The Best Meatloaf and Potatoes

Meatloaf and Potatoes

When I was little I lived on a farm. We had a horse and some cows and a chicken coop. Sometimes we had pigs and we always had acres and acres (the farm was 1 mile square) of fields. My brothers (I have 2, one older and one younger) and I played in the barn and in the hay mow and ran down the rows of corn and soybeans in the fields. We ran around barefoot all summer long. We climbed trees and played badminton in the big machine shed when all the farm equipment was out in the fields. We played hard (and worked hard when dad made us walk the fields with a hoe in hand looking for weeds or feeding the animals or weeding the garden or shucking corn, etc.) but at the end of every single day my mother had a great meal for us on the dinner table. 

This was one my very favorite meals that I remember my mother making. She usually made green beans and bacon to go along with it. The beans came straight from the garden in the summer, or if it was in the winter, they came from the freezer where we put them the summer before. Every time I make this wonderful meatloaf, I think of those days on the farm and my mother in the kitchen making food that tastes the way only mom can make it taste.

This meatloaf is a simple recipe. Lean ground beef, onion, oatmeal or cracker crumbs, evaporated milk, ketchup, salt and pepper.

 Mix it all together. You could fight with it using a spoon, but I use my hands and mix and squish it all together. It mixes so much easier and much more thoroughly with your hands in charge.
Don't overwork the meatloaf.

Just enough to mix it well.

 Slice fresh potatoes in the bottom of a greased baking dish.
The recipe says 3 cups, but slice as many as you like!
Half potatoes and half meatloaf is good,
but so is lots and lots of potatoes and a little meatloaf.

I make double (or more) of this recipe so that I can put a few in the freezer. Can't freeze fresh potatoes so I put frozen hash brown potatoes in the bottom of the greased disposable freezer pan instead.

Put the meatloaf on top and pop it in the oven for about 45 to an hour. This will depend on the size of the dish but check it after 45 minutes.

I use a fork to see if the potatoes are tender.

Why does this pic insist on being sideways?

Put meatloaf over the hash browns in the freezer pan(s).

(no need to thaw since they're going right back in the freezer)

Top with lids and labels.

Presto! Dinner in the oven and 3 pans in the freezer!

 Serve it up and pass the ketchup. If you don't care for ketchup, I suppose it will taste good...but if you ask me, this recipe is why ketchup was invented.

Sam agrees. Loves the meatloaf. With lots of ketchup. 

What a good boy...he ate his vegetables first. Isn't he cute?

Meatloaf and Potatoes
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup oatmeal (or cracker crumbs)
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 chopped onion
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 cups fresh sliced potatoes (or if you want to freeze it - 3 cups frozen hash browns), or more!


Combine ground beef, evaporated milk, oatmeal or cracker crumbs, ketchup, onion, salt, and pepper. Place potatoes in bottom of baking dish or hash browns in bottom of disposable foil baking pan(s). Spread meatloaf over potatoes. Bake uncovered for 45 to 60 minutes or until potatoes are tender. 6 servings.


To Freeze: Cover, label, and freeze.
To Serve: Thaw. Bake uncovered for about 45 minutes.


Baking time will be less when using hash browns than when baking fresh potatoes.
AND remember that if you divide this into smaller pans (freeze meal-size not recipe-size!!) the baking time will be even less. So...for example, if you freeze individual size pans and use hash browns, the baking time will be about 20 minutes.

More freezer recipes like this one can be found here.