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Fried Meatloaf for Dinner

Ever since seeing the fried meatloaf on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, I’ve been wanting to make it.  Last night, I made it!

Mashed potatoes, fried meatloaf, gravy and chard from my garden.  Is that chard not beautiful?  OK . . I suppose only a gardener can see beauty in a serving of cooked chard.

And, we had salad made with a variety of lettuce from my garden, along with cutie orange slices, roasted cashews and almonds.  We love the Simply Dressed Pomegranate dressing from Marzetti.

And, yes . . I see that I need to scrub and bleach my grout or better yet, get new countertop or even better . . a new kitchen!

You would think that with the fresh veggies from the garden, that my blood would be thanking me instead of producing those bad numbers I keep getting!  🙂  Maybe it would be a bit more thankful if there wasn’t bacon grease in the chard and if the meatloaf wasn’t fried in butter.  Oh well . . I wanted a bowl of ice cream for dessert and I skipped that.

I wasn’t careful about measuring the ingredients for the meatloaf but I can tell you enough to where you can make it yourself.

I started out with a little over one pound each of ground turkey, ground pork and ground beef, which was the grass feed beef I got on sale last week.

For all the vegetables, I used the food processor to get them finely chopped . . almost ground.

I used 2 medium onions, 2 stalks celery, about 3/4 of one bell pepper, 3 cloves of garlic and 4 carrots.

I toasted four slices of bread and ran that through the food processor so I had bread crumbs, I slightly beat (with a fork) 3 eggs, and added salt and pepper.  Roughly, I’d say I added about 3 tsp. salt and probably a bit more black pepper.  It definitely wasn’t too salty and could have used a bit more salt.  Use your judgment about the salt and pepper.  I added probably 4 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce.

I used my hands to mix it all up.  Then, with the aid of my food scale, I divided it into 5 pieces, that were each a bit over 1 pound.  I shaped four of those each into a ball, wrapped each in plastic wrap and then vacuum sealed them and put them in the freezer so we have four more meat loaves waiting to be cooked.

For the one I was cooking last night, I shaped it into a loaf and baked it on a jelly roll pan.

Ugh!  Sorry about the blurry picture.  I could have made it shorter and thicker but I guess that would have taken longer to cook.  It wasn’t dry so I’d probably shape it the same way next time.  It was baked at 350º for about 40 – 45 minutes.  Then I took it out of the oven, placed it on a rack and let it cool completely.

You can see below about how thick I sliced the slices but you could slice it as thick as you wanted it.  I heated up about 3 T. butter til it was almost brown and then put the slices in, let them cook on one side til they were getting a crispy edge, then flipped them over and did the same thing with the other side.

From the approximately one pound loaf, we had plenty for dinner and enough for us to have meatloaf sandwiches for lunch Monday.  What’s in the pan below isn’t all of the loaf.  There were probably three more slices.

For the gravy, I cheated!  I used one packet of brown gravy mix and one packet of onion gravy mix — the kind you add one cup of water so since I was using two packets, I used two cups of water and then added a few more seasonings to the gravy.

Vince loved it . . even the gravy which I have to say wasn’t terrible.  He gave me his ultimate compliment . . “We surely couldn’t get a meal like this at a restaurant anywhere near here.”

I’m so thankful that I love to cook and enjoy doing it.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. I’m hoping you can do this with leftover meatloaf too. Good way to serve it a different way. We aren’t keen on it the second day but will only eat it if there is scalloped potatoes to go with it. 😉
    Hugs!!!!

    • It would be a great way to heat up leftover meatloaf. The recipes I use all seemed to have brown sugar or ketchup and that made them a bit sweet. I like my meatloaf to not be sweet so I liked this recipe but if you like your recipe, you can definitely fry it up.

  2. I missed that episode. I only like the outside crispy end piece and since there are only two ends and three of us, that really is a great idea.Ggoing to try it next time we have meatloaf, which may have to be this week now. I cook my meatloaf with bacon on top of it. That’s the way my Mom always made it, so I do it too.

  4. We love meatloaf at our house…. I never make it the same twice, since I usually just use what’s on hand… and what I remember to put in it. I would love this, my husband not so much. He leaves the very best parts… the brown crunchy parts, of food on his plate… plus he despises gravy. *L* I know… where did he come from?

  6. My aunt used to pan fry the whole loaf and made a tomato soup sauce with it. I tried to do it and the loaf broke up, I think I make it too moist.. .I don’t know what she added to the soup for the sauce. I love my meatloaf but won”t order it in a restaurant.

  7. duh, I never thought of using FRESH cuties! Last year I canned them with a simple syrup. I used them in my salads. they were so good, but didn’t last long enough, later in the season when the cuties get cheaper I plan on doing it again. In our newspaper today the Cutie brand has a coupon! However I still find the same brand a lot cheaper at Aldi’s vs Wally’s world. And who wouldn’t like to shop Aldi’s vs Wally???

  8. When I make meat loaf I always have to put a hardboiled egg in at one end for dad. Mom would always bury one or two of them in the meatloaf. Not sure if that was a PA Dutch thing or not. I was never crazy about it and Galen certainly isn’t so I put one in the end for dad. My meat loaf tends to be what ever is on hand although I do have a good recipe for one that is rolled up with slices of ham in the middle.

  9. My meatloaf “recipe” (never the same twice) has a lot more liquid. I put in some milk and some form of tomato sauce. Spaghetti sauce or chili sauce are my favorites. Something that has some spices in it – plain ketchup makes it dull according to the whole family.

  11. I’ve been wanting meatloaf lately but with no oven (that ever-pending kitchen remodel) can’t bake one. I’ve been thinking maybe I’ll try cooking one in a crockpot. I love leftover meatloaf cold in sandwiches with mayo, catsup or bbq sauce. I found a recipe a number of years ago that I absolutely love. It’s half ground pork, half ground beef. I forget all the ingredients offhand, except for the pickle – yep, says to mince gherkins (I grate them.), I remember the first time it made it though, it was way-y too salty so now only use about 1/3 the salt called for. Your recipe with all the veggies sounds really yummy as well.

  12. Oh, and I forgot to say, yes that chard is beautiful…I love chard with just a little S&P and butter.

  14. We love that show too. I have been dying to try that one too but I’m off beef to try and get my cholesterol under control . We eat a lot of chicken, turkey and lean pork. Sometimes fish but I don’t like fish that much. My cholesterol is way down but has a ways to go yet. I’m working on the triglycerides too. Good luck with your numbers.

  16. doesn’t it just make your heart sing when your hubby says things like that? even after all these years of marriage, i still get a good feeling when my hubby tells me he really liked dinner or it was the best he’s ever had.

  18. I am excited over the dressing. For years I have been buying pomegranite dressing from Wendys, it was unavailable anywhere else. Strawberry is the only thing they had on their website. Meatloaf looks good, but, the dressing is the best anywhere. Thanks!!!

  19. You made it! It looks like a winner. When I go to town, DH is going to wonder what I am doing buying turkey and pork when we have a freezer full of meat! LOL. I told him about this and he’ll want me to go to town when I tell him that you already made it and it got Vince’s seal of approval. Isn’t it nice when they do that? That happens here too. Sometimes we’re in town and we can never decide where to eat because nothing sounds good. I’m telling you – you need your own show.

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