My sister is NOT a cook, she would quickly agree. However, she does make an excellent meatloaf. Since she's gone for another 9 months, asking her to make dinner is a little out of the question. So, in her honor I attempted to make her famous meatloaf (which by the way she has no way of making a recipe because she "eyeballs it") and added the things she does... this time measuring in hopes that it could be replicated. It's pretty simple, the veggie chopping is time consuming, but I think a food processor would help. I used a chop-it once, but I hate the noise, and the mess of cleaning it up.... to each their own :)
It's veggie because we try to chop up as many veggies/color into it to punch up the health factor.. it is meatloaf after all... and to make it a little more exciting than a plain old chunk of beef. If, as you are chopping you think, "this is too many veggies" don't worry, it's not. If you don't want to add a bunch of bell pepper you can add whatever you have on hand, and I'm sure it would come out just as great.

What you will need:

1lb of ground beef
various colors of bell pepper (if you only have one just use that.. no sense it making it difficult, also I use about 1/2 of each bell pepper giving you approx. 1/2 cup of EACH: red, green, orange)
1/3 cup chopped onion
1 small carrot chopped
1 celery stalk chopped
1-2 jalapeños chopped (this depends on your heat-o-meter, if the jalapeño has brown/tan striations on the outside, chances are its on the spicy side... no striations generally means it's not very spicy- test it's hotness by cutting it open and licking it, if your tongue stays zinged ya know it's hot)
1/3 cup bread crumbs
1 egg beaten
2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
3 tablespoons BBQ sauce
3 tablespoons of ketchup
3/4 tablespoon Lawry's meat seasoning (or any meat seasoning you have on hand)
 1 package of bacon (you won't use it all, it depends on the size of your loaf)
1/3 cup chopped pepper jack cheese chopped into small cubes.

Preheat your oven to 375

In a large mixing bowl add beef, meat seasoning, beaten egg, bread crumbs, ALL chopped veggies (bell peppers, carrot, celery, jalapeño, onion), worcestershire sauce, bbq sauce, ketchup. Mix so that everything is evenly spread out, just don't over work the meat to mix, or it will turn out tough.

I used a large baking dish (13x9), lined it with foil for easy clean up, placed meat in and then "sprinkled" cubes on top of the loaf-pushing cheese in with my palm, a few squirts of ketchup and then placed uncooked bacon on top, covering the loaf, and for good measure added a bit of ketchup again.

Cover with foil and into the oven for 40 mins. Then uncover it, turn up head to 425 for bacon to brown/until the loaf has cooked through. I highly recommend doing a "thinner" loaf. I made mine about an inch and a half thick. Only because cook time is faster.  :)


Pair it with some mashed potatoes and you've got yourself a fantastic meal... well if you like meatloaf. :)