloaf. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.