I guess I should tell the story of how my recipe came to be. Many years ago, when Brian & I were still newlyweds, he had been laid off, and me being without driver's license, had no way of getting to & from a job, had I been able to find one. One day, during this time of "you & I against the world," I was blissfully ignorant of just how tight our money was at the time. Being a newly wed at the time helped immensely...looking back now, I don't know why I wasn't more stressed out. But I digress...back to my recipe. Brian had mentioned that he was in the mood for meat loaf, and I decided that I would deliver on his request. However, when it came to having all the ingredients, I was just a few short...well, actually, short just one ingredient...
ketchup!! However, I had some steak sauce, some Italian dressing, an egg, & some saltines. I could crush the saltines use as bread crumbs, but what to use in place of ketchup?!? At first, I added the steak sauce...I got about 1 teaspoon from the bottle. Yup...it was now empty as well. That's where the Italian dressing came into play. The only other condiment that I had in the fridge was Miracle Whip, and well, EWWW...that was not going into a meatloaf. So I added all the ingredients I had: hamburger, 1 egg, steak sauce, Italian dressing, crushed saltines, salt & pepper. I mixed them all up and formed them into a nice loaf, and baked it. I was nervous when I served my husband his plate of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, & green beans that evening, but I didn't say a word about what I used in the recipe. He went on and on and on about how good it was, how moist it was, and how it didn't have the "sweet" taste to it..."like my mom's." So ever since then I've made it that way, however, over the last 17 or so years, I've tweaked it here and there, and I do add a small squirt of ketchup to it now as well. But here is the recipe anyway. And just for the record...I don't really measure anything when I make it.
1-1.5lbs. lean ground beef
1 lg. egg
a squirt of Italian dressing
a squirt of ketchup
a squirt of steak sauce
1 tsp. Emeril's Original Essence (or just add salt & pepper)
bread crumbs (enough to bind it all together and form a loaf)
Mix all the ingredients together and form into a loaf shape. Place in a loaf pan, that's been sprayed with cooking spray, and bake for 45-60 minutes @ 375*. I usually serve with mashed potatoes, & corn; one of Brian's favorite meals.
