Meatloaf

Hey, don't knock it until you've tried it. I know that meatloaf is to fruit cake as cookie is to brownie. Okay so I was never good at those, but I know that meatloaf gets a bad reputation. Honestly, my husband tries to weasel his way into getting meatloaf quite often. My mom made meatloaf the same exact way each time, a lot, when I was younger. Now, I loved it when I was younger and then I got older and either my taste buds changed, or, mom started making it different. Yeah, that must have been it. She must have changed her recipe... right? I typically receive a more than lovely text or facebook update from my mom shortly after posting about how awful her cooking can be. Notice that I said can. She has some potential... some.

Anyways, for all you meat lovers out there... what could be better than an entire loaf.. dedicated to... meat. Don't worry. We add some stuff to make it more than yummy. Normally I pair mashed potatoes and corn with meatloaf, but since I've been trying to lessen the amount of butter filled potato mushy goodness, I didn't do that this time.

In case you're wondering how fist pumping with cinnamon went... well, I've been brain storming all weekend on the best method of getting cinnamon stains out of the carpet. I mean, I just wanted the smell, not the mess. I guess my best idea was to walk around the house making noises similar to those that Snooki makes, WAHHHHH. I mean, if running around the Jersey Shore pretend crying works for her, I figured it should work for me. I mean, we are both located on the East coast and of similar height after all. Apparently time zones and how far you stand off the ground have nothing to do with carpet stains... or meatloaf. Well, here it is.

Ingredients:
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 egg
1-2 slices of bread (pulled into small pieces)
1/4 c. Italian style bread crumbs (or any other type)
1/4 c. milk
1/2 onion (diced)
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 tbl. parsley
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

Paste:
1/4 c. ketchup
2 tbl. brown sugar
1 tsp. yellow mustard

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Combine all ingredients with hands until mixed well. Form into loaf pan. I use a loaf pan with holes in the bottom that drip into an outer pan. Bake for 50 minutes. Remove loaf. Mix paste ingredients and place paste mixture on top of loaf. Bake for an additional 20 minutes.

Leftovers? Make a meatloaf sandwich tomorrow!