Cottage Meatloaf

The other day I was talking to a friend and she mentioned that she couldn’t get her boys to eat meatloaf.  She had tried various recipes and they still didn’t like it!!  Well, I thought I would add my absolute favorite meatloaf recipe to this blog and she can give it a try…..I bet those boys will like this recipe…..my boys LOVE it!!!

Here are the cast of characters…..pretty simple ingredients…

Cottage Meatloaf

1 1/2 pounds of ground beef

1/2 cup ketchup

1/3 cup tomato juice

1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper

2 eggs, beaten

3/4 cup bread crumbs

1/4 cup finely chopped onions (I used 2 Tablespoons of dried, minced onion)

2 teaspoons of yellow mustard

Topping:

1/4 cup ketchup

1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard

2 teaspoons brown sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees-

In a bowl combine ketchup, tomato juice, salt and pepper, eggs, bread crumbs, onion and mustard….then add the ground beef.  (Here I am making 2 loaves -doubling the recipe)

Mix ingredients all together…..I like to use my hands, but a word of caution here- TAKE OFF YOUR RINGS, unless of course you like raw, sticky meat embedded in your ring!!

After mixing thoroughly, press the meat mixture in a greased loaf pan…

Mix topping ingredients in a small bowl….

Mix well, spoon the topping, well…..on TOP and place the meatloaf (or loaves) in the preheated oven….

Go ahead, do a little multitasking in the kitchen and stick a few potatoes and sweet potatoes in there too….YUM!!!  Just make sure to put a cookie sheet under those sweet potatoes- they are drippers!!!!

Bake for about an hour…or until the meatloaf reaches 170 degrees.  By then, people will  be congregating in your kitchen, wondering what smells so good.  In fact, some will actually open the oven door and peek in, just to see what’s cooking!!  It’s all good….this is just priming the pump, getting those taste buds ready!!  We served our meatloaves with the baked  potatoes and sweet potatoes and a helping of my oven roasted asparagus (recipe coming next week!!)  Enjoy!!!

Do you have any tried and true recipes that I should try???  Feel free to email them to Jillonthehill1@gmail.com