To give my meatloaf a unique touch, I used a package of dry Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix. I use V8 as a new flavoring in the sauce rather than ketchup. If you want your sauce to have more of a kick, choose the hot. Unlike usually, when I had to convince the kids to just eat meatloaf, they went back for seconds.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 10 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 25 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
| Yield: | 1 meatloaf |
Ingredients
- ½ cup vegetable juice (such as V8®)
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 pounds lean ground beef
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 (1 ounce) package ranch dressing mix (such as Hidden Valley Ranch®)
- 1 teaspoon rubbed sage
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 cup Italian-seasoned dry bread crumbs
- 1 egg, beaten
- ½ cup fat-free milk
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Combine the vegetable juice, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce in a saucepan over medium heat; cook until the sauce thickens, about 10 minutes.
- Mix the ground beef, garlic powder, onion powder, ranch dressing mix, sage, salt, and pepper together in a large bowl. Gradually sprinkle the bread crumbs into the meat while mixing so the crumbs are distributed evenly throughout; add the egg and milk and continue mixing. Shape the mixture into a loaf and transfer to a loaf pan. Pour about half the sauce over the meatloaf.
- Bake in the preheated oven until no longer pink in the center, about 1 hour. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 160 degrees F (70 degrees C). Cut the meatloaf into 6 even slices. Pour the remaining sauce over the slices to serve.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 402 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 24 g |
| Cholesterol | 123 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 30 g |
| Saturated Fat | 8 g |
| Sodium | 1038 mg |
| Sugars | 8 g |
| Fat | 20 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This is my favorite meatloaf recipe. So good!
I was recently promoted to full-time cook by our new executive chef at the senior living facility I work at, and I am so happy for that since I won’t be a part-time dishwasher anymore! My coworkers were trying to find some simple meatloaf recipes for a nice Sunday meal, and this recipe popped up while scrolling through my tablet. It sounded delicious, so I had to make about 4 loaves – enough to serve over 75! – for our elderly residents. We were all excited with the results! The ranch really adds a lot of flavor, and the sauce is excellent. The residents said it’s definitely a keeper. Our leftovers were served as open-faced meatloaf sandwiches, and it was amazing. Definitely give this a try; it’s a wonderful recipe.
This was pretty good. I didn’t find the texture soft at all, but that may be because I used Italian seasoned panko bread crumbs instead of fine bread crumbs. I felt like the sage was a bit too overpowering and didn’t work well with the ranch dressing, so if I make it again I will leave the sage out. The sauce was quite good.
Haven’t made in several years, but I think it was fairly good.
this was good nice and moist great flavor and a nice change from regular meatloaf… thanks for sharing….I have made this a couple of times now and have made it just a little more tasty and get request for it.. here’s what I do different. 1 box of herb stuffing mix in a box. 1 package of ranch pkg dressing mix chopped onion, garlic and egg.and a package of itailan cheese blend cheese roll up into a large meatloaf style put in frige till ready to bake the flavors will blend nicely and do alright even if you dont do this.
It was okay. The meatloaf turned out fine (I used two eggs and two regular slices of bread broken into small pieces). I tried two different sauces. One with dark brown sugar and one with light brown sugar. They both turned out runny. I drizzled the sauce w light brown sugar. I have plenty of meatloaf left and I think I’ll break out the ketchup when I am ready for some more.
This was the best meatloaf I have ever had. I followed the recipe as close as I could. I didn’t have any sage so didn’t use that and I used one real onion chopped. I followed other reviewers suggestion of doubling the sauce. It is so good. I also put them in a cupcake pan so that they would cook faster and cooked them at 450.
It was good the first day..second day, not so much. I look forward to a good leftover meatball sandwich and this is not the recipe to use.
This meatloaf was amazing! My kids and hubby loved it and fought over the leftovers. I would def recommend doubling up on the sauce, especially if you have kids who like to “dip”
My family loved this meatloaf, pretty sure it was the ranch. Will be adding to my recipe box.
I didn’t like the texture…it was too dense. Next time I’ll use bread crumbs and double the sauce. I added 1/2 lb. of hot italian sausage for extra bite.
i suggest using the spicy V8 and the spicy hidden valley mix. Was very tasty!
Very good! My husband said it was a homerun. I followed the meat mixture exactly and had no problem with it falling apart. I was also worried about the texture without any celery or onion but again no problerm. I did change the sauce slightly because I didn’t have any worcestershire sauce. I used some barbacue sauce that had a smoky sweet flavor along with some hot sauce because I didn’t have any spicy vegatable juice and we definitely like our food with a kick. I will definitely be making this again. Thank you for a great recipe.
this was ok, but i prefer meatloaf with more texture. i might make it again if i didn’t have any celery, onions, etc. on hand.
excellent as is, little less bread crumbs is fine
The flavor was great. The whole family loved it. My only complaint is that it is a bit too moist. I made it in a meatloaf pan, so that extra fat could drip from it, but it still fell apart.
Wow, wow and wow! This is so yummy. Nice and firm, doesn’t fall apart and is packed with flavor. A little salty, so next time I might cut out the salt since the ranch packet is so salty. I also had to improvise on the sauce because I was out of Worcestershire Sauce. I used Soy Sauce, which wasn’t bad, but I look forward to the next time I make it so I can make the sauce right!
I used a homemade dry ranch seasoning mix (Kelly/SD’s from this site–half a batch) and I did not add the extra garlic powder and onion powder. I only added a pinch of salt and I used my own homemade whole wheat bread crumbs. I served the sauce on the side so that the boys could choose wether or not they wanted any. They actually ate it on it’s own without the sauce, though they did try a little. This turned out really well and the boys liked it well enough. It also stayed together and didn’t fall apart in a huge clump which is something I’ve always struggled with. I’d make this again. NOTE: I highly recommend you combine the ingredients and form the meatloaf and let it sit in the fridge for a couple hours before baking. I think that helps a great deal in making it more solid.
My teens all loved this recipe! My husband who doesn’t like meatloaf loved it as well!
great for kids!
I rarely vary from my tried and true sage, bell peppers and onions based family recipe but wanted something different today. I feel bad about rating this because I made so many changes. It’s one of those days I used what I had, and based it loosely on some recipe from some unfortunate submitter on AR. (Sorry, Chihuahua Girl) You know..the kind of dishes that never can be duplicated again, no matter how good it turns out? And mine turned out GREAT! I was into Southwestern but leary of it tasting like taco meat, as one review of a SW style recipe, mentioned. Wanted it more like my regular sage meatloaf (the sage addition is why I zeroed in on this recipe among the many) with a SW flare. Used real onions and garlic instead of powders. Used bell pepper (hark back to family recipe) and some pickled jalapenos for a SW kick…but still not a taco/salsa based flavor. For filler I used torn, stale hard rolls I had (family recipe stuff….I like torn stale bread for the texture instead of bread crumbs) and used a Salsa Ranch salad dressing I had, (oops…I did sneak salsa in there) instead of the dry mix. Omitted the milk because the dressing was already liquid. I made the sauce as written with V8 and doubled it. There’s some ketchup in my family recipe but I never put ketchup on top of it, didn’t bake any of the sauce on top of this either. This sauce was a nice compliment to the ranch flavor. Surprising how the sweet sauce toned down my SW spiceiness without being sour cream-like.