Though the temperature on our vacation in Florida left me feeling limp and tired all the time the cold here is not helping anything either.  It has warmed up a bit lately but the dampness is still leaving me with that feeling of deep inside my bones cold no matter what the thermometer says.

So, tonight is comfort food.   I am limiting my groceries for the last two weeks of the month (have, to pay off the vacation!).  But, I have plenty of ground beef and chicken breasts in the freezer to use for the rest of the month.  It is the side dishes and ingredients to add to the ground beef and chicken that may get a bit funky.

This dish was easy at it is made with things I always have on hand in my pantry.  I have 6-10 weeks of my most often purchased items in my pantry so that I usually try to only shop sales which occur every 6-8 weeks.  Instead of buying one or two box of our favorite Chex cereal at $1.50 on sale I will purchase 8.  That is enough to get us to when the next sale occurs so that in two weeks I will not have to pay $3.50 when it is not on sale for the same cereal.  I made a list of all my shelf stable items and try to do this as much as possible.  I know I use 50-60 cans of Progresso Soup a month for the kids lunches so recently I bought 120 cans when they were $.99.  Yes, I get quite a few strange looks shopping this way but the money I save on groceries allows us to live the life we want.

Anyway, back to dinner.

Verdict:

This was a HUGE hit!  The outside of the meatloaf had a nice crust but the inside was super moist.   Both kids were looking to take the leftovers the next day for lunch.

I served this with home fried potatoes and a carrot and green pea mixture.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 2 cups shredded cheddar
• 1 small diced onion
• 1 sleeve finely crushed saltine crackers
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
• ground black pepper
• 1 cup favorite barbecue sauce, plus extra for serving if desired (I used Sweet Baby Ray’s Honey Barbecue)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray two metal cooling racks with non-stick spray.  Place the racks in a rimmed backing sheet.  This will allow the meat loaves to sit up out of any grease run-off as they cook.
2. Mix all ingredients except the barbecue sauce in a large mixing bowl.   Mix to well combined.
3. Divide the meat into 6 equal portions and form each piece into a small oval loaf.
4. Place each loaf on the prepared baking pan.
5. Coat each loaf with a few TBSP of barbecue sauce.
6. Bake for 30-40 minutes until completely cooked through.  Remove from oven and let the loaves rest for 5 minutes before serving.