When I was a little girl, I haaaaaaaaated meatloaf. Omg. I mean I REALLY hated it. My mom and Grandma made it the same, double whammy, with big chunks of green pepper and onions inside. It probably had nothing else but breadcrumbs, milk, egg and salt and pepper in it, and maybe some ketchup on top was all there was to it.

Pretty much your basic, midwestern, 1960’s-70’s meatloaf. yay. UGH!!! It was truly dreaded!! If I got wind ahead of time that we were having it, I’d hit up every friend in class begging to be invited to supper! 

Just thinking of that scary brown loaf STILL to this day makes me gag just a bit. I remember choking down each bite with a big ol’ swig of milk just to get it down. Needless to say, I drank a LOT of milk when I was a kid. 😉   

I got married very young, right out of high school actually, and didn’t make my own first meatloaf until MANY years later. Being hit on THREE sides, now including my (ex) mother-in-law’s meatloaf which was no better, my yearly meatloaf quota was being PLENTY filled. 

Then one day, after spying a simple recipe on the side of a box of Stovetop Stuffing, I happened to see an interesting concoction for meatloaf that didn’t sound half bad! I thought, ok, it’s time I figured out some way to make this “mystery loaf” of brown yuck into something that I can actually tolerate. LIKE would be great. LOVE….well, that might take years….but I decided to give it a blind shot in the dark. My ex would eat it happily. But he would’ve eaten off of the floor. I’d just make myself sandwiches and salads if this still wasn’t going to work for me. 😉 Master plan implemented. 😉    

 Though I really liked the idea of the flavor of stuffing mix in it, I really didn’t want to be biting into chunks of stuffing inside. So I decided to turn the mix into fine crumbs instead.

I was surprised at the addition of water, too. I mean…water? Really?? Why not at least beef broth or stock? So I went for the real deal and used beef consommé. It’s richer with a lot more flavor, and Campbell’s makes it so it’s easy to find.

I also didn’t think that a little ol’ 1/4 cup barbecue sauce was going to do much to add flavor, so I upped the sauce and decreased the liquid amount to accommodate.

And there really wasn’t anything else to the recipe except for a dab of sauce on top. (Not nearly enough!) Sooooo, it being summertime, and my love of pineapple with anything barbecued, had me adding some crushed pineapple! I vamped up the topping and added it last, and, as they say, the rest is history!!!

I FINALLY had a meatloaf dinner that I truly enjoyed!! I mean TRULY ENJOYED! Me – – aka – – President of the Meatloaf Hater’s Club!!!   

So if you belong to the same club, you can turn in your membership card now. Trust me, if I like this one, you will surely like it, too! I make several different meatloaves now, but this is the one that I made first, that finally convinced me that meatloaf was, in fact, NOT going to kill me. 😉  And a GALLON of milk was no longer required, either. 😉  

It has nice flavor, nice texture, holds together yet isn’t dry, and is just plainly all-around delicious! 😀 And meatloaves only get better from here, too! So stick around, as I’ll be making some of my other favorite ones soon! 😀 😉 Take care all, and have a great day!! 😀   

This wonderful meatloaf was served with my Creamy Alfredo Mashed Potatoes and “Sunshine Pies”!  

*The idea for this recipe was adapted from Kraft’s Stovetop Stuffing BBQ Meatloaf . 

Yield: 6-8

Summertime Barbecued Meatloaf with Pineapple

Print

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 35 minutes

Additional Time 40 minutes

Total Time 2 hours 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 lbs. lean ground beef
• 1 (6 oz.) box beef or chicken stuffing mix, (I use Betty Crocker's Homestyle Stuffing Mix), crushed into fine crumbs
• 1/2 cup beef consommé, (from a 10 1/2 oz. can),I use Campbell's (*see note)
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
• 1/2 Tbl. soy sauce
• 1 tsp. worcestershire sauce
• 1 (16 oz.) can crushed pineapple, drained well
• 1/2 cup Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue Sauce
• lots of coarse ground black pepper for top
• [br]
• Topping:
• 2/3 cup Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue Sauce
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 1 Tbl. dark brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. worcestershire sauce

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In large bowl, place hamburger breaking up.

Pour stuffing mix into a ziploc freezer bag, squeeze out air, and seal closed well. With a rolling pin, roll back and forth crushing cubes into very fine crumbs. (Lift edges of bag every so often to bring pieces to the top and center for easier rolling.) Sprinkle over ground beef.

Add rest of ingredients except pepper. With large spoon, fold very well to mix ingredients evenly into meat.

Place into a 2 1/2 quart sprayed baking dish, and form into a nice loaf leaving a small gap all the way around for air circulation. Make sure entire top is nice and smooth to prevent cracking.

Sprinkle top with lots of coarse ground black pepper. Pop into preheated 350 degree oven and bake for 1 1/2 hours.

In small bowl, mix together well the topping ingredients. Spread over meatloaf and bake 5 minutes longer.

Let rest before slicing.

Notes

*We just buy our lean ground beef from Walmart as there isn't much choice in our town. Their meat seems to be overly ground and has too much (water? fat??) added, so I only use the 1/2 cup amount as my recipe suggests. If you have really good hamburger in your area, you can increase the consommé to 3/4 cup.
**I pour the rest of the can of beef consommé into a glass measuring pitcher and fill the rest of the way with cold water to 2 make cups. I use this added to 2 packets beef gravy mix, in place of just all water, for a richer, tastier gravy. *A splash of red wine can also be added, before adding the water, for even more flavor.