Mystery Meatloaf Recipe

Turkey meatloaf dinner

MYSTERY MEATLOAF Recipe by Janet Chester Bly

When my sons asked me, “What’s for dinner?”, they gave me that glazed look when I said, “Meatloaf.”  That’s not because they wouldn’t eat it.  It’s because it’s never the same.  They have no idea what it will look like or taste like.

Below is the basic recipe with some of my variations included.  There’s plenty more.  I’ve even added potato chips or black or green olives or bell peppers and cheese or Atkins low-carb hot cereal (when I was doing that diet), as well as such basics for any creative recipe creativity — cream of mushroom soup.  No matter what I do to it, there’s never any left over.

I did notice that my grandaughter, Miranda, announced one time, “Grandma, I don’t do meatloaf.”  I’m sure it had nothing to do with MY meatloaf.  After all, it’s always a mystery.

MYSTERY MEATLOAF

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds ground meat (beef, buffalo, bison, elk, bear, turkey—your choice)
• 2 eggs
• 1 ½ cups bread crumbs (or oatmeal or cracker crumbs or crushed tortilla chips)
• ¾ cup ketchup (or tomato sauce or spaghetti sauce or V-8 juice or salsa)
• 1 tsp. Accent (or if you’re allergic to MSG, try garlic powder, seasoned salt, etc.)
• ½ cup warm water (or meat broth or leftover tea)
• 1 pkg. onion soup mix (or a handful of dried onion or vegetable soup mix or dry Italian dressing mix or taco filling mix)
• 1 qt. milk

Directions:

Beat all ingredients thoroughly with wooden spoon or mash with hands or pound together with meat masher.  Divide into two loaf pans.  May cover with strips of bulk bacon or pepperoni or ham slices or Canadian bacon.  Pour over all tomato sauce or salsa or ketchup or spaghetti sauce or V-8 juice.  Bake one hour at 350 degrees or if you stick it in on your way to church, bake it at 250 degrees for three hours.  Sometimes I cover the pans with foil.  Serves six or so.

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“Continue in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving;

meanwhile praying also for us,

that God would open to us a door for the word,

to speak the mystery of Christ.”

 Colossians 4:3 NKJ

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Find other fun meatloaf recipes at this Food Network link: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipe-collections/meatloaf/index.html

Speaker author Janet Chester Bly’s Mystery Meatloaf Recipe is featured on fiction author Donita K. Paul’s newsletter here: http://bit.ly/15GECm3 and on her website: http://www.donitakpaul.com/recipes/odd/mysterymeatloaf.html

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About Author Janet Chester Bly

One of Janet Chester Bly’s first novels was a Making Choices book for children entitled, Hawaiian Computer Mystery.  It was later re-published as Island Mansion Mystery.  The format of the book involved the reader in making choices about how the story unfolds.  Depending on the choices made, there were up to thirty two possible endings.

She also co-authored cozy mystery novels with her late husband, Stephen Bly:  The Hidden West Series (contemporary) and The Carson City Chronicles (historical).

“A husband and wife writing team go on location to research travel books and wind up solving local mysteries as well.  So many readers who have met us claim that Tony and Price Shadowbrook seem a lot like us, even down to their wardrobes,” Janet says. “Maybe so. We sure had a lot of fun going to those places ourselves.”

Learn more about the Blys at https://www.blybooks.com/western-author-bio/

Find contemporary fiction by Janet Chester Bly here: https://www.blybooks.com/product_category/contemporary-fiction/