Maybe Just A Bite....or Two: My Dad's Meatloaf

I was so lucky growing up in a household where both of my parents were amazing cooks. It made it easy to love all kinds of foods and have a joy of cooking for my own family. One of our absolute favorite dinners is my dad's meatloaf. YUM!

Dad's Meatloaf:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 lbs. hamburger

1 small or medium onion chopped

1 stalk celery chopped

1 medium carrot grated

3 slices bread (I used multi-grain)

1 egg

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 8 oz. can tomato sauce

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1 tablespoon dry mustard

Oven 350 degrees for 1.5 hours

First thing you are going to want to do is chop the onion and cook it over medium heat in the 2 tbsp. vegetable oil. If you want the celery you will cook it with the onion. My husband doesn't like celery so I usually leave it out of my recipes.

While the onions and/or celery is cooking start adding the ingredients into a large mixing bowl. In the mixture you will add 4 oz. of the tomato sauce and set the rest of the can to the side.

Add the onions to the mixture and mix it up until everything is combined. I don't like to use my hands but I have found that a potato masher works really well.

Empty the bowl of the meat mixture into a 9x13 pan. I lightly coated mine with cooking spray. Form it into a loaf.

*side note: I use this recipe for my family of 4 and we devour almost the whole pan. So, if you have to double it make sure to form your meatloaf accordingly or make two separate loaves in the pan.*

Now you need to make the sauce. I personally like a lot of sauce so I tripled the recipe. I will list the original proportion:

4 oz. tomato sauce (the rest of the can)

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1 tablespoon dry mustard

Mix together in a bowl