My kids were about 10 years old before I cooked meat­loaf for them. I am not sure what took me so long — maybe mem­o­ries of over­cooked school cafe­te­ria fare scared me off. One of my sons loved the meat­loaf so much that he want­ed to tell his friends about the gourmet dish his mom made!
There’s a lot to like about meat­loaf. It’s easy to make. You can use almost any com­bo of ground meat or poul­try. Grat­ed or pureed veg­gies are a tasty addi­tion for mois­ture and nutri­tion. And a slice of left­over meat­loaf is the per­fect size for a sand­wich.

Here’s what you need to make Cook­ing by Num­ber meat­loaf to serve four:

1 pound ground meat
1 egg
1 table­spoon sea­son­ing
1/2 cup crumbs
1/2 cup veg­eta­bles
3/4 cup sauce
Fresh­ly ground black pep­per to taste

Here are some ingre­di­ent ideas to get you start­ed. Mix and match to cre­ate your own com­bos.
Ground meat – Lean beef, lean pork, lean veal, turkey, turkey breast, chick­en, duck breast, salmon
Crumbs – Bread crumbs, mat­zo meal, oats, crushed corn­flakes
Sauce – Ketchup (reg­u­lar or low sodi­um), BBQ sauce, toma­to sauce, pas­ta sauce, cream of mush­room soup,
Veg­eta­bles – Grat­ed onion, car­rot, zuc­chi­ni; pureed squash; mashed pota­to; diced toma­to
Sea­son­ing – Ital­ian, basil + oregano, cur­ry pow­der, herbes de Provence, gar­lic (chopped or pow­der), onion pow­der

Now that you’ve picked out ingre­di­ents, here’s what you do with them:
1. Pre­heat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9- x 5‑inch loaf pan with cook­ing spray. A loaf pan with a per­fo­rat­ed insert allows extra liq­uid to drain off.
2. Set aside 1/4 cup sauce. Mix togeth­er the remain­ing sauce and all oth­er ingre­di­ents in a large bowl.
3. Spoon the meat mix­ture into the loaf pan and smooth out the top of the loaf. Top with the remain­ing sauce.
4. Bake for about one hour, until the cen­ter of the loaf reach­es 160° F on an instant-read ther­mome­ter.
5. Allow to cool for 10 min­utes before care­ful­ly remov­ing from the pan and slic­ing.