I'm the Queen when it comes to cooking this way. The trick is to think about what you're going to do with it, and do the prep from the grocery store to the fridge/freezer. For example, I often pound chicken breasts flat and freeze them, so when I forget to take something out, these will actually thaw out by the time I need them. Whenever you throw something on the grill, throw something else on as well, and freeze it to use later. I almost always have cooked hot dogs, turkey burgers, chicken or beef in my freezer ready to put in some kind of casserole. I preprep my veggies ahead for the whole week. Last week when I made a Broccoli & Beef stir fry, those were already cleaned and cut, which helped the process immensely. Cleaning vegetables is like mopping the floor to me, so dealing with them all at one time when my energy is high is a huge help for me. For pizza: Sausage is pre-browned and frozen in packages for two pizzas (One sausage link will cover two for us.) Veggies are pre-cut, and my sauce is already made from the pizza I made last week. The one thing I could do that would help to cut down the time is to pre-cut my parchment pizza rounds. Whenever I make a casserole, I make two. It doesn't take much longer to make an extra when you're making one anyway, and I ''bank'' the casserole in the freezer for those days I don't feel like cooking. I'll take a bag of potatoes and make twice-baked potatoes from the whole thing. I add broccoli (and sometimes bacon) along with cooked onions, and stuff to make the potatoes creamy, sometimes with a little peppercorn dressing, topped with cheese. Those potatoes are a complete meal for us, and So Delicious! When I make soup, I always freeze half for later. A quart jar is a perfect size to put the leftovers into. I often make tomato/meat sauce for lasagna and freeze it for later. Sometimes I'll boil ground beef to cook it (if you're looking to get rid of the fat) and put it in the freezer, ready to use for a meat sauce. And often, it's the extra pan of lasagna that's frozen, which I need to cook. Once it's cooked, I'll freeze slices of it, so it only need to be nuked. Whichever way, it's always delicious. When I make cookies, I roll them into balls and freeze them so I can make them when the urge strikes. There's nothing better than a warm cookie. I always have a loaf of garlic bread, sliced and in foil, ready to go in the freezer. One of my favorite appetizers is a Broccoli Ball made with stuffing mix and parmesan cheese. I always freeze a double batch, so I can take how however many I need and bake them. (I often pair these with barbequed meatballs which I prepare the same way.) I try to freeze packages flat, so they thaw in less time. I'll go ahead and slice some things when I get them home from the store, before I prepackage them for the freezer. Freezing things in ice cube trays, then repackaging them for meals really does help matters. Right now I have little blocks of chili sauce to pair with kosher beef hot dogs. Forgive me, please; I think I got a little carried away!

Read through and didn't see my recipe anywhere in here so I'll add it to your list for consideration. FWIW, my DH refused to eat meatloaf based on horrific childhood experiences but after trying mine 20 years ago he's CURED LOL and asks for it weekly. 1.25 lbs ground beef (I usually aim for 90% lean) 1 cup dry pepperidge farm herbed stuffing (blue & white bag) 1 can Campbells condensed tomato soup 1-2 tsp Worcestershire to taste 1 egg dash of milk (maybe 1 T at the most) 4 slices bacon I beat the egg in the bowl first, then add Worcestershire and undiluted soup and mix together. Then add stuffing mix to moisten and add beef to all for thorough mixing to distribute the egg mixture throughout. Add dash of milk and mix in. Turn into a loaf pan - I use a pyrex glass one because it seems to form a nicer looking finished loaf - and pat down gently using a fork to remove air pockets. Top with 4 slices of bacon and pop into the oven for 50 min at 400. After 50 min, take out and drain grease. Put it back in for 10 minutes to finish. Here's what I learned the hard way - you have to let it sit in the warm loaf pan for at least 10 min after removing from the oven to allow the meat to reabsorb the juices and set which helps decrease crumbling. After 10 minutes rest, invert loaf pan onto dish, cut and serve. I find that it works well to pop baking potatoes alongside in the oven to cook the entire time as a side! Bon Appetit! Jen

