Bacon topped meatloaf


Ingredients:
1 cup wheat breadcrumbs
1/2 cup milk (I use 1%)
1 leek, minced
2 celery stalks minced
1 pound of ground beef
2 cups oatmeal ( I use baby cereal)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan (or sprinkle cheese as i call it.)
1/2 cup carrot puree (or carrot baby food 4 oz jar)
1/4 cup of ketchup (really tasty using homemade ketchup)
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 cup bottled tomato sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
4 slices of bacon

Instructions:
1) preheat the oven to 350 and spray a 9x5 loaf pan with cooking spray.
2) In a large bowl soak the breadcrumbs in the milk.
3) Heat a large skillet over medium-high, than add oil when hot. (about 2 tablespoons of olive oil to be healthier) Than add leek and cook about 7-10 minutes stirring occasionally. Just want to brown up the leek a tiny bit.
4) Add the celery and cook 3-4 minutes longer. Than scrape mixture into bowl with breadcrumbs.
5) Add beef, Parmesan, carrot puree, ketchup, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and oatmeal to bowl. Stir to combine. (or just mush with your hands to really fold all the ingredients in nicely.)
6) mold the mixture into the pan, smoothing the top. add tomato sauce on top, than lay strips of bacon across.
7) Cook for 45-50 minutes. The bacon should just begin to brown, and the center of meatloaf should no longer be pink.

Chef's Comments:
This is a new recipe I came up with adapting others I've seen. It has not turned out perfect yet, as it was more liquidy than I expected. But I had made a double batch to try to feed my very hungry family. I think I missed something when i did the double because it was more crumbly than I had expected. Was still very delicious though!

Prep time is about 15 minutes.