Parmesan Meatloaf

A few weeks ago, I had a friend over for dinner with his fiance.  I racked my brain as to what I could make for them.  At first, I was going to go with a Mexican theme, because my neighbor inspired me to make chicken enchiladas.  I decided against that once he told me they would prefer a down home type of meal.  Being from the south, I thought about all the possibilities of what I could make.  After a couple of days, I decided on meatloaf, mashed potatoes, salad, and corn.  I knew I didn't want just any meatloaf, so I searched all of the web for the perfect meatloaf recipe.  I finally found one and it is the best meatloaf I have ever had.  Of course, I added my own twist on it and let's just say: AMAZING.  My guests thoroughly enjoyed the meal, which lets me know they agreed that it was AMAZING.  I am also including the recipe to a cake my mother in law introduced to me.  Last year, she brought this same cake to my mothers house and my mom literally ate this cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  It is my go to cake to bake when I have to bring a dessert to a potluck.  I actually made two of them last weekend and ended up eating one ALL BY MYSELF (Don't judge me lol).  It's simple, requires few ingredients, and oh so good.  

Recipe: Parmesan Meatloaf

Picture courtesy of ontario.foodland

Ingredients: 

2 lb ground beef or ground turkey 

2 eggs 

1/4 cup seasoned Italian breadcrumbs 

1/2 teaspoon dried basil 

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme 

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 

2 tablespoons of minced garlic 

1 small onion, chopped fine 

1/2 teaspoon season all 

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese 

1/2 cup your favorite marinara pasta sauce 

1/2 cup shredded Italian cheese  

1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese 

1/2 cup of cooked chopped bacon 

Cooking Spray

Directions: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a meatloaf dish with non stick spray/cooking spray.  

2. In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, eggs, breadcrumbs, thyme, oregano, basil, garlic, onion, season all, pepper, chopped bacon and Parmesan cheese. Do not over mix the ingredients.  Put the ground beef mixture in the greased meatloaf pan.  Top the meatloaf with pasta sauce.

3. Bake the meatloaf in the oven for 1 hour (may take 1 hr. 15 mins). Remove the meatloaf from the oven and add the remaining cheese on top.  Place the meatloaf back in the oven and bake until the cheese is melted.

4. Remove the meatloaf from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes before serving/slicing.

5. Enjoy with mashed potatoes, a vegetable, and some garlic bread!

Recipe: Orange Cake

Picture courtesy of YouTube

Ingredients for cake: 

1 box of yellow cake mix

1 box of instant lemon jello pudding

3/4 cup of oil

4 eggs

1/2 cup of water

1/4 cup of orange juice

a splash of milk

Ingredients for icing:

2 cups of powdered sugar

1/3 cup of orange juice

2 tsp. warm water

2 tbsp. of softened butter

Directions for cake: 

1. Grease and flour a cake pan.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (325 for a glass pan). 

2. Mix together the ingredients for the cake and bake for 35-40 minutes.

Directions for icing:

1. Mix butter with powdered sugar before adding the juice.  Mix all the ingredients thoroughly. 

2. Immediately removing from oven, punch holes over the entire cake with a fork.  

3. Pour the icing all over the cake and spread evenly.  The icing will be absorbed leaving only a slight glaze.  

4. ENJOY!!!!