Sweet And Sour Meatloaf

As you can tell I didn't take much time trying to stage the picture for my meatloaf.
It's meatloaf for gosh sake.
A comforting, belly pleasing, mouth watering meatloaf!

Not an ordinary old fashioned meatloaf however, this is one of my favorites that Mom makes and of course handed down the recipe to her terrific daughter, ME ME ME!!!!!!
Haha Mom, if you happen to see this, I know you are agreeing completely.

This meatloaf has a terrific, what I call gravy as the topping, which is thinner than some other meatloaf toppings and overflows and bakes all over the meatloaf.
The gravy, sauce or topping which ever you choose to call it, makes this meatloaf what it is.
Sweet & Sour!

The loaf itself is filled with ground beef and lots of aromatics like onion and bell peppers which makes it really moist.This meatloaf has no egg so it does not slice like some of the others.Trust me you will not care if you dont get a perfect slice, cause it's all about the flavor with this one.

I am posting the original recipe for the meatloaf, and you will notice it calls for 1 and 1/2 pound ground beef.Mom and I like to use 1 pound of beef or venison and 1/2 pound of country breakfast sausage, but it's all in what you like.Of course if you don't do beef or pork at all, ground turkey or chicken can be substituted.It will not be as moist, but still very tasty.

I have been trying to add a few more veggies to my diet lately so I really socked the veggie to the one I made last night.

The recipe calls for onion, celery and peppers, but I also added diced radish and grated carrot.The oatmeal covered up the biggest part of my peppers and onions in the picture.
For those of you with a good eye, you may notice the recipe calls for tomato sauce and I had to use ketchup because I had no sauce in the house.This substitution works fine.

It all really made for a pretty meatloaf.I did have my peppers and celery chopped a little large due to being in a hurry......OK maybe it was being lazy.
Just make sure to chop them a little smaller than I did.If you dont, the biggest problem will come with the celery.It if it is not chopped small enough it will still be crunchy.
Most seasoned cooks know you don't have to bake meatloaf in a loaf pan and you can simply shape it like a loaf, in a baking dish and it works just fine.
I like to make a small indention down the middle of my loaf so it does not puff up in the middle while cooking.This also helps to hold the gravy topping for this recipe since it is thinner, and trust me you will want to spoon the extra gravy over your portion of meatloaf, It's that good.
Good luck!



Jodies Kitchen Sweet & Sour Meatloaf
Loaf
1 and 1/2 pound ground beef
1 cup old fashioned oatmeal (uncooked)
1 medium onion (chopped)
1/2 bell pepper (chopped)
1/2 cup diced celery
1 and 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup tomato sauce
Topping
1/2 cup tomato sauce
2 tablespoons prepared yellow mustard
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup water.
Preheat oven to 350F. Combine all loaf ingredients together and add to a loaf pan or baking dish.
Bake for about 1 hour covered with foil that is vented by leaving one small corner open to let steam escape.Mix all topping ingredients together while waiting for loaf to cook.Once loaf has cooked for one hour, pour off any grease you may have, then pour topping over loaf.Place back in oven UNCOVERED and bake about 15 to 20 more minutes until sauce has thicken slightly.