3 Meals, 1 Recipe : Mixture for Meatballs, Meatloaf, or Burgers

I hate leftovers. Like, h-a-t-e them. There are very few things I will eat more than once. And unfortunately, that goes for both restaurant food and home-cooked meals. I'm a little less hateful towards home-cooked meals.

I'm a planner. I plan lots of things, including my weekly menu. I try to plan for meals that use the same ingredients (if they're not common pantry items) so as not to waste anything. I hate wasting food. Hating leftovers and hating to waste food make my life a living... you get it. And to make all these matters worse, I am not great at cooking for two and minimizing leftovers. So, the planning saves me. Sometimes...

Well, I decided a while back I was going to attempt to make meatloaf. I have never eaten it in my life, that I can remember. Most kids had it growing up. I don't recall my mom or grandmother ever making it. I now know why...it's freaking disgusting to make. Raw meat, raw eggs, soggy bread... oh, and you have to mix it with your bare hands. Woof.

Well, I did it. I used The Pioneer's Woman's Meatloaf recipe, though I added one tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce to the mixture and I added about half a bell pepper and half an onion, both finely chopped. I also used a Parmesan, Romano, & Asiago cheese blend, since that's what I already had on hand. I didn't even gag once; however, once I was done combining all the ingredients, I realized I was going to have a huge 'loaf' on my hands. I did some googling and it turns out the recipe I used for my meatloaf is very similar to most meatball recipes AND it freezes well!

As a matter of fact, I found this post which shows you how to adapt your batch to make meatloaf, meatballs, or burgers! And Stockpiling Moms taught me how to flash freeze the uncooked mixture.

Now I have a perfect-sized loaf (which I'm sure will still yield leftovers--ack!) and I have meatballs for spaghetti & meatballs and patties for burger night!