Meatloaf

I have been on the search for the perfect meatloaf recipe for a while now. It’s not that I am a huge fan of meatloaf, but sometimes you just want something meaty and hearty for dinner (the fact that it’s easy to put together is a plus!). I’ve tried recipes that use bread crumbs and those that use oats, those that use ketchup and those that use tomato sauce, those that use diced onions and those that use onion powder. I think I finally found something that works pretty well for me. I think it’s a combination of a few different recipes that I’ve found online.

When I went to make this dish, it was probably about May 14th or 15th (I know, I’m behind on sharing it with you!). I had purchased the meat 3 or 4 days before that at the grocery store. When I looked at the package, though, this is what I saw:

February 6th? But I had JUST purchased it. The meat still looked pink and fresh, so I opened the package to sniff it. It smelled fresh and normal, and I even took a tiny taste. Everything seemed fine to me. If I’d pulled it out of the depths of my own fridge, I’d have been more cautions, but this was seriously just purchased. I decided that it was a typo and went ahead and used it. I didn’t really have the time or energy to storm back to the store, anyway.

I love how easy meatloaf is. I put the meat in a bowl, added bread crumbs, egg, Worcestershire sauce, tomato sauce, Parmesan cheese, an envelope of dry onion soup mix, oregano, salt, and minced garlic.

Mixed together, it looked like this.

I served the final product with some of my Grandma Dorothy’s German potato salad and topped it with ketchup.

Last time I made this recipe, I used ketchup instead of tomato sauce and it was just okay. This time, hubby and I both really enjoyed it. I’m also not sure if I actually included the dry onion soup mix last time, but I did this time and it gave it that nice onion flavor without all the onion chunks that I’ve never liked in my meatloaf. As for the bread crumbs vs. oats debate, I’m not sure if I have anything against the oats other than I think I like the smooth texture of bread crumbs better. But both work.

I guess I have a meatloaf recipe that I’m satisfied with, after all. And I guess the meat wasn’t expired because neither of us ended up with food poisoning or horrible stomach problems or anything. Not that I was worried. Of course.

Leave a comment if you’d like the recipe – it’s not going in the tastebook because it’s already printed.