Help me fix my meatloaf

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Replies

  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited June 2016
    Well I made meatloaf last night.. I was one pound of meat and not three and I am having it again tonight. It is 4 ounces a serving and 228 calories..

    1 pound 96% lean ground beef
    1 large egg
    1/4 cup Bread Crumbs
    1/4 cup Fat Free Shredded Cheese (cheddar)
    1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
    Ketchup to taste (all natural ketchup lower in sodium)
    Pepper to taste
    I added in onion about 40 - 45 grams

    I drained off liquid three times during the cooking.

    I am am failing to understand why the issues with the meatloaf? Meatloaf is meatloaf, unless you do something like low sodium ketchup, use low sodium crackers (does not help much with the carbs, but this is needed), cheese has sodium can't change that, use leaner beef to get more meat into the recipe and less sat fat, got to have the egg (eggs are good).. there is not much to do for it.

    Now what you eat with it, is what makes it carby if you choose pasta, and the like. You can always have a salad, steamed or stir fry veggies..

    I actually cooked homemade black-eye peas (I ate 1/2 cup cooked) and made mashed potatoes again I had the lower portion at 1/2 cup.., steamed broccoli, I came out with 480 cals total for dinner.. Having it again tonight, no potatoes though..

    Its what you choose and what you are willing to do with or without for taste and your calorie budget. But meatloaf is meatloaf.. and yummmmmy!

    edited to add: oats are for oatmeal cookies only and granola for my cereal.. not adding oats to my meatloaf.. that is nasty.
  • VeryKatie
    VeryKatie Posts: 5,961 Member
    paulb104 wrote: »
    CattOfTheGarage wrote: »
    try replacing half the ketchup with tomato puree....I would not replace all the ketchup with tomato paste, as ketchup often has an important role in rounding out flavour
    This is kind of what I'm thinking.

    allrecipes.com says to substitute ketchup: "Mix together the tomato paste, white vinegar, brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, allspice, salt, molasses, corn syrup, and water in a saucepan over low heat; simmer gently until you get the consistency of ketchup, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Taste and adjust salt if necessary before serving."

    I'm thinking about reducing those ingredients to tomato paste, white vinegar, and brown sugar, and see what happens. Maybe I'll swap the white vinegar with apple cider vinegar, who knows...

    Sorry, too many posts... but... at this point you're just making your own ketchup instead of using preprepared. So it would be a way to possibly reduce sodium but wouldn't be technically reducing ketchup. The effort would go up too.
  • AlisonH729
    AlisonH729 Posts: 558 Member
    CMB1979 wrote: »
    Mix in a packet of dry French Onion soup into the loaf. It's delicious.

    I use the Lipton Beefy Onion recipe and its bomb. I use a small can of tomato sauce instead of the ketchup & water mixture. But then cover it with ketchup (like a frosted cake) before I put it in the oven. Mmm.

    PLUS I roast those tiny whole canned potatoes in the pan with the meatloaf & serve it with corn. Two starches, sorrynotsorry. This is our signature comfort meal and I don't make it often. But when you need it you can't compromise. We work it in.

    Turkey meatloaf is okay. But I'd rather make chili in that case.
  • Disneybound16
    Disneybound16 Posts: 10 Member
    I make mine with ground turkey, southwest salsa, eggbeaters and very little breadcrumbs
  • cabwj
    cabwj Posts: 843 Member
    joseccastaneda wrote: »
    I switched mine up to using ground turkey instead of beef. Instead of breadcrumbs, i got a tip from a friend to use oats. Instead of eggs, i use egg substitute. I'm guilty of adding crumbled bacon to mine though.

    Plain old rolled oats instead of breadcrumbs is the way I learned to make meatloaf.

    Although it would change the flavor I would ditch the soy sauce and use any of the Mrs. Dash flavors. Heinz makes a no-salt-added ketchup although never having tried it I can't vouch for it. (It does use potassium chloride- so if that's an issue...)

    Also, although OP didn't ask about reducing the fat, I mince up regular brown or white mushrooms and replace some of the meat to lighten it up a bit too.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Ditch the soy sauce. Really don't see the point of it?

    Reduce the bread crumbs by half. My recipe uses one cup for 3 pounds of meat. However, more breadcrumbs might be needed if you use more fatty meat... I usually use 90 or 93% meat.

    I also only use 2 eggs and add some onions... and don't use cheese.
  • UpEarly
    UpEarly Posts: 2,555 Member
    edited June 2016
    I don't think the recipe isn't your problem... it's your portion sizes! If I'm reading what you wrote correctly, you're eating half the meatloaf in one meal (?) - that's a pound and a half or 24 ounces of beef. The meat alone in your portion has over 1,700 calories! Generally, 4-6 ounces of meat is considered an appropriate serving size.

    I know it's not what you asked, but I would seriously worry about the calories first, and then think about the carbs and sodium.
  • JTyler2016
    JTyler2016 Posts: 34 Member
    This is the lower carb recipe I use for meatloaf/meatballs.

    For the meatloaf (or meatballs):

    3 lbs. ground beef (80/20)
    1 cup white mushrooms, minced
    2 cloves garlic, minced
    ½ cup onion, finely chopped
    ¼ cup red bell pepper, finely chopped
    2 Tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
    ⅓ cup grated Parmesan cheese
    ½ cup almond flour
    3 eggs
    1 tsp kosher salt
    ¼ tsp ground black pepper
    1 tsp balsamic vinegar

    For the glaze:

    2 cups balsamic vinegar (no sugar added)
    2 Tbsp low sugar or sugar free ketchup
    1 Tbsp granulated sugar substitute (Stevia, Splenda, etc.)


    Instructions

    Combine all of the meatloaf ingredients in a medium bowl and mix thoroughly.

