MEATLOAF

Today I am making meatloaf for dinner. So while I am at it, I decided to do several small ones to put in the freezer for my dad and quick fix meals for Wayne.

I have a cheat that I use for meatloaf because it is a very good recipe.

My cheat is, Hunt's Seasoned Tomato Sauce for Meatloaf. i use the recipe on the back of the can and add a few of my own touches and everyone seems to love it, so why mess with a good thing?

To make 1 meatloaf by the recipe on the can you will need:

2 lbs of lean ground beef (I sometimes use ground turkey or chicken. The leaner the meat means less fat) (Today I used 93% lean ground beef)

2 large eggs, beaten

1 cup quick oats or bread crumbs or crushed crackers (I use Italian Style bread crumbs)

1 can of the Hunt's sauce.

(I add chopped onions and sometimes chopped bell pepper.)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400*F

Mix 1/2 can of the sauce with the remaining ingredients.
Place meat mixture into a loaf pan (hint from me: I line pan with non-stick foil and spray lightly with cooking spray, it just makes clean up easier for me)

Bake uncovered for 1 hour, remove from oven and carefully drain off the fat

Top the meatloaf with the remaining sauce and return to oven and bake for another 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and let stand for 10 or 15 minutes before serving.

Letting it stand makes it easier to slice, if you try it straight from the oven it will fall apart.

Nutritional Info
Servings Per Recipe: 8
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 209.9
Total Fat: 8.0 g
Cholesterol: 101.9 mg
Sodium: 409.5 mg
Total Carbs: 13.0 g
Dietary Fiber: 2.8 g
Protein: 21.7 g

Not all my recipes are going to be exactly diet friendly. Remember that I cook for a lot of other people at times. I try to "healthify" where I can.

When I am doing Batch Cooking as I am today, I double the recipe. Shape them into small loaves and bake in a foil covered pan or in a disposable foil lasagna pan or two. I am all about easy cleanup! I have a terrible back and its hard for me to stand over the sink scrubbing baked on foods off of pans. I can get the disposables pans cheap in the dollar stores so they don't ruin my budget. If the pans aren't to bad off after using them, I will even wash and reuse them.

Remember if you are using the foil pans to put a cookie sheet under them when you put them in the oven. They might be easy cleanup but, they aren't real sturdy and you could have a bigger mess by not securing the bottom. Been There Done That!!

I let them cool, then i slide them onto a cookie sheet, put them into the freezer to flash freeze for an hour or two then wrap in aluminum foil and place in marked freezer bags and freeze for later.

They can be thawed and eaten cold on sandwiches or heated quickly in the microwave for a meal.

Enjoy!