Ground Beef and Veggie Meatloaf

I (along with 2/3 of my class) have been battling a cold. So, John considerately and bravely faced Costco alone this past weekend. (He's really a trouper about running this errand, which I particularly loathe. Although we did make the mistake of scheduling a Costco run the Saturday before Superbowl Sunday.)

John and I have been trying to eat more nutritious food. So, he picked up lots of veggies--sweet peppers, broccoli, garlic, carrots, celery, spinach, and green beans. It's awesome to have all this food rich in vitamins... BUT, I've felt a bit intimidated about trying to use it all before it goes bad.

Since we also had ground beef, I decided to make meatloaf, which I love.

I wanted to use the slow cooker since we weren't eating it the same night. I found a recipe and used it as inspiration; but, since I didn't have all the ingredients, I sort of made my own recipe. It ended up being tasty and packed full of vegetables.

INGREDIENTS for the LOAF
(I'm estimating a cup to be about a handful and guessing on the spices... so this isn't too precise.)

2 c. chopped fresh broccoli
1 c. chopped fresh sweet peppers
1 clove diced garlic
1 c. cut or torn fresh spinach
1 c. cut baby carrots
2 lb. ground beef
2 slices bread (I used the heels of a sourdough wheat loaf)
3 eggs
1/2 T. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/4 tsp. chile powder
2 T. Worcestershire sauce

In one bowl, I combined all the vegetables, the Worcestershire sauce, and pepper and mixed.

In another bowl, I combined the rest of the ingredients (meat, bread, eggs, salt, poultry seasoning, and chile powder) and mixed these with my hands. I then added the bowl of vegetables and continued mixing this with my hands.

I sprayed the slow cooker with non-stick spray and then pressed the meatloaf mixture into the slow cooker. I cooked the loaf on low for 4 hours. After 2 hours, I poured off all the liquid. I repeated this at 3 hours and 3 and a half hours. The nice thing about this recipe is that the vegetables release so much liquid when they cook, they take out a lot of the greasiness from the meat. There was not fat or grease sitting on the top or on the sides.

INGREDIENTS for the SAUCE

3/4 c. of ketchup
1/4 c. Worcestershire sauce
2 T. apricot jam

I removed the loaf from the slow cooker and spread the sauce on top. I think there's probably a better topping AND a better way to do this, but I haven't figured that out yet.

We tried it tonight and it was delicious... and nutritious ;)