Healthy Meatloaf Recipe for your Slow Cooker (2024)

ByJenOctober 2, 2018January 3, 2022

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Have you been on the hunt for a healthier version of meatloaf to serve to your family? I love good ol’ country cooking and meatloaf is one of those dishes that are so hearty & filling, perfect for the colder months. However, we’ve been trying to eat healthier this year as one of our goals, so I was excited about this Healthy Meatloaf recipe we’re sharing with you today. This is the type of recipe you can add in your favorite type of meat – whether it be free range beef, ground turkey or lean ground beef. You can also substitute some of the veggies and add in your favorites, too, once you’ve played around with the recipe a few times. Or leave out the veggies if you prefer – it’s very versatile!

You can also choose from some healthier side dishes like sweet potatoes and salads to keep the entire meal on the more nutritious side, but still be a wonderful comfort meal.

Although we show you how to make this one in your slow cooker, to keep things really simple, you can cook it in a traditional loaf pan in the oven too. Another fun idea is to make these in mini meatloaf pans. We show you how to make a traditional meatloaf here, but if you want to do individual sized servings you can use mini loaf pans, or even a cupcake sheet. The recipe will stay the same, but you will need to alter the cooking time as the smaller sizes with cook through more quickly.

I also think this recipe is a great way to get lots of good veggies in your kids, if they do not love to eat them whole. They are incorporated so well into the meatloaf that kids would never know!

Ingredients:

These are the ingredients we used for our healthier version of meatloaf. As we mentioned above this recipe is forgiving if you want to change a few of these out (ie you could use kale instead of swiss chard, Cauliflower instead of broccoli, or add in some julienned zucchini for example too).

• 2 pounds lean ground beef (you could substitute ground turkey here, if you prefer healthy turkey meatloaf)
• 1 large onion (you can use other onion varieties too)
• 2 large carrots
• 2 cups fresh baby Spinach and Swiss chard
• 1 large head of broccoli
• 3 cups whole grain bread crumbs
• ¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
• ½ cup A1 or Steak sauce
• 1 cup Sweet Baby Rays original barbeque sauce (or your preferred BBQ sauce)

Directions:

Thoroughly wash all of your fresh vegetables then rough chop the carrots and onions down to 1-2 inch size pieces.

Use your food processor to dice them down (it would be even faster if you have a Vitamix or BlendTec blender which can do this in about 30 seconds and the meatloaf will come together quickly)!

Combine the vegetable mix with both meats in one large bowl.

Chop down the bread and pulse into crumbs, again you can use a blender or food processor.

Add to the combined meat and veggie mix.The liquids from the vegetables will make this a bit wetter then you might be used to – that is alright.You’ll want that for the first part of cooking before the fats from the meat start to come out in the slow cooker.

Press into your slow cooker so it is the same height then prick with a fork across the entire top. That will allow the flavors of the sauces to really infuse themselves into the meatloaf.

Pour the Worcestershire, A1 and barbeque sauce across the top, quick combine with the fork. Cover and cook on low for about 3 hours.

And that’s it – you’ve got a pretty simple yet healthy meatloaf to serve your family for dinner!

We’d love to hear if you try any different variations to this recipe & what you & your family think of the recipe!

Printable Recipe for Healthy Meatloaf:

Make sure to print off a copy of this Healthy Meatloaf recipe for your recipe binder.

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Be sure to check out our article on 50+ Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes here too, for more inspiration!