Slow Cooker Meatloaf

There’s a woman out there who is spending the year sharing her year of crockpot recipes that are Weight Watchers friendly. Who could resist?

I started with her Slow Cooker Meatloaf and I have to say, I’m not sure I’ll ever go back to cooking meatloaf in the oven. When finished (and pay attention to temps and time – see below), this came out as one of the moistest and most delicious meatloaves I’ve ever made.

She adapted her recipe from 300 Slow Cooker Favorites and I pretty much followed her adaptions.

Ingredients

• 1 cup finely chopped onion
• ½ cup finely chopped celery
• ¼ cup shredded carrot (I used the store bought stuff)
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1-1/2 pounds extra-lean ground beef (I used 96% lean)
• ½ cup quick cooking oats (instead of 1C breadcrumbs as in the book)
• ½ cup ketchup or chili sauce (I opted for the chili sauce which gives it a nice kick)
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

First things first, you’re going to want to line your crockpot with two strips of foil in a criss-cross pattern, trimming the ends so that it doesn’t interfere with the lid.

Criss-crossing the foil will help lifting out the meatloaf later

Spray the foil and crockpot with Pam.

Combine all the ingredients and using your hands form into a loaf shape in the crockpot.

She has you covering and cooking on low for 5 – 7 hours, until a meat thermometer inserted in the loaf registers 170F. Now, my crockpot cooks fast on the low setting, so I checked at about 3.5 hours, and mine was  more than done. I suggest you be home when you cook this otherwise you risk drying this out (which by the way can also happen if you turn it to warm for too long when it’s done).

Turn off the pot and lift out the loaf using the foil (nice trick – worked well. May try something similar with chicken). Let it sit for 15-20 minutes before slicing.

Served it with roasted green beans and this became a definite make again.

Oh, and by using the quick cooking oats, this satisfies Weight Watchers Simply Filling technique. Without, it’s 5Smart Points on Weight Watchers per serving (serves 6 at 4 servings, it’s 7 smart points).