It's another Saturday. I spent the morning shopping with my daughter, her friend and my perfect grandson. We came home about 1 pm. I'm tired. Not sleeping is what I am doing best these days and for the life of me I don't know why. Normally I am a "dead to the world" kind of sleeper. This morning I also woke up with or rather the headache woke me up. It's now 4 pm. I am a bit cranky, still tired and in two hours my husband, who is hardworking and uncomplaining, is going to come home with expectations of supper. A hot one preferably that has meat and potatoes involved.

Have you ever noticed that men, no matter what their immediate condition, can eat. My husband gets a cold, can't talk, can barely take a breath, but he can eat. The first thing he said to me when he awoke from his hernia operation was, "Did I miss lunch?" Go figure.

After pondering this earth shattering situation I have, I think, decided on Meatloaf. I have to admit that I make a darn good meatloaf. And it's still good the next day cold on a sandwich. If I make a big enough one I can kill two meals with one really big meatloaf. Works for me. Having made that decision I decided to record my recipe (and it is as original as a meatloaf recipe can get) for anyone who would like to give it a try.

Heather's Meatloaf

2 pounds of very lean ground beef

1 large Sweet Vidalia onion, coarsely chopped - we love onion. You could use less.

4 slices of bread - any kind is fine - cut into ½ inch squares. Use the crust too.

2 eggs

Your favourite BBQ sauce. I use Bull's Eye Chicken and Rib Renegade

A very generous dash of garlic salt.

Mix everything together in a bowl. Pat firmly into an angle cake pan or a bundt pan. These are the ones that have a hole in the middle of the pan. I don't know why exactly I use an angel cake pan for meatloaf but I always have. I think it started when we were first married and my baking pans were very limited so each one had to have many uses. I do believe you could use a 9 X 9 inch square baking dish instead. After you have the mixture firmly patted into the pan, spread about 1/3 of a cup of the BBQ sauce on the top of the meatloaf. Sprinkle the top generously with brown sugar. Bake in a 325 degree F. oven for approximately 30 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

I always serve this with mashed potatoes. Sometimes I make them myself and sometimes I use a nice, convenient package of instant mashed. We like the roasted garlic flavour. To offset the instant mashed I usually serve a nice salad with lots of cucumber and tomato chunks. Tonight I'm afraid they will be lucky to get steamed veggies.

NOTE: If you don't use lean ground beef the meatloaf shrinks terribly and sort of ends up swimming in fat which is just gross.

Meatloaf has made it's mark in history as a comfort food. It conjures up memories of Mom and apple pie and home. Once upon a time it was even economical. Now days there isn't too much food wise that is economical and lean ground beef certainly isn't one of them. Not up here anyway.

Now that I have shared this with you, I must go and make ours. I will leave you with a quote from Laura Sechrest :

"Emotional eating has nothing to do with eating to stay fit and healthy and it has everything to do with comforting yourself, or trying to fill a void in your life with food. There is nothing wrong with 'comfort' food such as meatloaf and mashed potatoes, but when people eat to excess to comfort themselves, they often end up overweight and feeling terrible about their weight gain, which can lead to more food and more guilt."

As I have often said, moderation in all things... even comfort food.