Super Duper Easy Peasy Meatloaf

What's this? A recipe? No... could it be?

Yes. It is.

Now that I'm getting some energy back, I thought I'd start posting recipes again. I love reading recipes from other peoples' blogs. It inspires me to cook. However, I'm still the pregnant, working mom of a toddler, so I don't have a lot of time to make fancy schmancy, elaborate meals. Therefore, the recipes you will see me post over the next few months (years?) will be easy recipes with common ingredients. Unless I get really ambitious, which I doubt will happen, so don't worry.

This recipe doesn't have pictures. Don't pretend you aren't disappointed. I know you are. But fear not, my next recipe will. Cross my heart and hope to die.

The first recipe I want to share is my own meatloaf recipe. Yep, I made it up myself. Growing up, my mom never made meatloaf the same way twice (I always loved it though!), so she didn't really have a recipe. When I put my big girl panties on and was ready to cook real meals for my hubby and myself, I looked up several meatloaf recipes online, but was never really in love with any of them. So I took bits and pieces from each recipe and came up with one myself. I think I hit the jackpot! So here it is...

Please keep in mind, this is kind of a big recipe. I like to make it big because I love meatloaf leftovers. It might be kind of hard to cut this in half because of the box of stuffing mix, but if you don't mind having half a box of it leftover, it is doable.

What you will need:
2 lbs of ground beef
1 box stuffing mix (I usually use chicken, you can use whatever kind you like)
1/2 cup ketchup
1/3 cup milk
2 eggs

Here's the super duper easy peasy part. You simply smush all the ingredients together with your hands and keep smushing until it's all evenly mixed. Then form it into a loaf with your hands and plop it into a baking dish. I like to squirt some extra ketchup on the top before I pop it in the oven. Some people also like to top their meatloaf with a little brown sugar, but I think that makes it too sweet, so I don't. Now, you could use a loaf pan if you want, but I wouldn't. When you use a loaf pan, the grease and fat have nowhere to go, so it stays in the meatloaf. If you use a baking dish, the grease oozes out of the meatloaf into the baking dish. So it's actually healthier if you use a baking dish and leave the loaf pans for banana bread.

Then you bake it in a 350 degree oven for about an hour. After an hour, cut into it and check to make sure it's done. If it's still pink, just put it back in for 10 minute increments until it's not pink in the middle anymore.

Or... you could freeze it. I love making two batches at a time, cooking one for supper, and then freezing the other for a quick meal later. After you form it into a loaf, just wrap it in a couple layers of tin foil, seal it in a freezer bag, and toss it in the freezer. If you freeze it, make sure you thaw it first before you cook it or else it will take way, way longer to bake.

And that's it! Easy, right? This meatloaf is pretty hard to screw up.

EDIT: I made meatloaf earlier this week, and I took some pictures of the finished product before and after baking just so I could add them to this post. (That's me - always thinking about you guys).