Freezer Food Friday-Li'l Cheddar Meat Loaves

Happy Friday!

In continuing with my freezer food Friday theme wherein I share my favorite freezable recipes with my sister-in-law, today's recipe is a meat loaf recipe.

I am not a fan of meat loaves. I like the taste, but there's just something not right to me about taking meat that is whole, grinding it up, and then shaping it into a loaf, so that it looks as if it were whole. And, the word "loaf" just doesn't have an appealing ring to me when used in conjunction with meat. I don't know, maybe I'm weird. Have you ever had a meat loaf with an entire hard-boiled egg inside? Yikes.

So, why am I sharing a meat loaf recipe? I found one that I like and my kids love in A Taste of Home magazine. It was contributed by a woman named Katy Bowron from Cocolalla, Idaho. These are "Li'l" meat loaves. Not the big hunk-o-meat that creeps me out. Each recipe renders 8 mini-loaves. My kids love the mini-loaf. So here is the recipe for a single batch:

1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup onion
1 tsp. salt
1 lb. lean ground beef

Beat the egg and the milk together; add cheese, oats, onion and salt. Add beef and mix well. Shape in to 8 loaves and place them in a greased 9 X 13 baking pan. Make the following sauce to put on top of loaves:

2/3 cup ketchup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. mustard

Mix and spoon over top of each loaf. Bake, uncovered at 350 for 45 minutes.

This is a very easy recipe to times by 6, eat one batch today and freeze 5 other servings for another day. Here's what you need:

6 eggs
4 1/2 cups milk
6 cups shredded cheddar cheese
3 cups oats
3 cups onions
6 tsp. salt
6 lbs. lean ground beef

Prepare as described above. Divide into six parts, 5 parts into gallon freezer bags and 1 part to prepare today. You can flatten out the bags so they fit easily into your freezer. Remember to let them cool in the fridge first.




I make the ketchup/brown sugar sauce the day I prepare the meat loaves.

I serve these with rice, or potatoes and a salad.

A couple of other domestic notes:

I found this mess this morning in the kitchen:


I also found incriminating cracker evidence next to Juan Carlos's (3 yrs.) bed. He must have gotten up for a little midnight snack. I think I jinxed myself with the post about him being such a great sleeper once in bed. Oh well, at least he still has all of his fingers.

And, here is a picture of a quilt that I and my best friend here in Carmen, let's call her Rita, are working on right now:


We are making it for our friend from Mexico City that just had a baby girl. Cute, no?