Mom's Meatloaf with a twist!

So tonight was meatloaf night at the Kelsey/Stookey estate. :) For some reason ever since I bought eggs over the weekend I've been obsessed with making my mom's meatloaf. My mom's meatloaf was a favorite of me and my sisters growing up. When my sister and I were home over Christmas, we had meatloaf for our Christmas dinner (upon Megan's request) and I was reminded of how great it is! My mom's recipe is very simple, but I think that is what makes it so good, it is always very moist and I like the ketchup drizzled on top. Here is the recipe for mom's meatloaf:

1 lb. ground beef

1 egg

1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1/2 of small onion chopped or 1 tsp. dehydrated onion

salt and pepper

combine ingredients and form in to loaf. Place in either loaf pan, 9 x 13 pyrex baking dish or baking sheet. Make sure you spray cooking spray so it does not stick.

bake at 350 for 1 hour

My mom told me that the process and ingredients is not exact, it's a very organic process. If the meat seems dry, add another egg or ketchup. If it seems to wet, add more bread crumbs.

I decided to consult some other recipes on Food Networks web site and came across Mario Batali's recipe for meatloaf. I didn't follow either to a tee, but I took my mom's basic recipe and used Mario's for some spice ideas. I bought about 1.6 lbs of ground beef so I used:

1 egg,

about 1/2 cup of seasoned breadcrumbs,

1/2 onion finely diced

3 sun dried tomatoes finely diced

salt and pepper

a couple shakes of dried oregano

about a 1/2 tsp. of crushed red pepper flakes

about 3 tbsp. of ketchup

about 3 tbsp. of Olive oil
1 clove minced garlic

I mixed everything together but I think what is really important is to not over mix the ingredients. I formed it in to a loaf and put it in a greased baking dish and let it cook for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

While it was cooking it smelled amazing

and I could hear it sizzling and cooking while a did my exercise video (talk about motivation to work it out and get it done, with such great smells in the house).

When it was done and I was cutting pieces to serve, the meat loaf fell apart a bit and I'm not sure if it was because I didn't add enough bread crumbs or egg to hold it together, or if it was just super moist. It didn't really matter that it fell apart because it tasted amazing! It definitely tasted like my mom's meat loaf but some bites had a little kick because of the crushed red pepper and some bites were a little sweet from the sun dried tomato. With the meat loaf we made some green beans and seasoned them simply with salt and pepper and olive oil.

Overall I was really satisfied with my meat loaf. I can't wait for leftovers tomorrow!