Meatloaf (don't drop dead of a heart attack before you're 50 series)

I have to admit I AM a fan of down home comfort food.  Fried Chicken, Barbecue, Macaroni and Cheese, Twice Baked Potatoes, I even like Church Lady Meat sauce and Spaghetti which I think is a Hamburger Helper recipe, I never really asked how it's made.  I'm obviously a fan of all this, because I inadvertently capitalized all the letters at the start of these words without even thinking about it. HA.  But one of the crowned jewels in the comfort food arsenal has got to be meatloaf.  My mom makes the ketchup one, you know with the yellow mustard, brown sugar, vinegar, etc.  I have to say I love it, especially over rice with extra meatloaf sauce.  It makes me feel like I'm still a kid.  However I don't like the way I feel now after I eat it, part of the problem is that I always go for 2 or 3 slices, but there is a lot of grease, and the nutritional benefit is not too great, with the white bread and all.  Here is a meatloaf I think you will like that utilizes steel cut oats, egg whites, turkey (in place of some of the beef) and marinara sauce reduced with a little bit of barley malt syrup (just think a sweeter pizza sauce without the brown sugar.)  Cut this into slices, give each member of your family ONE and freeze the rest right away to avoid the temptation of overeating.  First we'll need to put out MacGiyver hat on.  Buy 2 bread loaf pans at the store that fit inside of each other with at least 1/2 inch of clearance at the bottom.  Using a hammer and nail punch holes in the bottom of one of the pans from the inside out.  When you put the loaf inside of the hole punched pan the grease will drain into the bottom pan, and also steam cook from the bottom.  This will lower the fat content considerably.

1 1/2 lbs ground meat.  1/2 lb pork, 1/2 lb lean beef, 1/2 lb turkey (pork is a lean meat, however not AS lean as turkey, but it has more flavor.

3/4 cup steel cut oats

2 egg whites (the whites are really the glue to the oatmeal, the yolk really doesn't add anything to the party

2 cloves crushed garlic

1 chopped onion

3/4 cup milk 2% will be fine, nonfat won't work really well

1 tbsp dried basil

1 tsp dried rosemary

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp salt

freshly ground black pepper

1 Tbsp Worchestershire sauce

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp dried mustard

Combine all ingredients into a bowl and mix well with your hands.   Put the loaf into the loaf pan coat with 1 cup of sauce spread across the top, and bake for 90 minutes at 350 degrees.

Sauce

1 bottle of your favorite store brand of spaghetti sauce.  I like Classico tomato basil.

1/2 cup barley malt syrup

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

Place all ingredients into a saucepan and reduce by 1/3 until thick like pizza sauce.

To serve

Serve over brown rice (I like to make a pilaf kind of brown rice by cooking it in chicken stock with chopped carrots, onions, and parsley.)

To Freeze

Cut one inch thick slices and put on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Spoon a generous amount of sauce over the top of each slice and place lukewarm into your freezer for about 3 hours.  Remove and place frozen blocks into ziplock bags to refreeze.  They will be portioned and individually frozen.