My best meatloaf recipe

Ok, as a single dad, teaching my daughter how to be a master chef didn't come easy.... especially since I never was one. But teaching someone else something you are unfamiliar with is a great way to give steroids to whatever goal you have, and in my case, it was to make a killer meatloaf. So here is the best layman, guide for dummies, whatever you want to call it ingredient list, instructions and all that good stuff... Ready.... Go!

Ingredients : 

2 lbs of 80/20 ground beef (90 / 10 is healthier, but too damn dry);  1/2 large vidalia onion (delish); 1/2 large green pepper, 1 sleeve of saltine crackers (better than waiting for bread to go stale) coconut or EV Olive Oil, ketchup; stone ground mustard (stadium mustard is a cheaper substitute); brown sugar; 1 egg; italian seasoning; black pepper ... ok, now time for the cooking part

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees while you're prepping the vegetables, meat and glaze. Chop peppers and onions and mix in 1 egg. Plop the ground beef and the veggies into a large mixing bowl and start giving it the eagle claw with a twist from hell (my daughter loves this part). While you are doing the mixing, crush the crackers into the meat, onions and peppers (the more you mix, the better the results).

Next, start shaking on about 3 tablespoons of italian seasoning and 2 tablespoons of black pepper. Your hands should be a MESS by now, so wash em off after mixing ingredients for at least 2 minutes. 

In a smaller container, mix 1 1/2 cups of Ketchup, 3 tablespoons of brown sugar and 1/2 a cup of stone ground squirty mustard. This will be your glaze for your loaf. Make sure there aren't any clumps in your brown sugar, or else it will be... well, too lumpy and not evenly distributed throughout the glaze. 

Next, grease a cookie tray (I prefer coconut oil or extra virgin olive oil) and form the meatwad into an oval loaf shape. Next, it is my daughter's turn to use that cool looking paintbrush in the kitchen drawer to paint on the glaze. Make sure it is evenly spread and if it drips off, then just pile it back on the top of the loaf. It's ready for oven time.

Place the loaf in the middle rack of the oven for 45 minutes. After 15 minutes, your kitchen will smell like HEAVEN! But hey, wait 30 more minutes, bucko. 

After the 45 minutes is up, the alarm goes off (on the stove, not the smoke detector), remove the loaf and allow to set for 15 minutes. 

There you have it. A fun and rewarding project to do with the little ones. And I've never had a bad result with this recipe, so enjoy! 

Caveat- I have in the past used too many peppers and onions and it causes the loaf to fall apart (and kids hate picking off all that pepper and onion, but love the remnant of flavor in the meat). Also, adding too much garlic ruined my loaf in the past, so I excluded it from the recipe as the "memory" wasn't a pleasant one. But hey, if that floats your boat, add garlic powder, chopped garlic or whatever you like. 

Hope you enjoy the recipe and let me know how that works out for everyone!