Tex-Mex Meatloaf with Ro-Tel

When people say marriage is about compromise, they aren't kidding. Whether debating how to spend money to where to travel for vacation, every conversation is a give and take. But no conversation sparks more debate in our house than what to have for dinner, a topic that gets surprisingly heated on a nightly basis. 

I came home the other night with one concept in mind: Mexican lasagna. I've never made that before, but it sounds like a concept with serious potential, and a Google search showed me plenty of other people have successfully made the dream come true. 

Because Sean hates cheese, most especially ricotta, he has no interest in lasagna in general. When I mentioned Mexican lasagna, I think he just had visions of ooey gooey ricotta spilling out of the layers and was disgusted. He cast his vote strongly in favor of meatloaf, a dish I detest making because the process is just generally gross from start to finish. What's a couple to do? Make Tex-Mex Meatloaf.

I scoured the Internet for recipes, but didn't see any that quite fit what I was imagining, so I winged it! I preheated the oven to 375 degree. I started out by combining in a bowl: 

• Ground beef
• 1 egg
• 10 oz. can of Ro-Tel tomatoes and green chiles, 
• 1/2 an onion chopped
• Panko bread crumbs (eyeball it, but I probably ended up with about 1/2 cup)
• 1/4 cup of frozen roasted corn
• 1.5 teaspoons of chili powder (or however much you want!)
• 1.5 teaspoons of cumin
• Salt and Pepper
• (you'll also need a can of Enchilada mole sauce to top the loaf)

Once I had worked all of that mush into a mass that would stick together in log form, I moved the gross loaf-mess to my handy dandy meatloaf pan (thanks, Papa!) and covered it with enchilada mole sauce. No ketchup involved!

I cooked for one hour, opening the oven at the 35-minute mark to add more mole sauce. The result was a meatloaf with a kick...flavorful, and a great way to sneak lots of veggies into my food. I'm not the biggest fan of corn by itself, so this was a great trick worthy of Jessica Seinfeld's deceptive recipes. Sean pronounced the meatloaf "as good as the other ones!" Not exactly earth-shattering review, but I'll take it.