Meatloaf

Meatloaf is great for three reasons.  It’s comfort food.  It's a great way to stretch the food budget since the main ingredient is hamburger.  

And it makes great leftovers (or plan-aheads, as I like to call them). The first night, we had this as meatloaf with my special microwave potatoes.  The second night I fried an onion, added the meatloaf and a jar of diced tomatos and served it over spaghetti.  



The third night I made a "lasagna" where I lined the pan with leftover spaghetti and covered it with sauce.  I fried up some green pepper and onion for the third layer.  Then I grated some cheese (mozzarella and asiago) for the fourth layer.  Finally I sliced some zucchini strips for the top and put a bit more cheese on before baking it for 40 minutes at 350º.  That was the end of of a very satisfactory meatloaf.

When I told Peter, my butcher at Queens Park Meat Market in New Westminster (cash only - but any cut you want prepared before your very eyes), that I was making meatloaf, he ground up the beef and pork together.  He offered up a mix of 1 pound beef with 1/2 pound pork.  Since I had forgotten the recipe that’s what I went with. In fact, I usually prefer my meatloaf to be all beef, but this was pretty good.

After you’ve made meatloaf a couple of times, you can vary the spices, add vegetables (like carrot, celery, mushrooms, peppers or onion) and combine meats.  You can use oatmeal, cornmeal or saltines instead of breadcrumbs. There are literally hundreds of recipes online to give you inspiration.  

Meatloaf

1 lb   lean ground beef

1 lb   ground pork

1 cup breadcrumbs

2 cups packed with chopped fresh spinach, arugula, parsley and basil

2 large eggs  (or 1 egg plus 1 egg white)

1/4 cup stock

1/4 cup ketchup

1 roma tomato finely chopped

1 tsp salt

2 tsp hot sauce

1 tsp Worchestershire sauce.

Chop the greens by hand or in a food processor.

Place the beef, pork, bread crumbs, spinach and other greens in a large bowl
and mix lightly.

In a separate bowl mix all the wet ingredients.

Pour the wet ingredients over the meat mixture and mix until it comes together.  

Form the mixture into a loaf in a parchment lined pan.

Bake at 350º for 1 hour and 15 minutes until internal temperature is 165.

Let stand for 5 minutes.  Invert on a plate and slice and serve.