Meat Loaf

Last week we had the missionaries over for dinner.  I decided to make my version of my Auntie M's Meat Loaf and my mom's special potatoes.  I'll blog the special potatoes next.  I rounded out the meal with green beans and Brenda's Grape juice. 

The meat loaf is a really easy.  It's fairly sweet, which I love, but you may find too sweet.  I even amp up the sweetness by using Maple flavored sausage - my favorite. 

One other tip about the ingredients - use the leanest ground beef you can find but at least 90% lean.  One of the things I really like about this recipe is the brown sugar and ketchup forms a really yummy glaze.  If the ground beef is 80% lean or lower the grease overwehlms the glaze and it's just greasy instead of yummy.

Step one... mix the sausage and the ground beef.  I alway use my hands for this.  That way it's really easy to tell if the sausage is all broken up and blended with the ground beef. 

Step two... mix the rest of the ingredients (except the ketchup and brown sugar) in a separate bowl.  I use a fork for this.

Then you mix the meat with the rest of it.  I use my hands for this again.  That way I can tell when the meat is pretty much broken up with the rest of the ingredients.  That makes the consistency of the meat loaf really tender. 

Then I put it all in a loaf pan.  I made this ahead so at this point I covered it with plastic wrap and stuck it in the frig. 

The night before the dinner the missionaries called and asked if they could come over a half hour earlier.  So Jonathan had to finish this off for me.  I forgot to have him take any pictures... sorry. 

Jonathan spread ketchup over the top of the meat loaf and then spinkled throughly with brown sugar.  I told him to make sure he didn't fill the pan to the top.  The brown sugar will melt and bubble over if the pan is too full.  I generaly put a cookie sheet under the meat loaf just to avoid the mess in my oven. 

Dinner is served!

 

Ingredients:

1 lb lean ground beef                                                     1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

½ lb ground sausage                                                       ½ tsp salt

1 cup V-8 Juice                                                                  ¼ tsp pepper

¾ cup oats (quick or regular)                                       Ketchup (~3/8 cup)

 1 egg, slightly beaten                                                    Brown Sugar (~ 4 Tbls)

2 Tbsp  dried onion

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Gently blend ground beef and ground sausage together.  In a separate bowl mix V-8, oatmeal, egg, onion, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper.  Add meat mixture and mix thoroughly but slightly.  Do not over mix.  Press into 8 x 4-inch loaf pan.  Pour layer of ketchup (about ¼” thick) over the top of the meat.  Then sprinkle liberally with brown sugar.  You can make this ahead or even freeze.  If you do don’t put on the ketchup and the brown sugar until the meat loaf is thawed and ready to go in the oven. 

Bake 1 hour.  Serves 8.