Meatloaf

Meatloaf, or varieties at least, has been around since medieval times.  Here in the United States, especially in the Midwest and parts of the South, it is considered to be one of the stereotypical comfort foods.  During periods of our history, it provided a way to extend meager budgets, relying on  the inexpensive ground meat and all sorts of fillers (usually cereal grains) to provide a satisfying meal for a family.  Of course, our kitchen doesn’t contain any of the more typical binders and fillers found in most meatloaf recipes, so we’ve taken a little liberty with the traditional American meatloaf to provide you with a Primal comfort food you can enjoy.
Gather Up:

• 2 lbs grass-fed ground beef (or you can use any wild game)
• 3/4 cup almond flour
• 1 free-range egg
• 1 med yellow onion
• 1 small green bell pepper
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp Organic No-Salt Seasoning
• 1/2 tsp dried sage
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground mustard seed

For the Glaze:

• 1/4 cup ketchup (no HFCS)
• 1/8 cup yellow mustard
• 1-1/2 tsp honey
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• dash of Worcestershire sauce (no HFCS)
• dash of hot pepper sauce

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Put the meat in a bowl large enough to leave you some room to work.  Then put the almond flour and all of the herbs and spices for the meatloaf in a small food processor.  Pulse to mix well, but not turn the almond flour into nut butter.  Dump it on top of the burger in the mixing bowl.

Cut the pepper and onion up in to pieces small enough to fit in the same food processor.  The garlic cloves should fit in there whole.  Blend things up to mince everything so it will blend into the meatloaf well.

Add the pepper, onions, and garlic to the burger and almond meal in the mixing bowl, along with the egg, and work everything with your hands to mix well.  Take your time – make sure you don’t have any pockets of almond meal unmixed or you’ll have a very dry bite at that point.  When you’ve got it all mixed to your liking, press it into a loaf pan for shape.

Now, run a knife along the sides to loosen it from the loaf pan, and turn it out into a 13×9 baking pan.  Insert a meat thermometer at an angle so that it reaches the center of the loaf (make sure it is NOT touching the pan).  In my case, I have a probe for my oven, so I simply use the probe.  Put the pan in the oven (which should be about pre-heated by now) and set the timer for 10 minutes.

Once that is in the oven, take your glaze ingredients and mix them well in a bowl or cup.  When the timer goes off, spoon/spread the mix over the top of the meat loaf, which should just be starting to cook.  Close the oven back up and continue cooking until the meat thermometer reads 150~155 degrees (roughly another 30 to 40 minutes).

Take it out of the oven and let it sit for five minutes or so.  Transfer to a cutting board if you are in to nice presentations (we rarely have time for such things around here), then slice and serve along side some fresh greens or steamed broccoli and cauliflower.  Enjoy!