Do you like meatloaf? It’s not one of Kent’s favorites, but for me it’s part of a cozy, satisfying “meat and potatoes” kind of meal. Not to mention that it’s full of nutrients, especially when you make it with part grass-fed ground beef and part ground beef heart! (Did I mention how easy it is to make?) Read about the many benefits of grass-fed beef.
Classic Meatloaf (with extra nutrition)
Be sure to look at some of the suggestions down in the comments.
Ingredients
- 1 pound grass fed ground beef with part ground beef heart (You really can’t taste anything different, honest! Read You CAN Eat Beef Heart!)
- 1 cup organic bread crumbs (non-organic have trans fats), or sometimes I’ll freeze the ends of the loaves of bread that no one wanted and crumble those up for bread crumbs.
- 1 egg + another egg yolk (eggs are SO good for you, any way you can get them!)
- 1/4 cup organic ketchup (I buy organic to avoid HFCS and GMOs)
- 1/4-1/2 medium organic onion, chopped small
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Sauce for the top – mix these together in a small bowl:
- 1/3 c. organic ketchup
- 2 teaspoons mustard
- 1 Tablespoon Rapadura sugar
Instructions
Mix everything together in a bowl with your hands and press into a bread pan. Bake until done in the middle, but be careful not to over-bake or it will be dry. I had some Crispy Potatoes in the oven, too, so I put it in for about 25 minutes on 450*. (You could also do about 30-35 minutes or so at 375* – just keep an eye on it.) When it’s about 10 minutes from being done, spread the sauce on top and bake the remaining time.
Note: I usually double this for our family of six and it’s just about right. You can either put it all in one pan for a taller meatloaf (but you’ll need to bake it a little longer at a lower temp), or I like to make two shorter loaves.
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photo: Mooshee85
Someone shared a great suggestion: freeze some in muffin cups for individual serving sizes to take with you for lunch or for a quick protein snack!
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I don’t see the need for bread at all. I find that the egg always binds it all together. I like to use 2 different kinds of mince e.g. lamb and pork or veal. I’m not big on beef mince. I always add grated zucchini and carrot – great way to hide vegies from the kids.
Also if I have some kidneys or heart or liver, I chop up real tiny and throw that in as well. Meat loaves are great places to hide good stuff 🙂
My meatloaf florentine is in the oven now! I add egg, organic crumbs, home made pesto sauce to the grass fed beef, and then half and form the loaf, top the first half with spinach and cheese, place the other half on top, pinch the sides closed and top with a half cup of homemade marinara sauce – cook for 45 mins at 350 and then add the other cup of sauce around the loaf and let cook for 10-15 mins until temp is 160. Cut and serve with the extra sauce! Delicious!
Youza that sounds amazing!!
Can you tell me what ketchup you use? (msg-free, of course!)
I just use any organic ketchup. 🙂
Kelly
Made this tonight with my FIRST ever order of local grass fed pastured beef and local free range eggs! NOM-NOM-NOM! Thanks for the recipe! <3
Naomi, I wish that was my meatloaf, but I forgot to take a picture AGAIN, so I found one online that was pretty close to how mine looks. 🙂
Rice is also a great add in for meatloaf. It takes on a lot of the flavor of the juices and keeps it moist.
I have made the Nourishing Traditions “spicy meatloaf” a couple times recently (without the heart, but will get some ground at WF and freeze it for future!!!) and my picky 4-year-old daughter loves the meatloaf which I’m ecstatic about. NT recipe also called for 1/2 cup of cream per 1# ground beef. I made the breadcrumbs by drying out a slice of real sourdough and/or sprouted grain bread in the oven and then processing. I need to start doubling the recipe because meatloaf is such great leftovers.
I wonder why you couldn’t process liver smooth and add it to the meatloaf?
Oh, and by the way Kelly, that is a beautiful picture of your meatloaf! All up close and personal, gorgeous – makes me want to have a slice right now. I’ll bet there’ll be meat loaves cooking all over the country tonight!
