Make a Great Meat Loaf!

Meat loaf is one of those dishes where people either seem to love it or hate it with very little middle ground. Done well, it's flavorful and delicious, done poorly and it's a flashback to a horrendous junior-high cafeteria lunch. This hub will show you how to produce the former and not the latter.

One of the biggest complaints about bad meat loaf is that it often isn't very meaty. Too much filler (most often bread) can make for a soggy and bland loaf. To me, a good meat loaf is meaty, not greasy and will hold together so that leftovers can be sliced and made in sandwiches. If you don't like meatloaf for being too greasy, I highly recommend giving the new-fangled two-section pans a try! Getting one of those pans totally changed my meatloaf and made me fall in love with it all over again.

Although easy to mix up, meatloaf does often take an hour or more too cook. So it tends not to be a meal you suddenly decide on and make. Also, many recipes produce a good number of portions. In addition to making sandwiches with leftovers, I sometimes crumble a serving into instant spaghetti sauce to make a super-hearty quick sauce on cold winter nights.

Many meatloaf recipes make six to eight servings. For a single person or a couple, this can sometimes be too many meals of leftovers. Here's my personal favorite meatloaf recipes which makes a smaller meatloaf. That way I don't get burnt out from having to eat it for days.

One Pound Meatloaf - makes 3-4 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground beef

• 1 egg

• 1/2 C. breadcrumbs

• 1/3 C. milk

• 1/3 C. ketchup

• 2 Tbsp. minced onions or scallions

• 1 Tbsp. minced garlic

• 1 Tbsp. chili sauce

• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

• 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

• salt and pepper

Cooking:

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees

2. Mix up your egg, milk, ketchup and Worcestershire sauce

3. Add in your onion/scallions and garlic

4. Crumble your ground beef into this mix

5. Add your garlic powder, breadcrubms, salt and pepper then mix. You can use a spoon or your hands.

6. Put the meat mix into a loaf pan (if you have a two-part pan, the meat goes in the top part, which is the section with holes in it.)

7. Spread the chili sauce over the top of the meatloa

8. Bake your meatloaf for one hour

Further Suggestions:

• Try using ground turkey or chicken instead of beef if you want something a bit leaner or for a different flavor.

• If you don't have bread crumbs, you can use crushed up plain crackers. You can also make bread crumbs by putting slightly stale or toasted bread in the food processor.

• You can add bell peppers or other veggies to add some variety.