Cooking Light: Quick Meat Loaf

As promised I started cooking recipes found in my Cooking Light Magazines. This Sunday, the Hubs and I made Quick Meatloaf, smashed potatoes and green beans. Well, I made the meatloaf and he made the potatoes & beans.

You may be thinking - smashed potatoes don't sound like the most healthy option. The hubs is lactose intolerant (if you haven't figured that out already) so we make them with chicken broth and a little margarine.

Sadly, I forgot my camera's memory card in my printer at work over the weekend so you'll have to imagine that my meatloaf looked as good, or better, than the one on Cooking Light's website.

Source

Yield
4 servings (serving size: 2 slices)

Ingredients
1/3 cup chopped green onions
3 tablespoons dry breadcrumbs
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 pound ground sirloin
1 large egg, lightly beaten
6 tablespoons ketchup, divided
Cooking spray

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400°.

2. Combine first 9 ingredients in a large bowl; add 1/4 cup ketchup. Mix beef mixture with hands just until combined. Shape beef mixture into a 9 x 4–inch loaf on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes. Brush top of meat loaf with remaining 2 tablespoons ketchup. Bake 7 additional minutes or until done. Slice loaf into 8 equal pieces.

3. About 10 mins into baking the meatloaf I added thinly slices mushrooms to the top of the meatloaf. If I can add more veggies to something, I'm all over it!

Wine note: A value-priced cabernet or merlot, like Crane Lake Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 ($4), tends to be straightforward, lighter-bodied, and lower in tannins, ideal with the lean ground beef in this traditional baked meat loaf. --Jeffery Lindenmuth

Nutritional Information
Calories: 267
Fat: 13.1g (sat 5.1g,mono 5.5g,poly 0.7g)
Protein: 25.6g
Carbohydrate: 10.8g
Fiber: 0.7g
Cholesterol: 127mg
Iron: 3.4mg
Sodium: 679mg
Calcium: 44mg

I still cannot get over how freakin' tasty this meatloaf is! But, I guess I shouldn't be surprised because everything I've ever made from this Magazine has been tasty. The Hubs liked this so much I made him a container to take to work w/ a little smashed potatoes and 2 slices of meatloaf. He just emailed and told me how he was dreaming about his lunch.

Cooking Light Tip: One thing I've noticed when cooking the recipes in this magazine is they don't add a lot of salt. Totally understandable because sodium intake is something a lot of people watch. I however choose to watch other things more closely so, most the time, I'll add more salt than the recipe calls for. In the case of this recipe I doubled it.