Cheese Stuffed Meatloaf

The mighty meatloaf is a classic comfort food and a quintessential staple in many homes. Meatloaf is a popular go-to for many reasons–it’s an old family tradition, a means to use up leftover ground meat, or even a method of filling up while saving money. But it also often gets a pretty bad rap. Some people find meatloaf to be a dull, boring dish–most likely because of poor past experiences with bland or dry versions of it. But if you can master the meatloaf–transforming it from mundane to marvelous–you can master just about any other culinary dish.

Today’s recipe features a unique, cheese stuffed meatloaf which I invented about a year ago when I had a craving for meatloaf with cheese. Rather than just sprinkle shredded cheese or lay sliced cheese over the top, I decided to do something a little different by stuffing it down the center. This way, I could put it in as I was prepping it and not have to worry about cheese on top getting burned or having to remove the meatloaf to add the cheese later. The result was a flavorful, moist loaf of meat and one of our family’s top favorite menu items. And the best part is that I made it using all real food ingredients (including homemade ketchup).

For the meatloaf pictured, I used cheddar cheese because that is what I happened to have on hand at the time. However, just about any cheese goes awesome with this recipe. Try Parmesan, pepper jack, mozzarella, muenster, feta, or even Gruyere to make it extra fancy. You could also do a blend consisting of more that one kind of cheese.

This meatloaf goes awesome with a side of warm mashed potatoes and gravy, a simple tossed salad with lettuce and dressing, hot rolls and butter, and/or fresh steamed or roasted veggies.

If you have any leftover meatloaf, you can just reheat it and eat it as you might other leftovers. Or you can transform it into a sandwich as is commonly done to leftover meatloaf.

Unfortunately, this recipe does not freeze too well (neither uncooked nor cooked). It gets mushy, crumbly, and quite unappetizing when thawed.