Brown Sugar Meat Loaf

Meat loaf is one of "those" dishes. Some people (pretty sure my sister is one of them) hate it...and others find it to be great comfort food. I've never made it until recently, mostly because Mom never had a recipe to give me, and I'm unlikely to venture something without a recipe. I can't just throw something together like some people can.

But this year I've started reading the Organizing Junkie blog (link on left) and every Monday, she does "Menu Planning Monday." She shares her food plans for the week (including links to recipes) and other readers do the same. So from that adventure...I found this recipe. The original recipe came from allrecipes.com but I've tweaked it a bit to suit my purposes.

Absolutely fell in love with it the first time I made it. It's a good warm winter food. It also warms over well, which I loved. I've been eating it with a side of a baked potato...and when I served it to company, I also made macaroni and cheese to go with it.

The Recipe:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup ketchup
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 small onion, chopped
3/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs

Pat brown sugar onto bottom of greased loaf pan. Spread ketchup over the sugar. In a bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients until well mixed and press into pan over sugar and ketchup. Bake for an hour at 350.

As usual, I used the dried chopped onion, and saved myself some time. I don't often bother with what kind of beef I get, but for this, I do try to get a leaner cut so I don't have so much grease to contend with at the end. And my bread crumbs were Italian - which gave it great flavor.
I just press the brown sugar into the pan (make sure you spray it well first!) My loaf pan angles in at the bottom, so the sugar layer is pretty thick.

Don't tell...I didn't actually measure the ketchup. I just sort of drizzled it over the brown sugar until it looked like 1/2 cup. (Tsk tsk. Mrs. Lee would not be proud.)

Dump everything else in the bowl! Doesn't get much easier than that!

I really don't like gooey messes on my hands, so I stick my hands inside plastic baggies to mix it up.

I promise it tastes much better than it looks at this stage. Make sure you mix it well so all the onion doesn't end up in one spot!

I just toss it in on top of the sugar and ketchup - kind of by the lump-ful....

...and then I press it down so it's even around the edges. Stick it in the oven and bake! (Side note - the first time I made this, I put it in the oven before I went to work out and when I got home, it was ready to exit the oven. PERFECT TIMING!!!)

Ta DAAAA!! I didn't take a picture of this step because it's nasty, but I just scoop out the extra grease from the top and put it on a Styrofoam plate. I let it harden up and then throw it away.

Plate...and serve!!!

I hope you can enjoy it on these frigid winter days!!