Grandma Joan’s Italian Style Meatloaf Recipe

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Full disclosure here folks..I don’t have a Grandma Joan.  Quite honestly, I don’t even know anyone who has a Grandma Joan!

This recipe came from a Woman’s World magazine a couple of years ago, in their Money-Saving Cooking feature.  It was ‘Grandma’ Joan Smith’s from Houston, recipe for Spaghetti & Meatballs.  My husband doesn’t care much for meatballs, but he does like a good slice (or two of meatloaf), so I altered the recipe to suit our needs, shaped it into a loaf, and thus was born:

Grandma Joan’s Italian Style Meatloaf
Serves 6.


• 6 slices of whole wheat sandwich bread
• 1/4 cup of skim milk
• 2 tsp. dry Italian salad dressing powered mix (like Good Seasons or similar)
• 1 egg
• 1 lb of 93% lean ground beef
• 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
• (optional) heated spaghetti sauce for topping/dipping

1.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.   In a large bowl, tear up the 6 slices of whole wheat bread into small pieces.  Then pour the milk on top of the bread, and let it soak in (about 5 minutes).

2. While the bread is soaking, beat the salad dressing mix into the egg. 

3. Add the egg mix, ground beef and parmesan cheese to the bread pieces and mix well.  I just use my hands, but you could use the dough hook on an electric mixer if you don’t want to get your hands messy 🙂

4. Press beef mixture down into a loaf pan.  Bake for 1 hour.

5. Go ahead and spoon some heated spaghetti sauce on top, or serve it with the sauce on the side for dipping, if you like.

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