Deer Me!! (Deer Bacon Burger Meatloaf)

After my dad bagged his third deer of the season this morning, my mom and I started racking our brains for more recipes that can be made with deer bacon hamburger.  This afternoon's effort is meatloaf.

I've never made a meatloaf before, and this is my effort combining a few traditional recipes found on www.allrecipes.com.  I thought the result was pretty good, I would probably enjoy it more if I was even more of a deer meat fan.  My husband thought it was good too, but I will probably keep playing with the recipe until I love it as much as my mom's traditional recipe - if that's possible.

Here's my recipe you can play with:

2 pounds deer meat with bacon added in during processing

1 chopped onion or 1/2 a bag of frozen, chopped onion

1 Tbsp butter

1 cup plain bread crumbs

1.5 cups BBQ sauce (I had Sweet Baby Ray's Original on hand.)

2 eggs, whisked

1 tsp of minced garlic (jarred)

1/2 tsp chili powder

2 Tbsp brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Saute chopped onion with butter.  I microwaved my onion and butter for four minutes, stirring at two minutes.  Mix meat, onion, bread crumbs, one cup barbecue sauce, eggs, garlic, and chili powder thoroughly. Press into two 9x5" greased loaf pans.  Bake 35 minutes. Mix remaining 1/2 cup barbecue sauce with brown sugar.  Spoon over each loaf.  Return pans to oven, and cook for another 10 minutes or until the meatloaves reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees.  Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Deer Bacon Burger Tacos are still my favorite.  See the recipe here: http://hallshomestead.blogspot.com/2014/05/deer-me-deer-bacon-burger-tacos.html