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Angela’s BBQ Stuffed Meatloaf

This is a derivative of my original stuffed meatloaf recipe, here.

BBQ Meatloaf w/ spaghetti squash
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Angela's BBQ Stuffed Meatloaf

This is a delicious meatloaf with show stopping looks, but it's EASY to make! I use a mix of ground chicken and beef, but any combo of meat is fine. Meatball (or meatloaf) mix is excellent if you can find it. It's shown with spaghetti squash on the side (recipe in notes). Leftovers are amazing, too!
Course Main Course
Cuisine American
Keyword bbq meatloaf, beef and chicken meatloaf, meatloaf, stuffed meatloaf
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Resting time 15 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings 6 servings
Author misangela

Equipment

  • 9x9 square baking dish, sprayed with food release (PAM)

Ingredients

  • 1 pkg ground chicken (about 1#) preferably not just breast, which is very dry
  • 1 pkg ground beef (about 1#) I like no more than 10% fat
  • 1 med shallot, minced about 1-2 Tbl
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced about 2 Tbl
  • 1/4 cup breadcrumbs any type is fine
  • 2 Tbl tomato sauce or ketchup is fine
  • 2 Tbl BBQ sauce any kind is fine, plus more for topping later
  • 2 tsp L&P Worcestershire
  • 2 tsp dried marjoram sub ONE tsp oregano
  • 1 tsp dried basil
  • 1 Tbl dried mustard sub 1 tsp dijon mustard
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 1 tsp white pepper optional
  • 2 eggs, slightly beaten

Stuffing

  • 4 slices thin sliced deli ham any flavor
  • 3 oz sliced cheese, any cheddar blend is good about 3-4 slices or equivalent shredded
  • 2 tsp dijon mustard

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 375°F.
  • Mix meatloaf ingredients together in a large bowl. Use your hands and DO NOT overmix or your meatloaf will be very dense and dry. As soon as the meat is evenly mixed, stop. Divide meat into two equal portions.
  • Form first portion into a flat oval-shaped loaf and place in the baking dish. It should be about an inch or so thick. Make a 2" ditch in the center for the stuffing, keeping at least 1" from the edge of the meat.
  • Put a layer of dijon in the ditch. Place ham slices, with enough to overlap the cheese. I use a couple of layers of sliced honey ham. Proscuitto would work here, too. Next, place the cheese on ham, drizzle with more dijon and wrap ham over cheese. Try to keep the layered items within the ditch you made.
  • Form second portion of meat into another flat oval to match the first and place on top of filled section. Pinch together the layers and make the loaf whole. Decorate with some BBQ sauce on top.
    BBQ meatloaf before cooking
  • Bake for about 40 minutes or until meat is 165F at center. Let rest for at least 15 minutes before you slice.

Notes

Spaghetti squash side is simply steamed squash separated into strands then quickly sautéed with butter, salt and lots of black pepper.  Finish with parmesan. 
This meatloaf makes great leftovers and will freeze well. 
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Brain Dump

While we are having Quiet Time™, I guess I’ll do a brain dump post. I’ve got lots of little things knocking around in here, just nothing big enough for a full post. So let the info dump commence!

Nick is tired today, hence Quiet Time™. He’s back to not drawing. WTF ever. I’m about to give up that fight. He’ll do it when he’s damned good and ready. It’s the Way of the Taurus Weasel.

We have set some goals. Besides getting the fucking comics wrangled, we want to achieve escape velocity and GTFO of this stuck mojo place we’re in. We are comfortable and it’s killing us. Seriously. Sometimes you’ve got to do something FIERCE to get your life going. We are planning FIERCE. And VERY uncomfortable. We aren’t sure of the timetable, but we have the goal. I hope we can achieve it. It does NOT involve Atlanta. That’s all I’ll say at this time.

I had dreams of being in a new house with lots of room. There were people there (roommates?) that were annoying but seemed to serve some sort of purpose? Nick and I were rearranging furniture (very NICE furniture!) and debating over which pieces to put in storage. The other night I dreamt of not scary zombies. And Madonna. Madonna was NOT a zombie, sadly, that would’ve been cool!

