If your family are fans of meatloaf and of macaroni and cheese, then they are going to absolutely fall in love with this fabulously tasty casserole recipe. Macaroni and Cheese Meatloaf Casserole combines these two loves in the most delicious way!
First of all you have a wonderfully moist and tasty meatloaf base, glazed with a BBQ glaze. This gets baked and then topped off with a lush macaroni and cheese. The two then get baked together until all of those wonderful flavors meld together beautifully!
I adapted the recipe from one I found on a blog called Full Bellies Happy Kids. She in turn had adapted it from a page called This is Not Diet Food. How can you not love blogs with names like that!
I took the liberty of cutting the recipe in half. The original baked in a 9 by 13 inch baking dish. My version cooks in a 9 inch square dish.
Make sure your dish is not too shallow as the macaroni and cheese could bubble over if it is. Mine was right on the verge of doing so, but didn’t, thank goodness. I hate oven messes. If you don’t have a deep dish, then place your casserole dish on a baking tray, just in case.
The meatloaf base for this is very similar to the meatloaf from the package of onion soup mix. If you would rather use your own recipe, then by all means do so. Make sure it is a recipe that uses one pound of ground beef.
I always buy my ground beef at the local farmers market. It is excellent. Locally raised grass fed beef. I pay a little bit more but you cannot put a price on good providence. I know the meat is good and that it hasn’t come from a bazillion cows all ground up together. ‘Nuff said.
Ingredients:
1 cup ketchup
1 cup Sweet Baby Rayโs Hickory & Brown Sugar barbecue sauce
2 lbs lean ground beef
30 Ritz Crackers, crushed
2 oz Lipton onion soup mix
2 eggs
3 cups macaroni noodles
2 cups milk
10.5 oz condensed cheddar cheese soup
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp onion powder
4 cups shredded mozzarella and cheddar cheese blend
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350ยฐF.
Mix ketchup and barbecue sauce. Set aside.
Combine ground beef, crushed crackers, onion soup mix, eggs, and half of the ketchup mixture. Press into a greased baking dish. Top with remaining ketchup mixture.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Cook macaroni, drain, and mix with milk, cheddar cheese soup, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and 2 cups cheese.
Spread macaroni mixture over meatloaf, top with remaining cheese.
Bake for an additional 17-20 minutes.