Bacon-topped Meatloaf

I hated meatloaf as a child.  It just seemed "icky".  I don't know what was wrong with my taste buds as a child.  They were whacked!

Now, I love meatloaf!  I also love bacon and have seen pictures of many things wrapped in bacon, including a meatloaf or two.

I planned meatloaf for dinner this week and had a few strips of bacon in the fridge... I decided to give it a try!

I made my standard meatloaf recipe and then, attempted a bacon lattice on top.  (If I do it again, I would go with thin bacon - I like crispy bacon and this thick bacon did not crisp up very much and the bacon overwhelmed the taste of the meatloaf).

My husband asked if I took pictures...and I said, yes, I had taken pictures.  He felt it was blog worthy so I'll post

Bacon-topped Meatloaf
Printable Recipe Here

Ingredients:

1/2 cup seasoned croutons - crushed

1/2 cup milk or half and half (may need more - adjust as needed)

1/2 large red onion, small diced 

1/4 large red bell pepper, small diced (remove seeds and any white on the inside)

3 to 4 cloves crushed garlic (grind to paste with kosher salt or use a garlic press)

2 large eggs

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 tsp yellow mustard

2 tsp Worstershire sauce

2 to 4 tbsp catsup

1 heaping teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1 1/2 pounds ground beef (I used 90% lean)

Extra catsup for top of meatloaf before bacon

7 slices sliced bacon

(I would use thin sliced if I was doing it again - the thick bacon

was too thick to get "crispy", which is how I imagined this topping)

Method:

Cover a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and set aside.

In a large, wide-mouth mixing bowl, combine crushed croutons with milk or half and half.  Add more if it sucks it all up and doesn't look mushy.  It should look gloppy, similar to consistency of oatmeal.

Prep the rest of the vegetables while the crumbs are soaking.  Add everything except the ground beef and bacon to the saturated crumb mixture.  Stir until well combined.  

Add ground beef and combine thoroughly, using your hands.  If it needs more liquid to hold shape, add more catsup.  You can check for the correct consistency by making a small meatball with your hand.  Gently begin to shape into a mound while still in the bowl.  When it is holding together well, gently slide it onto the prepared baking sheet (using the large wide-mouthed bowl helps with that).  Pat the loaf to your liking (I like mine more flat than a traditional loaf - the cooking is more even and you don't end up with a pink middle).  With the side of your hand, push down in the center to form a shallow trough; add catsup to the indented area.

Use the bacon to make a lattice top for the meatloaf.  If you don't know how to do a lattice - it is easily found on Google or YouTube.  I have also seen bacon added by just laying strips across the loaf.  Make yourself happy - do it your way!  Tuck all of the bacon ends under the meatloaf.  I thought the lattice looked pretty.

Place in refrigerator to firm up for at least 30 minutes while you preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Remove meatloaf from fridge and place in middle rack of oven.  Bake for 30 minutes and turn the meatloaf.  Bake another 20 to 30 minutes.  Meat thermometer should read at least 160 degrees and bacon should be crispy.  In the attempt to get my bacon crispy, the internal temp was 170.  Fortunately, all that bacon fat kept everything nice and moist. 

This is AFTER I drained the grease - bacon makes a lot of grease.

Carefully drain the grease and allow to rest for 5 to 10 minutes after removing from oven before sliding it onto a cutting board using two large spatulas.  

I used two fish-turning spatulas to move the meatloaf intact
onto a cutting board

Use a serrated knife for slicing through the bacon without crushing the meatloaf.   

Everyone has their own meatloaf recipe - some cook the veggies in advance, some like a bit of crunch, some like it packed and tight for slicing.  I like it a little more moist and on the looser edge of things.  Adding bacon - not bad!  I won't do it every time, but I will do it from time to time!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

Berries and Almonds Cake Mix Muffins

It is a rainy Saturday morning here on the Texas Gulf Coast.  A light chop on the bay, the palm trees slightly agitated...ahhh, a day to stay inside all cozy and warm (well, it's not really cold outside, but still not a beach day!)

