Thursdays Are For Cooking
It’s still chilly weather and raining, and promises of more to come are in the forecast. Nice, long slog into next week, so I thought this might be a good time to revive the Stuffed Meatloaf Recipe. It is a budget stretcher, and with the current reduction in available meat at the meat counter, in addition to higher prices, it might just hit the spot.
Meatloaf Stuffed with Stuffing
My mother used to make this about once a month. It was the 1950s and stretching a tight budget was what everyone did. But it’s filling, and hearty and all you need with it is a side of vegetables, some cut-up veggies on the relish tray, and a good dessert.
First, you need a good meatloaf recipe. Most of the recipes call for the cheap beef, not good, lean beef, which has more flavor. If you add pork, remember that it has to be cooked thoroughly.
Anyway, you will need:
Ingredients
1 ½ lbs. 90% lean ground beef (if you can’t find the lean beef, then use chuck beef)
1 cup dried bread crumbs
½ cup diced yellow onion
½ cup milk
1 large egg beaten
2 tbsp. ketchup
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. dried parsley leaves
¾ tsp. salt
½ tsp. garlic powder
¼ tsp.ground black pepper
For the stuffing, use the boxed dressings. They’re faster and less labor intensive, and less expensive than using half a loaf of bread.
Mix all the meatloaf ingredients thoroughly, then put a layer about one inch thick (about half the meatloaf) in your foil-lined roasting pan. Put the mixed stuffing on the layer of meatloaf, then cover that, top and sides, with the rest of the meatloaf mix.
If you want to include a glaze for this, do so, but renew it a couple of times while the meatloaf is cooking.
Bake in a preheated 375 F oven for 1 hour & 15 minutes. I’d let it sit for a little bit, with a foil cover to keep the moisture in the meat, after you take it out of the oven.
Now, meatloaf aside, there are some farmers who will be willing to sell you half a steer if you make their acquaintance. It might be worth the effort to find them and make a deal. Ditto chicken farmers. If they have to destroy the flocks because processing plants are shut down, they might be willing to talk to you. It’s worth the time and energy to look around and find these people. There are also people who will put you on a list for produce, for a fee. We used to call those truck farms, but I think it’s changed to “fresh farms” now. This virus episode has done a lot of damage everywhere. Maybe we’re just having a second chance to learn to be more self-sufficient.
This just screams for mashed potatoes and glazed carrots on the side. For a different flavor note, try A-1 instead of the Wooster sauce.
Thanks, Ex!
Mashed taters, definitely, but I always – always – leave the side dishes up to the cook.
This kind of meatloaf is so good, it gets kids’ tummies full.
You can never go wrong with mashed taters and gravy!! Thanks Ex, I always love me some meatloaf!!
For those who like to cook under pressure…. Instant Pot Cream Cheese Stuffed Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes (Cheese, it’s good…) Ingredients 2.5 lbs russet potatoes 1 cup water 2 lbs lean ground beef 20 Ritz crackers 2 eggs, large 1/4 cup milk 1 tbsp dehydrated minced onion 1 tbsp garlic powder 1 tsp salt 1 tsp pepper 1/2 cup Philadelphia Whipped Cream Cheese Chive 1/4 cup BBQ sauce After Cooking 1/4 cup butter 1 tsp salt 1 tsp pepper 2 tsp onion powder Instructions Chop potatoes into one inch chunks. Pour water into Instant Pot. Add potato chunks to Instant Pot. Dump ground beef into a large mixing bowl. Place Ritz crackers into a large Ziploc bag and use a rolling pin to crush them. Pour Ritz cracker crumbs into bowl with the ground beef. Add eggs, milk, dehydrated minced onion, garlic powder, salt and pepper to the mixing bowl. Use your hands to combine all of the ingredients really well. Scoop approximately 2/3 of the meat mixture into a greased 7 inch spring form pan. Press the meat into the bottom of the pan and up the sides of the pan. Scoop cream cheese on top of the meat and spread it out evenly. Spread the BBQ sauce on top of the cream cheese. Place the remaining 1/3 of the meat mixture on top and spread it out to cover the entire top of the meatloaf. Gently press the meat together at the seams at the sides of the pan to seal the meatloaf. Place a trivet on top of the potatoes in the Instant Pot. Place the spring form pan with the meatloaf on top of the trivet in the Instant Pot. Place the lid on the Instant Pot, turn the steam release handle to the sealing position and set the Instant Pot to Pressure Cook High for 35 minutes. Once the Instant Pot is done cooking, immediately turn the steam release handle to the venting position and do a quick release. Remove the spring form pan from the Instant Pot and set it aside so that the… Read more »
num num num. Lubs me some good meatloaf. Mama would make this one too, ‘cept she’d use cornbread dressing instead of the stuffing mix. (It’s a Southern Thang…y’all) We generally keep all the ingredients to make dressing. And, yepper, this one does scream out for smashed taters with carrots, or maybe new baby red taters with green beans. I generally buy the 90/10 or the 96/4 grounded beast of late. Cost a little more per pound, but it makes the doc happier. There are several beef growers in my AO that are getting together with the local processors and putting customers in touch with one another to 1/2 or 1/4 beef and porkers.