My favorite meat loaf recipe of all time has always been the “Prize-winning Meatloaf” recipe on the Quaker Oats box. My mother made it and I make it. It’s quite similar to your recipe, just uses oats instead of bread crumbs. I don’t grind the oats, just leave them whole. You can’t tell it’s in there, but it makes a moist loaf. I like the idea of using ground mushrooms, I’ll have to try it next time, since I’ve recently begun eating low-carb. I just now thought about eggplant too; it always seems to take on the flavor of whatever it’s cooked with. Has anyone tried that?
Yeah, let the kids find out when they ask you to copy their favorite recipes when they go off to college…..hehehe….
Well, actually, they will probably figure it out when they are a little older and helping me cook dinner. By then, maybe they will be a little more sold on the way we eat and cook compared to the majority of Americans….:)
Meg, you can ask the butcher there, I’ll bet he would grind it for you. My farmer just offers that in his line-up (the 3/4 ground beef, 1/4 heart).
Anita, you made me laugh – it’s funny how odd we all are to the rest of the world, eh?! 🙂 Love the kefir idea, too!
Raine, you could use a wooden spoon, too! That used to gross me out, too, but now I think it’s kinda fun. Or just go for the gloves like Sue does.
V-flame – HECK NO I don’t tell the kids there’s beef heart in there!!!
We love meatloaf. I think I’ll ask my beef “supplier” if I could get some ground organs. Now she’ll know I’m crazy, not just wonder about it!
I always add a palm full of ground flax into our mix. We use tomato paste instead of ketch-up, homemade sour dough bread crumbs, and kefer milk or bone stock for the liquid. For veggies…spinach…zucchinni…carrots or a combo.
Raine: I bought food service plastic gloves (they come in a box of like 500!) and I use those when I mix my meatloaf (and for other things, too, of course!)
Im making meatloaf tonight actually and i like to put about half a cup of milk (raw of course, but its getting cooked, so i guess it doesnt matter that much) in there too.
I may try to add some chicken liver to it tonight tho.
Hubby LOVES my meatloaf and its easy to cook after a long day at work.
I love meatloaf and have never made it at home before – but that’s about to change. I’m going to try your recipe before the week’s out. I have cooked a lot of red meat, steak, and ground beef, I’m just always a bit turned off by having to mix the meat with my hands, for some reason. I’ll also try the beef heart too, I know it’s very nutritious.
On my site today, I have a new recipe for a skillet dish with beef (steak or ground beef), potatoes, and bacon. It’s divine!
Raine Saunders
I grew up vegetarian/vegan, and meatloaf was one of the first things I made when I began cooking meat. We love it around here, and I need to make it more often – I’m so clueless about organ meats… would I be able to have the butcher grind it for me at Whole Foods? I’m totally in the camp of “If I see a whole heart…!!” 🙂
Meg
My meat grinder bit the dust last year, so I don’t have access anymore to things like ground heart or ground liver! By the way, if you grind your own, freezing the meat for a half hour or so makes the grinding go much more quickly.
A tip on using oats: if you use soaked oats, you can skip the liquid. Eggs also provide body, so you might want to keep those in, but you can skip the ketchup and go for tomato paste instead.
We don’t have meatloaf very often because it’s so expensive. The expense comes from how much of it I have to make to feed us 7! The last two-pound meatloaf I made had no leftovers for sandwiches the next day. We love our meatloaf!
Local Nourishment
great idea on the potato, my husband is gluten free at the moment, I have been using ground up oats………….I havent done alot of soaking yet so they are unsoaked.
I think I’m going to make this this week. Sounds delicious! I like the idea of using shredded potatoes instead of bread crumbs (having to avoid gluten right now) and of course this sounds like a great use for the pastured bacon in my freezer. The bacon seems to help keep the fat content up and everything moist. Yum!
