Bison Meatloaf

Alright, kids... are you ready for a healthy, hearty, feel-good recipe? The husb has been reading a lot about making sure your "environment" is healthy so that you can live a long, disease-free life --- in normal people talk this basically means: stay away from stuff that isn't good for you. But it doesn't stop with fatty, greasy foods! Bad things include preservatives, hormones, pesticides, artificial ingredients, and the like. Of course, keeping the fat and calorie content down doesn't hurt. So lately I've been on a mission lately to find good tasting and good for you recipes and this one is a hit!

Bison meat is leaner than beef, and comparable to chicken as far as nutrition goes. It is sweet, and tender, and just delish. Bonus: its affordable. Whole Foods sells it best ~ natural and grass fed and hormone free! Here is a great Ground Bison Meatloaf recipe that is a perfect blend of healthy and home-y, organic and tasty! I dare you to try it.

What you'll need:

1 lb. ground bison

~ 1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs

1 large egg

1/2 onion (chopped)

1 packet onion soup mix

1/4 cup mozz. cheese

1 tomato (chopped) OR 1 can diced tomatoes (drained)

2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

Salt and pepper

For the sauce:

1/4 cup ketchup

A few teaspoons of brown sugar

**the more of these ingredients you can buy ORGANIC... the better!**

To start, dump all of your meat, onion soup seasoning and bread crumbs into a medium mixing bowl. Grease a loaf pan with some sort of non-stick spray and set aside. Heat your oven to 350 degrees.

If you are using a can of diced tomatoes, drain them really well so your meatloaf isn't too soggy! If you are using a regular tomato, start dicing it up! Plop the tomatoes in your mixing bowl, and then chop up your onion the same way and add it to the mix.

After you've combined your ground bison, bread crumbs, onion soup mix, diced tomato and chopped onion, add your egg to the colorful mixing bowl.

Sprinkle in a little salt and pepper, and then stir up all of your ingredients with a fork... or your hand if you don't mind getting a little messy :)

I like to add a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce to my meat loaf. You don't have to - I don't really know that it adds much - but I'm convinced that it makes all meat meals more tender. This is my unqualified, amateur chef opinion.

Dinner isn't complete without a little cheese, right? That's my mantra anyway. So toss in 1/4 cup (or more...) of your favorite cheese. I think shredded mozzarella works best, but I'm not one to discriminate against any of the cheeses.

Make sure its allllll mixed up and then smoosh your mixture into your non-stick loaf pan! Smash it down so its flat on top... or don't, I'm betting it doesn't make a difference, but this looks prettier.

In a baby dish, mix together your ketchup and brown sugar, then spread it evenly over the top of your little loaf.

It should look something like this before you toss it in the oven! If you want to change the flavor a bit, you can substitute BBQ sauce for the ketchup. Or use both. Get creative!

Bake your oh-so-legit-looking meatloaf in the center of your oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes. I poked a few holes in some potatoes and wrapped them in foil to bake and serve with my loaf. Please ignore the nastiness that is living on the bottom of my oven... I'm terrified of the self-cleaning function, and too lazy to wipe the bottom of the oven myself. A dirty oven won't ruin the taste of your dinner. Swear.

While your meatloaf bakes, I suggest that you watch Seinfeld re-runs with your hubby. Or scold your bad kitty girl for chewing on an ice pack that your husb left beside the bed. You can tell her that it is poisonous, but more importantly you can tell her that her sharp little teeth made the blue yick spill out all over her mama's white carpet.

See the teethmarks in the top left corner? We almost had a dead Bella. Thankfully I caught the mess before she did too much damage to herself. Or my carpets. But it was late, and I was sleepy... so I tossed a glass of water and Andrew's pj pants on top of the blue stains (dilute and cover - that was my genius plan) and went back to bed. This, I'm guessing, didn't make it any easier to get rid of the blue marks the next morning. But I wouldn't know... because I haven't cleaned them yet...

She's lucky she's cute. And fortunately for her, I think she is still cute even when she looks cross-eyed in candid pictures.

Enough of Bella. Here is what your finished Bison Meatloaf and baked potatoes should look like when you pull the deliciousness from the oven! Yummmm!

Top your taters with whatever your little heart desires - butter, cheese, Ranch, butter... oh I already said that one? Add some more. Let your meatloaf stand to cool for a few minutes then slice it up and serve with your His and Hers beers! Or wine if you are classy like that. You could fill the bare white spots on the plate w/ veggies or a salad if you wanted to. I was too busy playing w/ my cat to remember a green food item.

Enjoy!!! If you are cooking for two, this will definitely leave you with some leftovers - which is great, because Andrew had lunch for a week. Even after 5 days in a row of Bison Meatloaf....... he asked me to make it again the next week! Success :)