Meatloaf Schmeatloaf, I LOVE this meatloaf!

Last night Beth and Kevin and the girls came out for dinner and to hang out and we had a great time with such wonderful down home food. We had meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy and canned corn topped off with a from scratch chocolate cake Beth and Kevin brought. Even though we live just 25 min away from each other we hadn't seen each other since the beginning of December. The girls just love coming over and playing with Katelynn and Katelynn is beginning to love the interaction too. Tara was doing a great job of teaching Katelynn how to crawl, which I have a video of but the camera battery is dead. So, it will have to wait.

Back to the meatloaf. So, for the past eight years Ben and I have been looking for a good recipe for meatloaf and I think that we have found it. Others have just been not so good. This is Paula Deen's Basic Meatloaf. There is even a video. Beth wanted the recipe so I thought I would share it here too just in case someone was in the same predicament we all were in with not so good meatloaves.


Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten
8 ounces canned diced tomatoes with juice
Minced Garlic (whatever you like)
1/2 cup quick-cooking oats or old fashioned

Topping:
1/3 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon prepared mustard

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Mix all meatloaf ingredients well and place in a baking dish. Shape into a loaf.

Topping:
Mix ingredients for topping and spread on loaf.

Bake for 1 hour. Meat Thermometer to 160 degrees F.

I hope that you all try it and enjoy it. It really is good.