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Sometimes I’m confused when people think they can’t follow the Trim Healthy Mama healthy eating lifestyle without making two separate meals: one for themselves and one for their families. Almost all of our family favorite meals have been easily “THMable”. Here’s one of them.
PS – it happened again. I tweaked this recipe earlier this year and hadn’t gotten around to posting it yet. I scheduled it this week, then yesterday I found out that there’s a meatloaf recipe in the new THM cookbook called “Mama’s Famous Meatloaf”. All I can say is that great minds think alike…haha. This recipe is the meatloaf recipe that my mama makes.
This meatloaf recipe comes from our old blue church cookbook and was originally submitted by Anna Hershberger.  My mom has made it a lot over the years. I’ve made a few tweaks to conform it to healthy standards, but mostly the change-ups were a simple matter of using old fashioned instead of quick oats and using plan-approved sweetener in the topping (which we usually don’t make anyway).
We usually don’t make the topping for the meatloaf (you can serve it with no sugar added ketchup instead), but I’ve included the recipe here in case you want to try it. We used to make the topping until we came to the conclusion that most of the family likes the meatloaf better without it. I’m one of the few who actually likes the meatloaf better with the topping included, but since the rest of the family isn’t on board and I’d just as soon skip a step, I just leave it off.
This meatloaf is a great recipe to make on a Sunday morning and put in the oven during church so dinner is ready and waiting when you get home.
Yes, there are oats in this recipe, and oats are generally an E fuel source (for Trim Healthy Mamas). The net carbs from the oats come to 5.5 grams per serving, which is well within THM S boundaries. While I try not to combine fuels often, sometimes for sake of ease and economy I’m willing to take some liberties. If you don’t want to use that many oats, try substituting some grated parmesan cheese (the kind from the green shake container), keeping in mind that you may need to decrease the salt in the meatloaf (and the meatloaf may turn out a little more dense).
You can find this recipe in my cookbook, Necessary Food.
- 2 lb. ground beef
- 1 cup old-fashioned oats, roughly ground if desired for a finer texture (use gluten free if necessary)
- ¼ cup chopped onion
- 1½ tsp. salt
- ½ tsp. pepper
- 1 egg
- 1 cup tomato juice
- ⅓ cup no-sugar-added ketchup
- 1 tsp. prepared yellow mustard
- Sweetener equal to 2 T sugar, plus ½ tsp. molasses for a brown sugar flavor
- A few drops of liquid smoke flavoring, optional
- Use your hands to mix all the meatloaf ingredients together. Form into your desired loaf shape in a greased 9x13 inch glass pan.
- Make the topping, if desired, by mixing all the ingredients together. Spread on top of the meatloaf.
- Bake the meatloaf (uncovered) at 350 degrees F for approximately 45 minutes or until cooked through. We often bake it at 225-250 degrees F for about 3½ hours while we're in church Sunday morning so it's ready for lunch when we get home.
I just want to say we love this recipe. I don’t love how it turns out when cooking it shorter time at higher temp, its DEF WAY BETTER TO SLOW COOK this one at the lower temp as I’ve tried both (usually when I forget to put it in earlier). Also, I LOVE the topping on it…..
Crazy Question:
Instead of mixing this by hand, could you put it in the Kitchen Aid mixer? I have trouble mixing with my hands.
Thank you!
You could, but the texture will not be as good. Overmixing things like hamburgers and meatloaf make for a more dense, rubbery result.
I make this meatloaf recipe 1 or 2 Sundays a month! We love it! Thanks!
Do you really mean a 9×13 cake pan? I’ve always used a loaf pan for meat loaf. The meat would be a thin flat slice if you used a cake pan, wouldn’t it?
You form the meatloaf into a rectangular loaf shape in the 9×13 with space around the sides for the grease to flow, that way the grease doesn’t all stay in the loaf. 🙂
Can’t wait to try this, but I have a couple of questions. I usually add some green bell pepper to my meatloaf, and some Worcestershire sauce. Will either of these drastically change the carb values? Also, I have a mix of those that prefer sauce and those who don’t. I was planning to make them in a muffin pan, and bake them around 30 minutes. Thank you.
Those additions should be fine from a carb perspective. 😊 I’m not sure how long “muffins” will take, but just bake till the juices run clear and the tops are as crusty as you like.
I’m out of eggs at the moment but have cartons of egg whites – could I sub or would it not come out right?
I’ve never tried that so I can’t say for sure, but you could just try eyeballing an egg’s worth of egg whites. 🙂
This meatloaf is wonderful. My husband loves it.
Hi Briana,
I’m wanting to make this, but have a question about the tomato juice. Can I sub canned tomato sauce for the tomato juice? I read that you make your own homemade tomato juice but since I don’t do that, what would be a good substitute for it?
If I don’t have tomato juice I typically use part ketchup, part water, to sub for the tomato juice.
