Old Fashioned Amish Meatloaf With Oats

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This Old Fashioned Amish Meatloaf Recipe is simple, easy, and delicious! It was a favorite growing up and will surely be a favorite around your dinner table now.

This Old Fashioned Meatloaf Recipe is simple, easy and delicious! It was a favorite growing up and it's sure to be a favorite around your dinner table now. #oldfashionedrecipes #oldfashionedmeatloaf #meatloaf #glutenfree #glutenfreemeatloaf #amishrecipes

Old Fashioned Amish Meatloaf

Meatloaf is something virtually all of us saw on the dinner table now and then growing up. It’s just ground beef with a few spices, but it’s so much more than that too; it’s comfort food.

My mom used to serve it for dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy one night and then make meatloaf sandwiches for lunch the next day. These days, my little family and I like to serve it with baked sweet potatoes, which I bake alongside the meatloaf and a garden salad. It never gets old!

This recipe is one I’ve used for many years now and came from an Amish friend who is one of the best cooks I’ve ever known! So simple. So easy. So good!

An old favorite made gluten-free! I made just a few tweaks to the original recipe to make it compatible with our food allergies which meant using oats instead of breadcrumbs. Either will work in this recipe, depending on what you have.

What Is Amish Meatloaf?

Amish Meatloaf is a simple recipe, made with common, everyday ingredients and a basic brown sugar glaze. It can have additional flavor added with bacon and cheese.

Raw Ground Beef

Ingredients in Amish Meatloaf

  • Ground Beef. When I was growing up, we used a mixture of beef and bison ground meats because that was the cheapest for us, but you can use straight beef or beef mixed with pork.
  • Eggs. These will be your binder to hold the loaf together and add flavor.
  • Oatmeal. This helps with the texture and also helps to stretch your meat a little further. You could also use bread crumbs or even Ritz cracker crumbs.
  • Onion. Fresh tends to have the best flavor, but you can use dried if that’s what you have on hand.
  • Salt and Pepper. For flavor.
  • Bacon and Swiss. These are optional. If you make this often and want to switch it up once in a while, lay some bacon strips on top of the meat loaf before you add the glaze. You can add a few slices or some extra shredded swiss cheese on the top of the meatloaf (or on top of the slices of bacon!) to add even more flavor and change it up.

Sauce Ingredients

  • Brown Sugar. Brown sugar is the best sweetener choice in this glaze topping as it has the best depth of flavor.
  • Mustard. I use regular yellow mustard in this recipe but you can use dijon mustard based on what you have on hand.
  • Ketchup. You can use store-bought ketchup or Homemade Ketchup.
  • Garlic powder and Onion powder. For flavor.

Old Fashioned Meatloaf Recipe

Instructions for Making Amish Meatloaf

Preheat oven to 350º.

Mix the meatloaf ingredients together well. Divide into two loaves and bake in bread loaf pans, a cake pan, or another kind of baking dish. Bake for an hour. Remove from oven.

Mix the glaze ingredients together in a small bowl and drizzle over the meatloaf. Return to the oven for 5-10 minutes. (You can also lay bacon or cheese on top of loaf at this point as well.)

Old Fashioned Meatloaf Recipe

Let it cool ten minutes before slicing. Serve and enjoy!

Want to print this Gluten Free Amish Meatloaf Recipe for your Recipe Binder? Grab it below:

Old Fashioned Amish Meatloaf Recipe

Course Main Course
Cuisine American
Keyword Amish Meatloaf Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Servings 6 people
Calories 654 kcal

Ingredients

  • 3 lbs ground beef
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup oatmeal
  • 1 small onion
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper

Glaze

  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon mustard
  • 2 tablespoons  ketchup
  • Pinch of garlic powder
  • Pinch of onion powder

Instructions

  1. Mix the meatloaf ingredients together well.
  2. Divide into two loaves and bake in bread loaf pans or a cake pan.
  3. Bake for an hour. Remove from oven.
  4. Mix the glaze ingredients together in a small bowl and drizzle over meatloaf. Return to the oven for 5-10 minutes.
  5. Let cool ten minutes before slicing.
Nutrition Facts
Old Fashioned Amish Meatloaf Recipe
Amount Per Serving
Calories 654 Calories from Fat 423
% Daily Value*
Fat 47g72%
Saturated Fat 18g113%
Trans Fat 3g
Polyunsaturated Fat 2g
Monounsaturated Fat 21g
Cholesterol 216mg72%
Sodium 442mg19%
Potassium 711mg20%
Carbohydrates 12g4%
Fiber 1g4%
Sugar 6g7%
Protein 42g84%
Vitamin A 107IU2%
Vitamin C 2mg2%
Calcium 63mg6%
Iron 5mg28%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

How to Store Leftover Meatloaf

Since this is a 3lb meatloaf recipe, you might have some leftovers! Use your leftover meatloaf in a sandwich like my mom did when I was growing up. It’s similar to this Homemade Taverns Recipe. Yum!

