Freezer Meal Zucchini Ranch Meatloaf - Lots of Photos

I had my my monthly-ish meal swap last week.  I chose zucchini ranch meatloaf because I had most of the ingredients and I would be able to use a whole bottle of steak sauce.

Here everything is gathered with much preparation work ahead of me before I cold begin assembling the meals.

First things first: Bread crumbs.  I needed six cups and I didn't want to buy two containers of bread crumbs when bread is so cheap to make.   So I sliced up some of a fresh loaf and got it ready to pop into the oven.

 While the bread was toasting I chopped up onions.

Then I chopped up bell peppers.

Next I took the toast out of the oven.

I broke it up a little and put it into the food processor.

Then we blended and ended up with just about 3 cups of crumbs.  I had to make a whole second batch to get 6 cups.  I wasn't keen on using nearly a whole loaf of bread because then I had to make bread again for sandwiches the next day.  Oh well.

I also made some dry ranch mix because I didn't want to buy 6 Uncle Dan's Ranch packets.

I grated some cheese and FINALLY it was ready to assemble.

My largest bowl is a huge Tupperware cake-taker and it's currently full of bread flour.  Instead I used these two other containers to mix 3 loaves at a time.

Mixing with my very clean hands.

Six loaves, each over 2 pounds.

Then I printed and attached labels.  We put the names of the swap members on meals to avoid confusion regarding who has gotten what.  This is especially helpful if the swap member isn't actually attending the meal swap and has sent her meals with one of us.

The final step was to make small bags of the topping and label them.  Of course I didn't take a picture.

Here's the actual recipe.
Combine and mix well:
1# ground beef
1# ground turkey
3/4 cups shredded zucchini (from my last summer garden)
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 diced bell pepper
1 egg
1 t. Worcestershire sauce
1 cup shredded cheddar
1 cup plain bread crumbs
1 1 oz. package of dry ranch mix

Shape into a loaf on a greased cookie sheet or put in a large, greased bread pan.  Prepare topping of:
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup steak sauce

Pour topping on meatloaf and bake at 350 about an hour until the inside reaches 160 degrees.

My husband likes this one so I'm hoping the meal swap likes it, too.

Katie