This is now a family favorite!!!! Along with your clam chowder!!!
Is this a Deep S? If not, can it be turned into a Deep S?
I’m so glad you like it! No, it’s not a Deep S. You’d have to find a way to replace or omit the onion, oats, and tomato juice, and leave the topping off.
Thanks for this recipe, going to try it this week! My sons are ultra picky about food though…I was wondering if I shaped it into cute little meatballs (which they might eat as opposed to slabs of meat), would it change any of your directions? Thanks in advance!!
I’ve never tried that, but it would probably work. 🙂 You just wouldn’t bake them as long – maybe 25-30 minutes until the juices run clear? You might also enjoy this Italian Meatball Casserole: https://www.briana-thomas.com/italian-meatball-casserole/
Cool, thanks a lot! Will try that and check out the meatball casserole too 😉
Briana: I make this regularly for our little family of 4. The hubby is wonderful about trying anything I put in front of him but he doesn’t always end up liking it…especially lately with all the THM cooking. However, he perks up when I make this delicious meatloaf and the bacon wrapped chicken (I use ranch seasoning). I use several of your other wonderful recipes but those are his favorites. 🙂
That’s so great to hear, Heather! I love the idea of Ranch seasoning on the chicken.
The meatloaf recipe looks great! Though I’m really interested in what kind of a salad dressing you used. It looks amazing. I can’t have dairy but am really craving a creamy dressing!!
It was probably just storebought Ranch that I thinned down a bit with water. 🙂
Would this recipe be an E if use 96% ground turkey and the whole egg would be 5 gms fat..andin a serving you might get 1/4 egg
It could be used in an E setting if you use a 96% (or leaner) ground meat and stick to 1/8th of the recipe. 🙂 (It would actually be a FP, and you could add a carb source for a true E.)
Can you use watered down tomato sauce instead of tomato juice? I do not like drinking tomato juice, so I would rather not have leftovers of it…any suggestions?
That should work. I’ve also used part ketchup, part water.
Hi Briana, I tried this over the weekend and my husband loved it. It was juicy and soft and I thought it was even better than steak. Was thinking, do you think I could make this mix into hamburger patties and freeze (not sure if I should freeze cooked or uncooked) so that I can make hamburgers with it? Thanks!
Hi Teresa! I’ve never tried anything like that, but I bet it would work! I would probably freeze the patties uncooked, then thaw and bake or grill, but I really have no experience with such things so take my advice with a grain of salt. 😉
what kind of tomato juice? is there such a thing as just straight juice with no added stuff?
We can our own homemade tomato juice without any additives. 🙂
How many servings does this make? In my house there is only 2 of us. Could I just half the ingredients? I hope so because I only thawed one pound of venison ☺ I plan on making it tonight with green fries and salad.
This recipe serves 8. Yes, feel free to cut the recipe in half. (Adjust the baking time if necessary.)
Or you might try prepping the whole recipe then freezing half. When you want to cook the 2nd half just put the frozen loaf in the frig the morning of the day before you want to bake it to thaw. Anyway that’s what I did. Worked great for our small family.
What percent fat ground beef do you use for the meatloaf? Looks great can’t wait to try it.
I don’t know for sure what my mom gets, but it’s usually pretty lean. 90/10, maybe?
Thanks for the note about cooking it at a low temp to get it done for church. It is always hard to get it all done before church. That will help a lot.
I’m very new to THM, but if I wanted to sub out breadcrumbs in meatloaf with something non-carby and simple I’d go with a bit of (unsweetened) flaked coconut. There really isn’t enough here to taste coconutty, and it’s nice and light, kind of a pseudo-starch.
I usually grind up a couple Joseph’s pitas when I’m replacing breadcrumbs in a recipe. You could probably swap oats for pita crumbs too! Looks delicious Briana ?
Hi Briana,
I am very new to the THM way of eating (so far so good) and I LOVE your recipes, everything looks amazing. I also really enjoy meatloaf and am going to try your recipe but I have a question. Would it work if I substituted Oat Fiber for some or all of the Oatmeal or do you think that would make it into sawdust loaf?
Thanks,
Leslie
Good question, Leslie! I personally would not use oat fiber because it’s very dry and I can imagine it wouldn’t do nice things to this yummy meatloaf. If you want a binder other than oatmeal, I suggest experimenting with golden flaxmeal, grated parmesan cheese, and/or THM Baking Blend.
Those are very good suggestions, thank you so much Briana! I am looking forward to trying it soon.
I just got around to making this, and let me just say…winner winner meatloaf dinner!! I consider myself something of meatloaf expert, and this one’s a keeper. Well done Briana.
Awesome! Thanks for making it!
Could ground turkey be used in place of the ground beef?
Looks delish!
I don’t see why not. 🙂
There is no more perfect food than meatloaf! I love that this recipe uses a lot of oats to make it moist! And I can’t believe this reipce is healthy, I have to try it!