If you want to serve the meal again, store the leftover meatloaf in an airtight container in the fridge until you are ready to reheat. You could also put it in the freezer in a freezer container or bag and reheat in the oven later.

Here’s another delicious Simple Meatloaf Recipe that you may also want to try! Or for something a little different, you can try this yummy Mozzarella Stuffed Meatloaf! And if you are wondering how to save money on meat, you might also want to check out this post on Buying Meat in Bulk.

Bread Pudding

More Comfort Food Recipes

Trying to plan better, more frugal meals for your family so that you always have a warm meal on the table and aren’t wasting money at the grocery store? You’ve got to check out my ebook Meal Planning Made Simple. Even if you thought meal planning didn’t work for your family, this ebook will help you find the perfect fit for your family’s style.


Have you ever made meatloaf with oatmeal? What is one of your favorite winter comfort foods?

Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a star rating on the recipe card above! And if you enjoyed it share with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and through Email using the sharing buttons below!


Me and KadyMerissa has been blogging about and living the simple life since 2009 and has internationally published 2 books on the topic. You can read about Merissa’s journey from penniless to the 100-acre farm and ministry on the About Page. You can send her a message any time from the Contact Page.


This Old Fashioned Meatloaf Recipe was originally published on Little House Living in September 2014. It has been updated as of March 2023.

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15 Comments

  1. My recipe is almost the same as yours; I add Worcestershire sauce (about 1 Tb) and half a package of dry onion soup mix. Don’t you love using oatmeal as the filler?

  2. Thank you. Have use oats in meatloaf in the past. This is a good reminder, we have some food allergies in our family as well.

  3. Meatloaf is perfect comfort food and one of my oldest son’s favorites. I am going to have to make it for his birthday month! 🙂 stopping by from the Pintastic Pinterest Party and pinning to my Recipes to Try board.

  4. I would also put oatmeal in blender or chopper and chop till a bit finer, so you don’t see the pieces of oats in it…..I used to do bread that way…..kids don’t like seeing pieces of bread or oats in it…….and I chop onions really fine too……most kids don’t like onions, if they can see them, but will eat them if they don’t see them……just sayin :)…………..

    1. I thought the same thing regarding the oats. Fortunately, onions are not a problem at our home. According to my mother, when I was lil I would pick out every last onion before digging in. 🙂

  5. We have always used my Grandmothers depression recipe. To 1pound ground beef add 1carrot, grated – 1potato, grated – then crackers or oats, onion, 1 egg and seasonings. Good way to stretch meat.

  6. Have never had a prob with “seeing” oats. They just cook in and disappear. Love to sneak in veggies-carrots, celery, peppers, peas. Anything that can be finely chopped.

  7. I have used a combination of oats and breadcrumbs for meatloaf and meatballs for years, trying to incorporate more oats into our diet, ever since I read a book about how good oats are for controlling cholesterol. I think it keeps the loaf moister than just bread/crumbs…I also use them if I’m breading anything, again in combination…run the crumbs and oats through a blender, spice grinder, whatever, for a more uniform texture…

  8. If I have left over cooked steel-cut oats from morning, I will put a half cup or so in with the meatloaf. Nobody can tell it’s in there.

  9. Substituting oatmeal for breadcrumbs would be amazing for this household too.
    Does it make any difference what the kind of oatmeal it is? Regular or instant, etc.
    Also,
    for doing it with other recipes, is it a one-to one substitution? (that is, a cup of breadcrumbs to a cup of oatmeal)

    1. Yes, I would use the same amount of breadcrumbs as I would oatmeal in this recipe. Regular or instant oatmeal will work, not steel cut oats though.

  10. My grandmother made her meatloaf about the same except she used saltine crackers and she added almost a whole can of vegetarian vegetable soup. No addition water or anything. Sometimes even adding a touch of green bell pepper. Really depended what ever she had on hand. Sometimes just left overs from previous meals went into the meatloaf.

    1. I love those ideas! I’ve added extra butternut squash to my meatloaf before when I’ve had a bunch of extra. It was a great way to use it up.