No Time Machine Necessary. Meat Loaf Rocks 2012.

Posted by Michael on Nov 9, 2012 in Recipes | 0 comments

If you’ve been kicking around the Food Funk global scene for a while, you know that my team is a huge fan of the classics.

We love our burgers, our spaghetti’s, our pizza pies and we love us some meat loaf.

This classic, made popular in the 1950s by housewives while the Don Drapers of the world “worked” at the “office” is still a popular menu item in American and Canadian households. It’s simple, it’s cheap and it satisfies that “oh man I need to eat a lot of meat this instant” craving.

Sadly though, too many people are hooked on the classic method of preparing the loaf, which involves use of horrible things such as packets of dried onion soup mix or some other processed packet.  There’s no need for that stuff and your body will be happy to do without the ungodly amounts of salt and other chemicals those things are packed with.

Nope, this time, we make a proper loaf using real food ingredients.  Plus some ketchup.

Give this recipe a try and you’ll see it’s just as easy as the processed-packet version anyway.  And like the classic, I like the topping of ketchup, mustard and brown sugar. Serve with some potatoes and steamed veggies and party like it’s 1959 Don Draper!

Meat Loaf (it’s a working title for now)

1 cup bread crumbs or panko

1 egg

1/3 cup or so finely chopped sweet onion

1 or 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced

Good pinch each of dried thyme, parsley and oregano

Several dashes of worcestershire sauce

Good pinch of salt and several grinds of black pepper

1.5 lbs Lean or extra lean ground beef

1/3 cup ketchup

2 tablespoons mustard

2 tablespoons brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  In a bowl, mix together everything but the beef. Form a rock band called “Everything But the Beef”. Then, add the beef and use a mixing spoon, or better yet, your hands, to mix the beef with the other ingredients very thoroughly.  Add the mixture to a pre-greased, non-stick loaf pan. Mix together the ketchup, mustard and brown sugar in a bowl then spoon that on top of the meat loaf.  Bake for one hour.  Let cool for 10-15 minutes then slice and serve.

Essential for Leftovers: The meat loaf sandwich. Place slices of leftover meat loaf on a hoagie bun, top with leftover pizza or pasta sauce and some mozzarella cheese. Bake in the oven at 425 until the cheese just starts to brown.