Mexican Meatloaf

There is this little dance my husband and I do every time I decide to make meatloaf. It started back when I could purchase grass-fed ground beef for under $3/lb. Besides the bi-weekly pastured chicken for making stock we purchased, that ground beef was the only meat we ate.

So obviously, in order to get out of the soup-spaghetti sauce-chili slump, I put meatloaf on the menu. And when I said “Honey, how does meatloaf sound to you?” he would respond “No thanks, let’s have hamburgers instead.”

So I’d make hamburgers one night… and meatloaf a few nights later.

And every time we sat down to eat and he took his first bite he’d say “Wow, you should make meatloaf more often.” So I smiled and said something like “I’ll have to remember that,” and then mentally banged my head against the table.

Then we moved to Texas and promptly filled our solar freezer with 30+ pounds of our neighbor’s freshly slaughtered longhorn cow in ground beef form. And the meatloaf dance commenced – I asked about it, he said hamburgers, I made both, and he asked why we didn’t eat meatloaf more often.

Six months later we slaughtered our own longhorn and promptly filled our freezer with, you guessed it, 30+ pounds of ground longhorn (along with some less tasty, but still eaten organs and other bits and pieces). And again the meatloaf dance ensued.

I love that man, but when it comes to food, and just about everything else he does, he has a one-track mind. He’s also got a great sense of humor, which is why he laughed and said sure when I asked him if I could publish that.

So, in an effort to throw him off his game, I made this Mexican meatloaf. It incorporates something he loves – Mexican food – and something he covertly loves – meatloaf.

And while our little dance had a bit more cha-cha-cha to it this time, it still ended with “Wow, this is really good,” and me mentally smashing my head against the table.