Of the above recipes I have only tried Sharon's (canarybird) and it was the best meatloaf I had ever eaten. Just this week I tried one that had been done by America's Test Kitchen and really liked the texture. The texture of a meatloaf is what I really don't like about most of them. They had tested this many ways including all different kids of meats with different porportions of fat, etc. This was of course their best effort. If I make this one again I would add more onions and some finely chopped green pepper because IMHO it was lacking something in taste. The glaze for this was especially good too. Glazed All-Beef Meat Loaf (Cook's Illustrated) 3 ounces Monterey Jack cheese , grated on small holes of box grater (about 1 cup) 1 Tablespoon butter 1 medium onion (about 1 cup) 1 medium rib celery mined (About 1/2 cup) 1 medium clove garlic, minced or pressed 2 teaspoons fresh thyme 1 teaspoon paprika 1/4 cup tomato juice 1/2 cup chicken broth 2 large eggs 1/2 teaspoon unflavored gelatin 1 tablespoon soy sauce 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 2 Tablespoons minced parsley leaves 3/4 teaspoon table salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1 Lb. ground sirloin 1 Lb. ground beef chuck (Or use 85% Ground beef.) 21 saltines, crushed Glaze 1/2 cup ketchup 1 teaspoon Tabasco 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander 1/4 cup cider vinegar 3 Tablespoons packed light brown sugar 1. Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 375 degrees. Spread cheese on plate and place in freezer until ready to use. Prepare baking pan by folding a piece of aluminum foil into a 10"X6" rectangle. Place it on a cooling rack placed inside a baking pan with sides. Using a skewer, poke holes in the luminum foil every 1/2 inch. Spray the foil with non-stick vegetable spray before putting the meat loaf on it. 2. Heat butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until foaming; add onion and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Add garlic, thyme, and paprika and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Reduce heat to low and add tomato juice. Cook, stirring to scrape up browned bits from pan, until thickened, about 1 minute. Transfer mixture to small bowl and set aside to cool. 3. Whisk broth and eggs in large bowl until combined. Sprinkle gelatin over liquid and let stand 5 minutes. Stir in soy sauce, mustard, saltines, parsley, salt, pepper, and onion mixture. Crumble frozen cheese into coarse powder and sprinkle over mixture. Add ground beef; mix gently with hands until thoroughly combined, about 1 minute. Transfer meat to foil rectangle and shape into 10 by 6-inch oval about 2 inches high. Smooth top and edges of meat loaf with moistened spatula. Bake until an instant-read thermometer inserted into center of loaf reads 135 to 140 degrees, 55 to 65 minutes. Remove meat loaf from oven and turn on broiler. 4. While meat loaf cooks, combine ingredients for glaze in small saucepan; bring to simmer over medium heat and cook, stirring, until thick and syrupy, about 5 minutes. Spread half of glaze evenly over cooked meat loaf with rubber spatula; place under broiler and cook until glaze bubbles and begins to brown at edges, about 5 minutes. Remove meat loaf from oven and spread evenly with remaining glaze; place back under broiler and cook until glaze is again bubbling and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes more. Let meat loaf cool about 20 minutes before slicing.

I winged a turkey meatloaf last night and it was good. It was just for hubs and I so I didn't have to worry about using ingredients or seasonings my dad wouldn't like. I followed my usual recipe which calls for seasoned bread crumbs (or oatmeal), an egg, and some tomato sauce and onion. Except I used home made mild salsa instead of the tomato sauce, and it had onions, peppers and tomato in it, plus seasonings of cumin, parsley, garlic and oregano. Also used Italian seasoned bread crumbs and a tsp. of Penzey's "Arizona Dreaming" which is a paprika-based seasoning sort of a cross between "Accent" and celery salt with a touch of cayenne. Also used a small amount of mozz cheese and Parmesan. Topped with tomato basil sauce. It was delish, but not low fat by any means, which I would say probably goes for all meat loafs. Would have to go to a turkey pilaf or turkey minestrone to get the flavors without the fats for binding and flavor . . . Otherwise a meatloaf is just a big seasoned burger . . . It did have the advantage of being much cheaper than hamburger-based meatloaf. Like some others have said, I think we'll be limiting our beef to the treat of steaks, kebabs or actual hamburgers or a roast. I made pork stew last week which was as good as beef stew and lots cheaper. I am trying to dial down meat anyway, as previously mentioned.