Italian Slow Cooker Meatloaf

As a busy mom, I'm always looking for recipes that can help make dinner easier. Right now, we have both kids in swim lessons in the evenings. Of course, their class is not at the same time, but are back to back. This means dinner is after swimming lessons. Since I am a participant in my daughter's Parent-Child swim class, I'm not home to get dinner going. Knowing that dinner is going to be late enough, I need meal options that I can quickly get on the table.

Today, I tried a new recipe. I called it a slow cooker meatball, because there seems to be a negative feeling at my house about meatloaf. The meatball was pretty good. The kids ate a good amount of it (mostly while waiting for the pasta to cook) and my husband broke it up and ate it over the side of pasta. The nice thing was that we were able to have a family dinner that only took as long as the pasta took to cook when we came home.

Italian Slow Cooker Meatloaf
3 slices bread
1# lean ground beef
1 c shredded mozzarella
1 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Garlic Powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
2 tbsp tomato sauce

Wet bread and squeeze out the water. Combine all ingredients, except tomato sauce, and mix with your hands to combine. Place into slow cooker. Spread the tomato sauce over the meat mixture. Cover and cook on low until meat is cooked through, about 6 hours.

I substituted ground turkey for the ground beef - I prefer beef for meatballs and Italian dishes, but I had some ground turkey from a sale that I wanted to use up. I also used spaghetti sauce in place of the tomato sauce, because I was opening the jar for the side of pasta and spaghetti sauce. It was nice to come home from our activities and have a hot meal. Of course, if you don't want to slow cook it, I am sure you could loaf it up and bake it in the oven like a traditional meat loaf.

Have you tried any new recipes lately? Trying new recipes that make meal preparation easier and add variety to our menu works for me. For more tips and tricks, check out Works For Me Wednesday.