Meatloaf Nachos!!

Homegaters!

The one thing about my move from the city to the suburbs is that I'm closer to my krazee kuzins - much closer. That means that they'e around a lot - including on Gameday. This past Saturday a bunch of us had gotten together for dinner. Meatloaf was on the menu. I made enough to feed a small army and naturally wound up with leftovers. The next morning I found myself staring into the fridge trying to decide what to cook for the Gameday Gang when it hit me. What do you do with leftover meatloaf on Gameday? You make Meatloaf Nachos, of course! Yes, I went down that path. Why not?

As you know, meat, cheese and crispy things are standard on Gameday. That combination is even better when it's made spicy (it gives the beer something to wash down). Nachos are a perfect vehicle for all those food groups and are really easy to assemble - especially since they're incorporating leftovers and not much actual cooking is necessary. All I needed to do was chop up the meatloaf and layer it into the mix. It literally took me 5 minutes to put together and throw in the oven to heat things up and melt the cheese. I got a few stares when I presented it, but the crew dug it and it soon disappeared.

Meatloaf Nachos
(serves 4-6)                                          

2 lbs ground beef
1 1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs
2 eggs
1 Tbs Worcestershire Sauce
2 Tbs ketchup
1 Tbs brown mustard
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp granulated onion
16oz bag of tortilla chips
pickled jalapenos
1/2 lb American cheese

Method:

1.  Meatloaf: pre-heat oven to 350-degrees. Mix the first 8 ingredients until well incorporated. Shape into a loaf or place in 2 loaf pans. Bake for 45-minutes to an hour. Remove from oven and serve 1 loaf. Take other loaf, let cool, then place in fridge for Gameday.

2. Nachos:  take meatloaf out of fridge and dice into small cubes (or crumble up, whichever you prefer). Layer the nachos in a casserole dish or roasting pan: 1 row of tortilla chips, meatloaf, cheese & jalapeno. Continue to do this until you reach the top of the pan. Bake in a 400-degree oven until the cheese melts.  Serve warm.

And there you have it. It's an easy dish that didn't take long to put together and turned out to be pretty darn delicious. Hope you try it.

Until next weekend, good luck to your teams. I'll see you next weekend! Keep on homegating!!