While summer may be winding down and many of us are looking forward to the cool crisp Fall days (at least, I know that I am!) We still have quite a few hot days ahead of us and the last thing that anyone wants is to heat up the house. This crockpot meatloaf recipe can help you put a filling dinner on your table and not have to wipe the sweat off your brow while doing it.
My family never used to be a fan of meatloaf until I changed one very important thing - I stopped buying the absolute leanest meat that I could get (usually 93%) and switched to using 90% lean for my crockpot meatloaf recipe. I always wanted to use super-lean meat because we were trying to eat less fat but the thing is....less fat means a drier and less tasty meatloaf (or burger or meatball, for that matter).
Meatloaf isn't exactly a "health food" anyway so go ahead and indulge a little and let the fat flavor your meatloaf (and vegetables in this recipe, since you are cooking them together).
I usually prefer to use fresh minced onions, especially when I am making this crockpot meatloaf recipe with turkey. Since the turkey is so lean to begin with, the fresh onions will release more moisture in to the meatloaf as is cooks. However, if your children won't eat meatloaf if it has "chunks" in it....go ahead and use the dried onions.
Anyway - on to the recipe. You will need:
Ingredients:
- 1 ½ lb Ground Beef (90% lean is best) or Ground Turkey
- 2 Eggs
- ¾ cup Milk
- ⅔ cup Bread Crumbs
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 2 teaspoon Dried Minced Onions or ⅓ cup fresh minced onions (more or less to taste)
- ½ teaspoon Sage
- ¼ cup Ketchup
- 2 tablespoon Brown Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Mustard
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 lb Carrots
- 1 ½ lb Potatoes
Directions:
- Beat the eggs in a large bowl.
- Add the milk, bread crumbs, onion (or dried onions) and sage and mix well.
- Crumble ground meat into mixture and mix well.
- Form into a loaf and place it in the middle of your slow cooker.
- Peel potatoes and carrots; cut into 1" chunks and place around meat loaf.
- Cook on low 5-6 hours.
- Mix together ketchup, brown sugar, mustard and Worcestershire.
- Spread sauce on top of meat loaf and cook for 30 minutes on high.
