The Easy Meatloaf Recipe that Even My Picky Teenager Loves
He even goes back for seconds.
Cool weather makes me crave winter dishes like beef stew, roasted pork loin, and meatloaf served with a side of mashed potatoes. As much as I love cooking, one of my two teenagers is a picky eater. Much to my dismay, he often skips the dinners I make and throws chicken nuggets in our air fryer or cooks a box of macaroni and cheese instead. Recently, I stumbled upon the Rempel Family Meatloaf Recipe, submitted by Allrecipes user Connie Levesque, which many reviewers claim is picky eater–approved—so I had to test it out in hopes of making a family dinner everyone at my table would eat.
What Sets the Rempel Family’s Version Apart From Other Meatloaf Recipes?
For starters, it doesn’t contain ingredients likely to put off picky eaters, such as diced onions or a heavy tomato sauce. Instead, it’s made of a few ingredients that happen to be my picky 16-year-old’s go-to foods: crackers, Cheddar cheese, ketchup, and ground beef.
After gathering my ingredients—ground beef, crushed buttery round crackers (like Ritz), shredded cheddar, powdered onion soup mix, eggs, ketchup, and steak sauce—I discovered another perk to the recipe. It’s incredibly easy to toss together and doesn’t require getting your hands messy mixing things like bread crumbs and egg with ground beef and shaping the mixture into a loaf. Instead, I combined everything in a large bowl and mixed it with a large wooden spoon, which I also used to transfer the mixture into a loaf pan and pat it down.
With my clean hands, all that was left to do was sprinkle more shredded Cheddar cheese on top and toss the pan into a 350-degree oven. It took about an hour for the meatloaf to reach the suggested temperature of 160 degrees, and then it was ready to serve. I paired the meatloaf with sautéed veggies and buttery mashed potatoes, making it the perfect cool-weather dinner.
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What the Allrecipes Community Has to Say
The recipe has received more than 3,000 reviews, most of which are five stars.
“Great flavor and I thought I made a good meatloaf, this is hands down tastier after 40 years of meatloaf making, thanks Rempel Family!” —Gayle’s Kitchen
“I have made this about once a week for years now! My picky 17 year old says it is better than anything she has eaten at any restaurant or anywhere else! She pretends to faint when she eats it.” —Allrecipes Member
I can't even count how many times I have made this recipe. I've found my go to recipe and I will probably make it forever. I hand this recipe out to friends. It's absolutely the best!!! —WorknFires
Does the Rempel Family Meatloaf Recipe Live Up to the Hype?
My husband, our non-picky teen, and I loved the meatloaf as much as other Allrecipes reviewers. The crackers offered a burst of salty, buttery flavor and the Cheddar cheese had the perfect bite to it. We also loved the fact that this meatloaf wasn’t heavily saucy and allowed the flavors of the actual ground beef mixture to shine through. With a touch of steak sauce on the side for dipping purposes, the dish was delicious and tasted even better the following day as leftovers.
What did my picky teenage son think of the Rempel family’s take on meatloaf? I thought he’d say, “Meatloaf, smeatloaf, double-beat-loaf, I hate meatloaf,” like Ralphie’s brother, Randy, in “A Christmas Story,” But I was pleasantly surprised. He even went back for seconds, saying it was the only meatloaf he’s ever enjoyed and likened the flavor to a bunless cheeseburger. As a mom who’s always trying to please everyone at the dinner table but often failing, I’ll take it.
The meatloaf recipe has received well-deserved acclaim. Not only is it simple and mess-free, but it also makes plenty of portions and works great for leftovers the next day. The meatloaf is now in my winter dinner rotation—and I’m so glad families like the Rempels hand down their recipes for others to enjoy.
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