I had a busy week. Lots of stuff to do for the bakery and the taqueria. Also had to get the magazine up as usual. I got stuff done LIKE A BOSS.

Graphicly has started a new thing where they will convert and distribute your book, magazine, comic, whatever to all the various digital outlets for $150 per document. That is the special discount rate and will go up, but let me tell you: even if it doubles it is an AMAZING deal. If you have thought of going digital, I strongly suggest you get thee to Graphicly right away and contact them about their new digital conversion business. [Graphicly died in ’13 or ’14, sadly. -A Feb 2016]

DJ is in his decline, I think. He’s eating well, but he’s still getting thinner. ::sigh:: He’s now got a small bump on his nose which is probably the Cryptococcus neoformans digging in deeper. I hope I’m wrong, but I dunno. A kitty mama knows when her elderly children are slowing down. There’s nothing to be done about it, I’m just saying it out loud to try and get used to the idea. Makes me melancholy. :(

The dieting is going along. I’m still not very disciplined about it, but I’m losing a little, so it’s good. Shakeology shakes are pretty good, but I can’t really see that they actually help with weight loss at all. Meh.

Missy has been a little bunghole this week. She has decided that 6am is the perfect time to get up. She wakes us up then runs and hides so we can’t put her in timeout (the bathroom). The other day, I gave food to DJ and grabbed her, tossed her in timeout and went back to bed. She was quite angry about this, so she pooped on the bathroom floor. I didn’t speak to her for a full day. We’ve since worked it out and she has not woken us up at 6am, either. Damn cat!

I finished the Steve Jobs biography. It was pretty dry and I’m not a huge fan of Isaacson’s style, but I still loved it. It’s really the story of Apple, you see, as much as it is about Jobs. It’s sort of like reading my own biography with Apple/Macintosh. And I also share some personality traits with Steve: coldness, binary thinking (it sucks or it’s the best), perfectionism, deeply sensitive (but well hidden) and some others. I can totally understand his behaviour despite never having met him. And I still mourn the loss of genius that really DID change the world. I know all you naysayers will pooh-pooh all of this, but just look at what his crazy head thought up (or modified or paid to have made):
GUI
the mouse
the trackpad
touchscreen w/ gestures
tablet
phone with apps
music device with apps
Gorilla glass (yep, he paid Corning to start making it again)
digital music
digital books, mags, newspapers, etc.
Pixar (and subsequently Disney)
and tons more stuff!
The sheer industrial design that Jobs came up with is amazing. Ives and Jobs changed the way technology looks. The world would not be full of these marvelous devices if Apple (aka Jobs) hadn’t had the stones to make it happen. His loss will be felt for a long, long time. Like it or not hatahs, he is why all of you have Droids and Kindles.

I read the Normal Mailer photo book Marilyn. While the photos are great, the actual quasi-biography written by Mailer is hideous. That man had some sort of hang up about sex. It was mentioned on just about every page – usually right along with his psychobabble about Marilyn’s supposed issues. I can’t believe that man won a Pulitzer! Marilyn was horrible to read. I gave up and just looked at the iconic pix instead.

The Weasel is up from his nap and I’m gonna wrap. It’s been a nice brain dump. Thanks for reading! Now it’s time for Super Bowl blabbing and GO GIANTS!

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Year of the Water Dragon

It certainly is starting off in a soggy, watery kind of way! My year is next year (Snake) and don’t know who of my friends are Dragons. Chime in, you!

This last weekend was not stellar. Actually, it kind of sucked. All the stress and angst over the comics finally came to a head and ended up ruining most of the weekend. The good news is that we worked through it and it’s all OK today. Mostly.

The weather today is gross and rainy, which pushes my housecat buttons. I just want to curl up with the other housecats and NAP. They’ve got the right idea, I tell you!

