For those of you only with cafeteria meatloaf experiences... I am sorry for the loss. Meatloaf is one if those meals that if done well, it can be delicious! But it often gets a bad rep.
Since moving to Zambia, I had only used ground beef to make meat sauce for pasta (I know, boring) so I decided to switch it up and make meatloaf! I actually had never made meatloaf, but I grew up having it and it was always flavored deliciously. I looked over a few recipes and mainly found the ingredients to be ground beef, salt, pepper, one other miscellaneous seasoning, onion and egg.... so I decided to beef it up a little!
Ingredients: Ground beef (1 1/2 pounds) 1 slice of bread 1 egg 1 onion 2 green peppers (or 1 large one...USA) 2-3 garlic cloves 1/3 cup ketchup About a tablespoon of each spice - Salt Black pepper Cumin Mixed herb (Italian) seasonings
*I might have added some other seasonings that sounded good... but can't remember which ones for sure*
I believe the most distinguishing part of this meatloaf is the green pepper, cumin, and garlic.
Topping sauce: 1/2 cup Ketchup 1/4 Sugar 1/4 White vinegar
Directions: Chop the onion, green peppers and the bread into small cubes. Mince the garlic. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix! Place in bread pan and pour sauce on top. (We saved some to add later) Cook for 1 hour or until done at 350F.
While the meatloaf was cooking, I whipped up some mashed potatoes for the side!
Garlic mashed potatoes
Ingredients: 6 potatoes 2-3 garlic cloves Salt Pepper Butter Milk Sour cream (optional)
Directions: Peel and cut the potatoes in halves or thirds. Boil with a little salt until very soft, drain water. Place butter (about 3/4 cup) and minced garlic in bowl and pour the steaming potatoes over the butter so it melts. Begin to mash the potatoes. (We don't have a potato masher or electric whisk so I just used a fork and whisk) Add milk and sour cream until you have the right consistency. Salt and pepper to taste!
We didn't use sour cream since we didn't have it on hand and I hate to say it, but we didn't use real butter, though the outcome was still marvelous!
We used the extra gravy from the meatloaf - if you're one to like gravy with potatoes.