Egg-Stuffed Meatloaf Recipe

Want to make a food dramatically tastier and more eye-catching? Easy. Just stuff it. Think about it! How much more exciting is a stuffed mushroom than a regular mushroom? How much more appetizing do stuffed peppers look than regular old peppers? There's chicken cordon bleu, there's pigs in blankets, there's... well, there's a lot, really, but point made: Stuffing a food with another food adds visual appeal and more fun, and, in the case of this egg-stuffed meatloaf from Melissa Olivieri of The Olive Blogger, there's even more protein to be had, too.

Want even more to love than great taste, great looks, and the certain stomach-patting satisfaction of a hearty dinner? Then great news: This meatloaf is also quite easy to make. In fact, the only additional steps compared to making a classic meatloaf are hard-boiling a couple of eggs, nestling them down into some ground beef, and shredding some carrots over the top, which create a subtly sweet crust. So let's get the water boiling, the oven preheating, and our ingredients gathered!

To prepare this satisfying stuffed entrée, you'll need ground beef, a medium carrot, eggs, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, kosher salt, ground black pepper, garlic powder, dried parsley flakes, and Italian breadcrumbs.

"The star ingredients are the hard boiled eggs in the middle as well as the grated carrots," says Olivieri. "The carrots add a nice sweetness to the first bite, and the eggs are always a nice surprise when you cut the loaf. They also help keep it moist."

First off, we need to hard-boil two of those eggs. The best way to do that for this recipe is to cook them to medium-boiled state, as they will bake more in the oven. Go ahead and set two eggs out on the counter to come to room temp a bit as you bring a small pot of water to a boil, and meanwhile preheat the oven to 375 F.

Once the water boils, carefully lower each egg in and let them rest in the boiling water for eight minutes, then quickly cool them off in cool water. Peel the eggs and set them aside, and then peel and grate the carrot, then set it aside, too.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the ground beef, the ketchup, the third egg (raw), and the Worcestershire sauce. Then sprinkle over the salt and pepper, the garlic powder, the parsley flakes, and the bread crumbs. Mix all of these ingredients together using your clean, moistened fingers and palms, making sure everything combines and that the breadcrumbs in particular mix through evenly.

Evenly distribute half of the ground beef blend into a meatloaf pan that measures 8 ½ inches by 4 ½ inches (or a comparable baking dish) and press it down to for a flat layer. Then form two divots in the pan using your fingers, and tuck the boiled eggs into those. Next, cover the eggs with the rest of the meat and form it into a proper loaf shape.

Sprinkle the grated carrot evenly over the top of the meatloaf, then press the shaved pieces gently down into the meat.

Now it's time to cover that meatloaf pan with a piece of foil and pop it in the hot oven. Let it bake for about 40 minutes, or until a food thermometer reads 160 F in the center of the loaf. Then remove the meatloaf from the oven, let is sit and rest for 5 minutes, then slice it into lovely pieces and serve it to your impressed guests.

"I love to serve meatloaf with roasted veggies and potatoes if going for a hearty dinner, or if keeping it light, it can be served with a simple green salad," says Olivieri, adding, "leftovers of this meatloaf are delicious reheated for a couple of days. My favorite way to reheat it is in a pan on the stove; add a little bit of butter and fry each side! It will give you a nice crispy outside while heating the meatloaf through."