Julie
My favorite comfort food is chicken and whole wheat dumplings. Meatloaf is a good one too but hubster is allergic to beef- I make a tarragon chicken loaf with apples that is really good… Do you tell the kids that they are eating Beef Heart? And I’m curious too if anyne has added chicken livers and stuff to their poultry loaves?? I also love salmon loaf!
vehementflame
You guys are sooooooooooo awesome!! These are such great ideas!!! Love the no-carb ideas, the veggie ideas, the bacon on top idea or using some sausage, Mmmmmm, Kent’s just going to have to eat it again soon, because it reeeally sounds good right now. I’m not sure what I did before I had all of you to give me fun new things to try!
Beth, trust me on the beef heart! There isn’t anyone with a more immature, picky palate than mine, and if I can do it, YOU can do it! There is NO taste difference, and if your farmer offers it, it’s ground right up and doesn’t LOOK any different from the burger, either, and you’re getting some organ meats in your diet! (If I had to see a whole heart or anything gross like that I probably couldn’t do it…!)
Teena, ground turkey would probably be OK, but why not use beef? Just curious. If you get it from a good source, it’s so nutritious. 🙂
Jeanne, YES! Use those goodies, they’re full of nutrients, great idea! The fam would never know, either.
My mom once tried a recipe that left out the bread crumbs and used shredded potatoes instead. It was wonderful!
Jendeis
Hmmm, meatloaf hasn’t been under my radar lately. Think I may have to make this! 🙂
Kelly,
How perfect-we’re having meatload tonight! I never use a recipe, but thanks to you I can see how I can make it better. I’m not ready for the beef heart, but maybe some day :). I’m using pork sausage today so we’ll see how it goes.
Beth
I make our meatloaf with the basic 1/2 ground beef 1/2 ground pork, add basil, parcely, oregano and about a handful each of finely diced and sauted carrots, celery and onions, then I’ll add the egg and the bread crumbs sometimes oatmeal but the kicker for us is that I add bacon strips on top of the ketchup sauce. I know its bad but I try to find the healthiest kind. My family loves meatloaf this way and we never have left overs.
I, too, use finely shredded veggies like those listed above, but also add finely chopped spinach. (And when they’re finely chopped, my picky vegetable eaters don’t notice!) I have used oats ground to meal consistency in place of bread crumbs (but they aren’t soaked). I cook mine at 350 for an hour. I like that I can make this up to a day ahead and pop it in the fridge until I am ready to bake it! Also, I have a recipe that calls for barbeque sauce mixed in and on top. I make my own sauce with ketchup, mustard, honey, vinegar, and worchestershire sauce. Yum!
Thanks, Kelly, for reminding all of us that today’s meatloaf is not like our grandmothers’ spongy, dry meatloaf!! Many people don’t try it these days because of their memories from childhood. My kids actually like meatloaf, and like Kelly, we are getting to the point of needing to double the recipes!
Has anyone tried use the “goodies” from the bag in organic chickens
in place of the beef heart? I usually just add the “goodies” to my stock,
but as I read this post I wonder if they could be chopped up and added to ground beef in recipes.
I don’t use bread crumbs either. I just add an extra egg. I also chop up lots of different veggies with my chopper so they’re real tiny. Carrots, celery, onions, squash, etc. This way we’re getting more veggies without actually having to eat a vegetable side. When you use colorful veggies it’s kind of like confetti in the meatloaf!
That looks really delicious! I actually have meatloaf on the menu this week too 🙂
Amanda
I’ve used ground turkey for meatloaf in the past. It doesn’t have the flavor or fat of beef, so you might need extra herbs/spices.
I don’t use bread crumbs for meatloaf anymore. I use mushrooms that have been ground up in my cuisinart. I like the flavor, which is essentially unchanged, and the lack of bread since I’m a low-carber at heart.
Thanks for the great recipies. I’ve never been much of a cook but since our food conversion we cook at home a lot. Having tried and true recipies to look at here has been helpful. Do you think ground turkey could be used instead of beef? We switched to organic ketchup too, the kids didn’t even notice.