Anita and I picked up some old lunch trays at the antique mall recently. Ever since then we’ve been wanting to make a TV dinner-like meal. We settled on this outstanding combination of smoked meatloaf, scratch mashed potatoes with gravy, fantastic herbed peas and carrots, and a light apple pie wonton crunch.
In this part 1 of our dinner, we’ll make the meatloaf. This was made on the smoker, but you could also make it on a grill (over indirect heat), or in your oven. The original recipe came from a Texas BBQ Rub newsletter. You should try their rubs – they’re great! And sign up for their newsletter. It’s always full of great recipes, like this one!
Mashed potatoes and gravy recipe
Herbed peas and carrots recipe
Meatloaf TV Dinner Part 1: The smoked meatloaf
Ingredients
- 3 pounds ground beef
- 1 medium white onion minced
- 1 medium green bell pepper minced
- 1 medium jalapeno pepper minced
- 6 eggs
- 1 sleeve Ritz crackers crushed
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese freshly grated
- ⅓ cup your favorite BBQ seasoning
- 1 cup Worcestershire sauce yes, 1 cup!
- ¼ cup liquid smoke only if baking in the oven
- Large loaf pan aluminum if smoking or grilling
- 1 cup your favorite BBQ sauce I used Grandma Foster’s Smooth and Spicy
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F if cooking in the oven.
- If smoking or grilling, cut a few slits about 1/2″ up from the bottom in the pan so that the excess fat can drip out.
- Mix all ingredients except for the BBQ sauce in a large bowl.
- Place mixture into baking pan. Form into a loaf.
For the smoker or grill
- Smoke or grill at 225 F for 2-3 hours.
- Spread BBQ sauce over top of loaf and return to smoker or grill for another 30-45 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 170 F.
For the oven
- Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
- Spread BBQ sauce over top of loaf and return to the oven and bake another 10 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 170 F.
Nutrition
Nutritional values are approximate.
The meatloaf looks outstanding but I LOVE the old lunch trays. Those are too cool. I was looking for some of those awhile back, but somehow got distracted (ADD), quit looking and never bought any. Might have to go out and score a few.
Hi Griffin. I’ve been lucky enough to score a few sets of trays from various antique malls. I’m always on the lookout for them. Of course you can find them on eBay too!