Shirley Mae's Meatloaf

I saw this on a food t.v. show and was inspired to make it.  Shirley Mae has a restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky.  I didn't have a recipe, just saw what her daughter did on the program.  Shirley Mae said there was no recipes in their family - her mom taught her by feel and their palettes taught them taste.  So here's my take on it.  This was Sunday comfort food dinner and then tomorrow, it's back on the healthy eating program.  Into a blender I put:

• 1 Portuguese bun, broken up (she used white bread and that's all I had that was white in the house)
• 1 Vidalia onion, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup of coffee (she said this a meat tenderizer)
• 1 red bell pepper, seeds removed a coarsely chopped (she used green but this was all I had in the fridge)
• Handful of fresh Italian parsley (my own addition)
• Freshly cracked pepper and kosher salt, to taste

Below, I forgot the parley in the first picture, but the second one has it when it blended all up.  

That was it.  I mixed it up into 2 lbs of lean ground beef.  

I didn't mix too much, just till combined.  

Like I saw her do on the show, I covered with parchment paper and  put it in the oven at 375°F for an hour.  She did hers in a 400°F oven but hers was much larger than mine as well... 

At that time I took it out.  I removed the parchment and drained off the fat, LOTS of fat poured off.

I poured a can of organic low-sodium tomato sauce over it.  

Back into the oven for another half hour.  

I made some brown gravy and served with mashed taters and spicy stir-fried long green beans.

  

While the meatloaf was soft, it was delicious.  The tomato sauce was different than the usual ketchup mix I use on it usually.  While simple, there was great flavor and dinner was very comforting.  Bell pepper essence worked really well in taste and I really enjoyed it.