Bacon Smothered Meatloaf

I always hated meatloaf.  I don't think I really ever tried it due to the fact it has the word "loaf" in it. I decided I might try and start calling it a Meat Brick, as cool as that sounds, I didn't think it would exactly lure in my blog readers. Anyway, as I got older I decided to give meatloaf a shot, I mean what could be better than a bunch of ground beef with some BBQ sauce or Kethcup mixed in.  Oh, That's right, the only thing better is a bunch of ground beef with homemade "clean" BBQ sauce, smothered in BACON.  I made my own BBQ sauce for the meatloaf, I used almost the same recipe as I had posted a few months ago, I'll post the exact recipe I used in this case.

You will need:
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 1 clove garlic
-1/2 cup onions--or more if your an onion lover
-  1/2 cup shredded carrots
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil-- for a nice moist loaf...(thats what she said)
-1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1 cup homemade BBQ sauce
- enough bacon to SMOTHER the meatloaf

For the BBQ sauce:
- 1  6 oz can of tomato paste(no sodium added)
- 1 1/4 cup no sodium added beef stock
- 2-3 tsp honey
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
-1/4 tsp chipolte powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tbs apple cider vinegar
- 1 1/2 tbs dijon mustard
- 1 small shallot
- 1 clove garlic
- 1-2 tbs olive oil
- salt & pepper for taste

To make the sauce, I first sauteed the garlic and diced shallot in the olive oil, after 5 minutes I added the rest of the ingredients and stirred over a medium heat until you have a nice smooth sauce.  Use one cup in the meat loaf, and use save the rest to serve ontop of the meatloaf.

For the meatloaf, preheat the oven to 350, mix all of the ingredients except the bacon in a bowl, mix it thoroughly with hands.  Then put meat in a baking dish, I used this instead of a loaf pan to make it cook faster ( is it even called a loaf pan?? thats such a silly word to me)

Then totally cover the top with strips of bacon

Put in the oven for 40 minutes then turn on the broiler and leave in the oven for 4 more minutes to crisp up the bacon..yes four minutes exactly is what worked for me, another minute and I probably would have had burnt bacon. No Bueno.

Top it with BBQ sauce and  serve it with your favorite veggie, I had spinach sauteed in coconut oil, and I tossed in some walnuts for a little crunch, the texture of cooked spinach gets to me sometimes.

I didn't notice that nice chip in the plate until right now.  Ooops.

Enjoy!