Having to eat a gluten-free diet means finding workarounds for some recipes, and meatloaf was one of them. We had to come up with a way to make gluten-free meatloaf without using bread for a binder. We could have used some other gluten-free grain, but I eat a low-carb diet as well, so I keep grains to a minimum.

As a result, Mike created a recipe that I like to call Meat Meatloaf. The best part? It involves BACON. Mmm…

This keeps well, so we made a double batch. Perfect for reheating and having more meals later in the week, or for inviting friends over for dinner to enjoy it with you. We’ve done both.

We used the food grinder attachment on the KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer. Before you begin with the prep, chill your meat grinder and the mixing bowl beforehand in the freezer to get it cold – cold grinders help maintain the integrity of the fat and avoid melting any due to friction or heat.

First up, the vegetables. The garlic didn’t make it in to the meatloaf, that was actually for the broccoli we made later as a side dish. Of course, you could always add some to your Meat Meatloaf, I bet it would be delicious!

Four Carrots, average sized, washed, peeled and diced for the meatloaf. Two stalks of Celery, also diced. One average size Onion, diced. You want all of the vegetables to be a similar size.

Have you ever struggled to get all of the vegetables off of the cutting board once you’ve chopped them? Get a dough scraper / chopper. It will make scooping them up quick and easy!

Once you have everything chopped, stir it all together and set it aside while you prepare the meat.

For this recipe we use a brisket and bacon. Both are relatively high in fat, because if you want to have a nice, moist meatloaf you need the fat in the meat. It will cook off, but it will leave a lot of delicious flavor behind.

Our meat ratio was 2 parts of brisket to 1 part of bacon. Since we had a 3lb brisket, we used 1.5lbs of bacon. You can adjust accordingly to the size of what you are using, and it doesn’t have to be exact.

Cube all of the meat to prepare it to go through the meat grinder. Make sure your cubes are small enough to fit the grinder attachment.

Once everything is prepped, remove the grinder and mixing bowl from the freezer and assemble them on the KitchenAid mixer. Use the course grind.

Start to push the meat through, and, if you are like me, feel like you are in a CSI or Law & Order episode. Watching meat come out of a meat grinder is just weird!

If you prefer a finer grind, you can run the meat through a second time.

Once the meat is ground, add 2 eggs to help bind the meatloaf. Add salt and pepper for flavor. Mix the meatloaf thoroughly using the flat beater blade.

Place the meat in a loaf pan, or two loaf pans if you made a double batch like we did. Press down on the meatloaf to make sure that there are no air pockets, holes or gaps – this will be a bit more crumbly and you don’t want it to fall apart.

Invert the loaf pans on to a rack on top of a foil-lined cookie sheet. The cookie sheet will catch all of the juices that will cook out. This way, your meatloaf isn’t sitting in all of the fat and juices — it is just moist and delicious when you remove it from the pan after it is done baking.

They go in to the oven, upside down, with the pan still over them. This will hold them together while they start to bake. Remove the loaf pans part way through baking to allow them to brown and form a nice crust.

While we were waiting for the meatloaf to bake, this magical stream of light suddenly started to shine in to our kitchen. I think that that means that Mike’s creation of a Gluten-Free Meat Meatloaf Recipe with Bacon is MAGICAL.

Fresh out of the oven, the meatloaf is ready to be sliced and served!

We chose to serve ours with Sautéed Spinach and Roasted Broccoli. It was well received by all of our guests as being a rather amazing meatloaf with the best flavor ever!