Down Home Meat Loaf

Meatloaf is something I loved as a kid.  Oddly enough, I mostly remember eating the school’s meatloaf with mashed potatoes and green beans.  I don’t recall my mom ever being a big on making meatloaf for dinner.  The fact that I remember the school lunch meatloaf is also weird because the meatloaf was one of the only edible school lunch meals that they served in public school.  LOL 

Once I started watching the cooking shows and such, I experimented with the more fancy meatloaf recipes and even turkey meatloaf.  Those turned out ok, but I always come back to the good old meatloaf recipe that used to be on the Lipton Onion Soup Mix box.  I was able to find the actual recipe from the Lipton box on the internet and it is so simple and delicious that it is my go-to meatloaf recipe…..always!  I’ll save the more fancy ingredients for other dishes. 

One thing I did learn from watching cooking shows is that ground pork imparts delicious flavor to the meatloaf and the pork  alsoensures that the meatloaf will be super moist and juicy.  So, instead of two pounds of ground beef (as stated in the original recipe) , I combine 1 pound of pork with 1 pound of ground beef.  Serve this meatloaf with some garlic mashed potatoes and some green beans and plenty of ketchup on the side……..wow, this meal really takes me back!  Cheers!

Ingredients: 

Lipton onion soup mix- 1 pouch 
Eggs 2 
Ketchup (1/2 cup) 
Bread crumbs (1/2 cup) 
Ground beef, (1 lb) 

Ground pork, (1 lb)

More ketchup for topping the meatloaf – about 1 cup…..or more if you like!

Preparation: 
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

 In a large bowl, beat the eggs. 

 Add the onion soup mix, ketchup and *bread crumbs. Mix well. Add ground beef and pork and mix well.

   *Here’s a tip for making homemade bread crumbs that I learned from a friend: If you don’t have store-bought bread crumbs, you can make your own from day-old bread or even regular sliced wheat or white bread.  If using sliced bread to make bread crumbs, place about 2 slices of bread (for ½ cup bread crumbs) in the toaster or oven and toast well. 

When the bread is toasted and nicely brown, turn off the oven or toaster, but leave the slices in the oven so that they can dry out in the middle.  You want really crusty and dried out bread to make bread crumbs.  After the interior of the bread slices seem nice and dry, crumble the bread into a spice grinder, blender or food chopper and blend.  Voila!  You have home-made bread crumbs!

 . 
 Shape the meat mixture into a 9 X 5 inch loaf pan and bake for 30 minutes, uncovered.  After 30 minutes, pull out the loaf and spread ketchup over the top according to your preference.  Put the meatloaf back in the oven for 30 minutes more.  After 60 minutes total cooking time, let the meatloaf sit for about 10 minutes and then enjoy!