Meatloaf Madness

Preheat oven to 400° Fahrenheit.

Put the ground beef in a huge bowl. (I have a giant restaurant-size salad bowl that I use.) Break the eggs and dump them in. Add the olive oil, the spaghetti sauce, the salt, pepper, basil, and the parmesan cheese and thoroughly combine. Add the oatmeal, and mix. Add the fried onions, pepper, tomatoes, zucchini, and shredded cheese and mix until all the ingredients are well distributed.

Select a large lasagna or roasting pan. Now, turn the meatloaf out into the pan and mold it into a loaf shape. Because this is a moist meatloaf, it will tend to spread out a little.

At this stage you have a choice. You can top this marvelous creation with spaghetti sauce (which is my fave), you can top it with ketchup (which my kids love), or you can leave it plain (which my husband prefers). I usually use sauce. Dump an entire jar of spaghetti sauce over the top of the meatloaf, making sure it is completely covered.

Bake the meatloaf until the internal temperature hits at least 165° Fahrenheit. This will take about 2 hours, but start checking it after 1 hour to be sure. (At this point in the baking, it will probably split in the middle a little. Don’t worry about this.) When it is done, remove it from the oven and let it sit for about 15 minutes to “set up.”

Cut into slices and serve with the side dish of your choice, or make it into hot meatloaf sandwiches!

TIPS:

The cheese and meat will create a great deal of grease as they cook. I usually drain the grease off after the first hour, and then again when it’s done cooking. If you use a roasting pan, a good tip is to place a large rack in the pan, covered with foil. Pierce it a couple of times. Place the meatloaf on that, and bake. The grease will pool into the bottom of the pan and away from the meatloaf.

If your family is not as meatloaf-crazy as mine is, you can actually make several meatloaves from this recipe and freeze them before baking or after. You can also halve the recipe. If you make the smaller loaves, bake them at 350° until they reach 165°. I also sometimes make “meatloaf muffins” in a regular-sized muffin tin! I bake them at 350° until they’re done (usually 20 minutes), cool them, and freeze them. They are great for quick meals, snacks, etc. You can also use this recipe for meatballs.