I've been up since 6:30...I accidentally out of ingrained habit, turned on my alarm clock as I slid into bed last night.  What a dummy!  It went off at 6:10 and try as I might, sweet dreams could not lure my brain back.  I was wide awake and gave in after 20 minutes of flopping around (and I could tell from the interrupted soft snores that I was disturbing my husband).  So, I hopped up and slid through my first cup of coffee with ease, caught up on some blog reading, watched a couple of DVR'd shows I know my husband despises and thought, around 9:30, that I heard activity in the back two rooms.  I must have been hallucinating because it is now 10:00 and not a creature is stirring...except me!

I decided I would bake some muffins for breakfast to go with some of our favorite Applewood Smoked bacon we'd picked up at Sam's Club before Thanksgiving.  It was a lot of bacon so it's been parked in the freezer...and I took it down this week, knowing Mr. Flip Flop would enjoy some this week-end.

I often have muffin mixes and I can sure make them from scratch, but I wondered if I could use one of my almost expired cake mixes to make muffins?  (the more I bake the less mixes I use, but I keep them on hand "in case")  A short Google away, I was fixed up with some really basic directions from eHow.com and thought about what I had in the cupboards and freezer to kick it up a notch or 3.

The teen has been learning to shop and keep a food budget for the past year or so (he's doing great) and he'd bought some blueberries for pancakes a couple of weeks ago.  He made them and still had half of the berries leftover.  I showed him how to spread them on a baking sheet, freeze them, and store them in a small Ziploc for future use.  These little tricks are things I hope he takes with him and will help him stretch his food dollars as he moves into adulthood.  So, when I was perusing the freezer, I thought I'd grab those out and make some blueberry muffins.

I only ended up with 3/4+ cup of berries so I decided to make half plain blueberry muffins - for the teen - and add some sliced almonds and dried cranberries to the other half of the mixture for me and the Dad.  Here's the recipe.

BERRIES AND ALMONDS CAKE MIX MUFFINS
Adapted from eHow.com

Ingredients:

1 2-layer boxed cake mix (I used a Betty Crocker Super Moist Golden Vanilla mix)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon water
3 eggs
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup frozen blueberries

Additional ingredients for 6 of the muffins:
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup sliced natural raw almonds

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Makes 12 regular size muffins.  Either lightly grease and flour your pan, spray with Baker's Joy or similar product, or line with paper muffin cups.

In bowl of a stand mixer, with paddle attachment, mix the cake mix, oil, water, eggs, and cinnamon.

Batter will be thick - like peanut butter.  Scrape bowl well.

Gently stir in blueberries.

I had prepared a muffin pan with 6 liners of one color and 6 liners of another color so there would be no question of which ones did not have nuts ('cause the teen would have not been happy to bite into one of our muffins!)

Using a large cookie scoop, place one scoop of batter into each of the 6 muffin cups.

Add the cranberries and almonds to the rest of the batter and stir gently to incorporate.  Work quickly, if the blueberries thaw, they start to break up (I realized that when I squished one).

Using a large cookie scoop, place a generous scoop of batter into the remaining 6 muffin cups.

Bake 30-32 minutes in middle rack position of your oven.  Remove from oven and place on rack to cool until you can handle them. 

Serve with butter or just by themselves!

They were sweetly delicious - the nuts and berries a perfect complement to the mild cinnamon and vanilla flavors.  YUM...I will definitely make these again.  What a great way to use up some of my mixes that approach their maturity!

OVEN COOKED BACON

Line your baking sheet (must use the kind with edges) with foil for easier clean up.
Place your bacon on the baking sheet.
Place baking sheet in a cold oven, close door, turn oven on to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Leave it alone.  Check on it at 15 minutes - may take up to 20 minutes or longer to cook it to your preferred level of crispiness - depends on the thickness of your bacon as well!  My bacon was really thick.  I flipped it at the 20 minute mark and baked it 10 more minutes total... 30 minutes of cooking required for the thick sliced bacon.  My family likes it not crispy.  I like it very crispy.  So, I took theirs out a little sooner than mine.  We do what we must.

When done, remove from oven and transfer bacon to another baking sheet lined with paper toweling.

Allow the greasy bacon pan to sit until bacon grease starts solidifying and then you can just roll it up and throw it away.  Easiest bacon clean up ever.

Hope you are having a great week-end wherever you are.  I sure hope those dudes get up soon.  I may have to eat without them!  It's 10 freaking 30 guys.  Roll yourselves out.  Maybe I'll open the bedroom doors so the aroma of bacon and muffins can waft their way.
 

 BON APPETIT, Y'ALL!!!

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