Recipe Trick #2 ...

Yesterday I was in the middle of making meatloaf, and realized that I'm completely out of a thickening agent. I usually use cornbread, but I forgot to buy some. So I looked for bread crumbs. Nope, out of those too. How about regular oatmeal? Nope. But I did find something that I thought might work, so let's just try it and see. Can you guess what that "secret" ingredient is? (Hint: there's a picture of it above).

Yep, I decided to try it with Maple & Brown Sugar oatmeal. And boy, did it turn out great! Just a little hit of sweetness. Both Jon & Blake ate a lot of it, which is wonderful since they're both somewhat picky eaters.

I don't know if I've ever posted my meatloaf recipe, but here it is:

Jamie's Meatloaf

1# ground hamburger or turkey
1 egg
2 pkg maple & brown sugar oatmeal*
1/4 c ketchup
3 T worchestshire sauce
Some oregano, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder (season to your liking)
About 3-4 pre-cooked bacon strips

Combine all ingredients except bacon in bowl. Put into a greased loaf pan, sprinkle additional ketchup and worchestshire sauce on top. Layer bacon strips on top of sauce. Bake at 350 for 30-40 mins or until meat is no longer red.

*Instead of using the oatmeal, I regularly use 1 box cornbread and add in about 1/2 T of brown sugar. Then I sprinkle more brown sugar on top of meatloaf prior to baking.

Enjoy!