Tanks Ex…This beats the hell out of an upside goose in a crock pit…er er cock pot. Glad you didn’t go all maverick on us.
*sigh*
LOL
Thought that would make your mouth drool.(smile)
I envy anyone who lives within barking distance of someone who can provide half a steer or hog dressed for the freezer. I know someone who does that, but like nearly 200 miles away.
It would save some real time and money.
Ex-PH2,
Met up with two of my vet buddies on Wednesdays as we have been doing since the restaurant shut down.
Been trading off at each others house.
Yesterday was Venison Sloppy Joe mix, grilled pheasant breast marinated in dill pickle juice, homemade coleslaw and topped off with blueberry banana bread…..and of course manly man “coffee with balls”. (grin)
Full tummies were had by all. (smile)
You just had to throw ‘pheasant marinated in dill pickle juice’ at me, dincha? Was it Claussen’s?
LOL
Thought that would make your mouth drool.(smile)
Pro tip, Jumps-From-Sky. For a pork or poultry marinade as easy as opening a jar, any one of the several Newman’s Own salad dressings work very well. Profits go to kid’s charities, too. Try that next time the movable feast comes to your door.
At my door next week, AW1Ed.
Going to make some Hungarian Stew, biscuits and an unnamed dessert…..served with copious amounts of “manly man” fresh ground bean coffee.
We’ve been eating so well the past two months, we might never go back to the restaurant that we have been eating at for the past 8 years.
(Just kidding Becky, Shannon, and Tammy) (smile)
Thanks for the Paul Newman tip, Ed.
Will have to give it a whirl in the near future.
The Balsamic Vinaigrette goes especially well with piggy. Don’t know your AO, but marinated pork chops grilled over live coals…sorry. Had a moment there.
*grin*
Had everything planned for food prep/consumption. Then the power went out. Again.
Not that life doesn’t go on quite nicely without electricity around here. We have power line thieves working my neighborhood. We do NOT take that sorta thing kindly. When they did this yesterday, it took the power company almost 24 hours to find where the thieves had cut the line.
We are not amused. Now it’s time to get ready for an evening meeting. (Need to make a coupla stops along the way there.)
And I’m hungry.
How did they cut the line without getting zapped into the middle of next year?
The right PPE. We had insulated gloves, boots, and cutters rated up to 10K volts on our trucks. In the store room was PPE that could go to much higher voltage levels. The troops that worked on the sure nuff high lines had suits that you could attach to the live lines and the voltage would go thru the suit and continue down the line. Theft of copper phone cables and aluminum power lines got so bad a few years ago that the recyclers were required to verify where the scrap came from. Down here, Ma Bell and the power companies have their own in house recycling facilities now. Up to 10 years and a 100K USD fine for cutting a phone cable…Federal Prison.
And they’re doing this to get copper and aluminum? What a bunch of idiots? I hope they get zapped good and hard… in the rain… when there’s a lightning strike nearby….
Oh, it’s fairly common around here. And yes, seems like at least one thief is killed every year doing it. This one was behind a vacant commercial building in a well hidden spot behind a locked gate. Few good spots to see the line from the other side. Evidently the building owner’s alarm went off, and it took HIM a long time to find the breech.
We gripe all the time about the utility companies, but I must give them their due on this one. There were linemen everywhere trying to find the problem. Never saw so many power trucks. It looked like one of those convoys headed to a natural disaster.