Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf

Everything tastes better with bacon!  It's not fat-ridden, but it sure is delish!  Scott makes a super tasty meatloaf (in fact, it was the first meal he ever made for me when we started dating), so we kicked it up a notch by adding some leftover bacon we had in the fridge from breakfast.

Serves: 4
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs lean ground beef
- 4 pieces of bacon
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 can of Hunt's tomato sauce
- 1/2 cup bread crumbs
- 1 tbsp dijon
- 1 tbsp worcestershire
- 1 can mixed vegetables
- 1/4 cup parmesan
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Add all ingredients, except tomato sauce & bacon, to a large mixing bowl.  Take off those rings, rolls up your sleeves, and start mixing everything together with your hands.  Once everything is thoroughly combined, place the mixture into a bread loaf pan.  Lay the bacon strips across the top of the meatloaf, and the cook in the oven for 1 hour.  After 1 hour, carefully take the meatloaf out of the oven and try not to drool when you see that bacon sizzling on top.

Scottie O's Stuffed Burgers

Who doesn't love burgers?  We kicked it up and stuffed these burgers with bacon, cheese, and garlic for a celebration of some serious flavor!  Not to mention, we topped these suckers off with some sweet caramelized onions.  Mmmm.

Serves 4

Ingredients:
- 2 lbs ground lean beef
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 4 slices of bacon
- cheese (any kind you like, we used shredded blend of smoked cheddar, gouda, provolone, & mozzarella..holler!)
- 2 yellow onions
- 1 tbsp. of dijon
- 1 tsp. of worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 of plain bread crumbs
- 1 tbsp. parsley (preferably fresh, but we used dried)
- 4 good hamburger buns (we used onion rolls)
- salt & pepper to taste

Start by cutting the bacon in half, leaving you with 8 half-sized pieces of bacon.  Cook the bacon all the way through and let cool.  Once cooled, dice bacon into your very own bacon bits (don't even think about buying the pre-made bacon bits!).

Chop the onions into strings and place in a skillet over medium heat.  The onions take about 20 minutes to caramelize, so get these puppies on early and keep turning them!

Meanwhile, put the ground beef in a big bowl and sprinkle with a couple pinches of koshor salt and pepper.  Also, add a couple splashes of worcestershire and a couple pinches of parsley.  Add dijon, breadcrumbs, then take those rings off and start kneading the meat!  Once thoroughly mixed, start making your patties.  Make the patties thicker on the outside and a little thinner on the inside to make room for the stuffing.  Form one patty, sprinkle some of the minced garlic, bacon bits, and shredded cheese.

Form another patty and place on top. Push down on the edges to ensure the filling will not spill out when cooking.  Repeat until you have 4 healthy looking patties.  Cook the patties on a cast iron grill pan until done to your preference.  Place on a delicious onion bun, and top with the caramelized onions.

Scottio's Stuffed Burgers

Enjoy!