    If making meatballs:

    Form the meat mix into 48 cocktail sized meatballs (approximately 1 inch). Place the meatballs on parchment paper or a greased cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes at 375 degrees (F) or until cooked through. Add the meatballs to the glaze and toss gently to coat. Serve hot.

    If making meatloaf:

    Press the meat mixture into two 8-9" loaf pans and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and pour off most of the liquid from the two pans. Pour ¼ cup of glaze over each of the meatloaves and return to the oven. Bake for another 20 minutes. Cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing and serving with the remaining glaze.

    For the glaze:

    Combine the balsamic vinegar, ketchup, and sugar free sweetener in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 20 minutes or until reduced by at least half and slightly thickened and shiny. The glaze is ready when it's thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Refrigerate any extra glaze for future use.

    Approximate nutrition information:

    Per 4 meatballs w/ glaze: 264 calories, 17g fat, 6g net carbs, 24g protein

    Per 1.5 inch slice of meatloaf: 278 calories, 17g fat, 3g net carbs, 24 g protein

    additional 1 Tbsp glaze for serving: 21 calories, 0g fat, 4g net carbs, 0g protein
  • pie_eyes
    pie_eyes Posts: 12,964 Member
    edited July 2016
    Replace ketchup with a small can of tomato paste

    2 slices of sliced sandwich bread (white or whole grain, doesn't matter but obviously whole grain is healthier)

    Replace soy sauce with Worcestershire sauce

    Leave the cheese out

    add green bell pepper, tomatoes, onions.... Idk how to make it low carb



    Otherwise your recipe looks exactly like mine



    Also the above comments are outrageous, PORK RINDS? No
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    To lower sodium you could switch out the ketchup for tomato paste/sauce
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    paulb104 wrote: »
    Hi!

    I have a super simple meatloaf recipe that I've been making for years. It's very tasty, extremely moist.

    Here's the recipe:

    3 pounds 80/20 ground beef
    2 cups bread crumbs (1380mg sodium, 132g carb)
    4 eggs
    1 cup ketchup (2560mg sodium, 80g carb)
    1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (575mg sodium, 1g carb)
    1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (900mg sodium, 0g carb)
    1 tbsp minced garlic (0mg sodium, 3g carb)

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees. I mix all the ingredients together by hand then pack the mix into an 8"x8" pan then flip it onto a foil covered sheet pan. If you do this, either line the 8x8 or grease it 'cause the meat doesn't usually want to come out.

    Bake for seventy minutes.

    The entire loaf has 5415 sodium and 216 carb.

    Before needing to watch what we ate, my wife would have a quarter of it for dinner, with pasta and veggies, and I would have about half, with pasta and veggies.

    I need to decrease the carb and the sodium of the meatloaf.

    The next time I make this I'd already planned on removing the cheese. After that...

    Thanks for suggestions!

    Paul

    i thought my husband and i were greedy eating a whole meatloaf that's made with 500g of mince... you're saying you eat over 600g yourself in one sitting?
  • paulb104
    paulb104 Posts: 13 Member
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    i thought my husband and i were greedy eating a whole meatloaf that's made with 500g of mince... you're saying you eat over 600g yourself in one sitting?

    I'm not a particularly big guy but I have always had a big appetite. At my fifth grade graduation (I was thirteen) supposedly I finished five entire pizza's by myself. I can still eat a large pizza without thought. I can breeze through a pound of pasta without pause. Not too long ago for dinner I'd have half a pound a pasta, three quarter pound cheeseburgers (that I grilled myself) with about two cups of broccoli.

    When I was a little younger, in my late thirties, when our family would go to a particular steak house restaurant, my meal would be a forty ounce porterhouse steak, a one pound baked potato with divinity cream, a wild mushroom reduction, and two large glasses of Sprite, no ice. Dessert would be a chocolate cake with drunken cherries. I would eat the entire meal, no leftovers.

    Boy, I miss that divinity cream. I've never been able to duplicate it...
  • paulb104
    paulb104 Posts: 13 Member
    UpEarly wrote: »
    I don't think the recipe isn't your problem... it's your portion sizes! If I'm reading what you wrote correctly, you're eating half the meatloaf in one meal (?) - that's a pound and a half or 24 ounces of beef. The meat alone in your portion has over 1,700 calories! Generally, 4-6 ounces of meat is considered an appropriate serving size.

    I know it's not what you asked, but I would seriously worry about the calories first, and then think about the carbs and sodium.

    You're not reading that incorrectly.

    I did say, though, "Before needing to watch what we ate..."

    For a variety of reasons our consumption of carbs and sodium have been drastically reduced. Our pretzel/chip type snacks have been replaced with baby carrots and celery. We've got a tight reign on what's being eaten.

    Then challenge is to keep the meals fun. The issue there is that I'm the cook, I'm disabled, my wife just had a stroke and we have a six year old. My goal is to simply things without feeling like we're in, I don't know, Nurse Cratchett's care.
  • paulb104
    paulb104 Posts: 13 Member
    So I made the meatloaf again. The only substitute I made was equal parts rolled oats for bread crumbs. As someone suggested, I added half a cup at a time, but as I never did it before I had know idea what looked right.

    While we liked the flavor, two cups of oats was ***way*** too much. The loaf was like cheap diner dry meatloaf.

    Next time I'll probably drop that to one and a quarter cup oats and see if that makes it too wet or too dry.

    We spent some time at the grocery store reading labels. Once we're set on the proper oats substitution, we're going to try swapping the ketchup with a combination of prego traditional and apple cider vinegar. At this point I'm thinking something like 1 3/4 cup sauce and 1/4 cup vinegar, but I don't yet know enough how to use apple cider vinegar in this type of application.
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