Meatloaf

I woke up this morning and turned on the Today Show to get updated on all the details after the big election day yesterday. As I watched, I saw that they were having as a guest on the show the author of one of my favorite cooking blogs, Ree Drummond - The Pioneer Woman. I actually record her cooking show and even Bruce likes watching it because of the interesting things they are always doing around the ranch. (Bruce mostly just cracks jokes about it the whole time.) In a way, her show reminds me of when we first moved here from the city and all our adventures with the animals - although we only have two acres, not a full ranch. We only had one horse, a slew of dairy goats (complete with goat milk), chickens, rabbits, a half dozen or so cats and two dogs. That's enough to keep one busy with teenagers coming and going. The Pioneer Woman is always running out to where everyone is on the ranch to take them their snack or lunch - a perfectly layed out spread. “Tastes good, honey”. That’s about the only thing “Marlboro Man” ever says. He’s not a man of words, he’s a cowboy for heaven’s sake. Now, Bruce will always come home from work and say “Smells good, honey” or “Looks good, honey” in the same Marlboro Man voice. (Bruce thinks Pioneer Woman is a little crazy and obsessed with her food from living in isolation too long on the ranch.)

After watching the Today Show segment, I knew I had to make my meatloaf today. It's quite a bit different from the Pioneer Woman's version. In fact, all my recipes are. Every time I watch her show, I ended up saying, "I can't make that" because she always puts so much cheese, bacon and other fat-laden ingredients in and on everything. It's a good thing they are always working off their meals with heavy labor around the ranch. Well, we aren't doing physical labor around our two acres burning off all our cheese, bacon and fat. And most people don't live like that, unfortunately, Miss Pioneer Woman. And her meatloaf recipe was not any different. It was wrapped in bacon with grated cheese added as one the ingredients, of coarse. I really do like Pioneer Woman but her recipes are just too high in fat and calories for us to eat. Take a look at how different my meatloaf recipe is from the Pioneer Woman's:

Serves 8

1 lb. each of ground beef, ground pork and ground lamb
1 large chopped onion
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup oatmeal
2 eggs
3 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 cup tomato sauce
1 Tbsp. chili powder
2 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. marjoram
2 tsp. salt & pepper

Topping:

1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 molasses

Instead of white bread soaked in milk, I use wheat germ and oatmeal as my filler. No cheese. My topping is very simple of just ketchup and molasses and it tastes perfect on meatloaf. In fact, my meatloaf recipe is the same recipe for the stuffing in my recipe for stuffed bell pepper and tomatoes so you may have already seen it. I've made my stuffed peppers already this year - I must have these every fall for a dinner at least once.

Back to the meatloaf…

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine the 3 kinds of meat thoroughly.

2. Add the onion, wheat germ and oatmeal to the meat mixture and mix thoroughly.

3. Add the eggs and Worcestershire sauce to meat mixture and combine.

4. Add the rest of the ingredients, mixture together and pat into two loaf pans.

5. Mix together the ketchup and molasses for the topping.

6. Pour over the top of the shaped meatloaves.

7. Bake in oven for 1-1/2 hours. (Must not be pink in the middle)

We always have baked potatoes with meatloaf so you can put those in the oven at the same time and cook along with the meatloaf. Again, a very different side dish than the Pioneer Woman's Creamy Cheese and Bacon Grits she served with her meatloaf wrapped in bacon.
  

The perfect fall dinner - meatloaf, baked potato and broccoli with a little grated cheese on top with a dollop of plain Greek yogurt on the potato. You must have leftovers for those delicious meatloaf sandwiches.

I love fall.