We started the Shakeology diet thing today. Not a big deal. Wish she’d have sent ScaryBerry rather than the chocolate, but it’s OK. It’s really a VERY good product – just pricey as hell. $100/mo for ONE person. Ugh. We are working for our Shakeology, but I doubt we’ll continue it once the testing of the plan is over. We just canNOT afford $200/mo for that shit. I’ll devise some other protein shake and we’ll go back to our regular vitamins. The Shakeology shakes have pretty much a multivitamin in them, which is nice, but I can do my own supplements for FAR cheaper. Anyway, we are on the plan and I hope it works.
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I forgot about this post I started yesterday. So today I shall finish it.

Today’s weather is much better than yesterday so at least there’s that. I woke up feeling a bit creaky today. :/

I’ve got some goldfinches at my feeders. They usually come by this time of year. My large flock of grackles and red winged blackbirds have cleaned out the feeders – again. They eat a lot when it rains, oddly.

I’m getting some work in from Rob, which is great because our digital publisher, Graphicly.com, has launched a new programme for multiple platform digital publishing for an amazingly small price per unit. $150 for one pdf? YES PLEASE! We are going to use this to reboot Think Weasel!. If we can get things rolling sufficiently, we might use it for Awkward Ninjas, too. Stay tuned.

Speaking of Think Weasel!, I’m going to redouble my efforts at doing a half way regular newsletter with special deals and such. Like maybe give away collections or sketchcards to the first responder, etc. Perhaps even a contest with a T shirt prize. Dunno. I’m going to try pushing it and actually USING our MailChimp account. For a change.

Ok, that’s it. I got a Darth Jr cat wanting lap. I must comply!

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Grumpy post

I’m grumpy. I feel OK so far today, but I have some leftover grump that I need to get out of my system, so here it goes:

1. Since when is it OK to search the internet for posts about you or your business, then bitch about the post to the writer? I’ve had three instances of this in the last week and it REALLY chaps my ass. It all started with my previous host’s owner asking me to delete – not just edit, but delete my post about why we left his hosting company. Yes, it was a negative experience, which is kinda why we left, YO. Since he’s also a personal friend, I edited the post, but did not delete it. And I am not happy about it, but he seemed seriously worried, so, whatever. Then I got a love note about my Rudolph post, which was VERY positive. However, at the end, I added that they needed funds for the Henson wing and that apparently sent their PR firm into fits. ?? Look, I understand trying to make sure there’s no slander or misinformation out there, but seriously? ONE WORD? You’ll write an email about ONE WORD in a post? Really, bravepublicrelations.com? How RUDE. Et tu, Trek Trax ATLANTA? RUDE RUDE RUDE. And YES I will be totally snarky when you send me these trifling bullshit emails. Get over yourselves. Ever heard the phrase “All publicity is good publicity”? See the Yelp/Facebook saga of the local eatery Boners BBQ for a nice illustration of “How to be a dick to your customers who review you.”

2. Comcast can eat a bag of dicks. Kate was over and downloaded a couple of movies and here comes the love notes. I think it’s SO CUTE how Comcast insists that they don’t have anything to do with the media companies’ noticing a torrent. RIGHT, I’m sure the companies monitor every port and every IP address all day every day. Bullshit. They get the IP addresses from Comcast. Clearly Comcast monitors home users and not businesses since Nick can (and has) downloaded the whole internet from work. Comcast, you are big media’s BITCH. At least be honest about it.

3. OMG I’ve had country music in my head for days. Miranda Lambert, Gretchen Wilson, Sara Evans, Jo Dee Messina. I love these ladies, I do, but DAMN. EARWORMS!! I think I’ll listen to a weird internet radio station today to see if I can change my internal channel.

4. I love my con organisers, I really do, but WHY, gods WHY can’t they join us in the 21st century? The really small ones want a check mailed to them. A paper check. I don’t even have any paper checks!! Even the big ones can’t get past FAX machines and having to call it in. Please guys, please, for the love of technology, get with the program and set up a PayPal cart and learn to use email. And NONE OF THEM send any sort of receipt or acknowledgment. Nothing. Is a receipt too much to ask for?

I gotta go hit the rack and fiddle with the weight bench. I’m still grumpy.

GET OFF MY LAWN YOU STINKIN’ HIPSTERS!