Don't you just hate it when you mess up dinner?

In an effort to keep the house cool, I put together a meatloaf to cook in the slow cooker while at lunch today. I've made it this way before and used the identical recipe I used last time, when my husband LOVED it and it turned out perfectly.

Well. Just went home to check on it. The "loaf" part isn't working...it's not holding together. I've currently got a bunch of broken up meat just sitting in its own fat in the slow cooker. (I'm pretty sure I had extra lean beef last time...this time it was labeled lean but OBVIOUSLY isn't). Likely won't be edible.

Looks like an out to dinner night, since the cabinets are otherwise entirely bare of any protein and I don't have time to grocery shop and cook something else between the time I get off at 5 pm a meeting tonight at 6:30 p.m.

It's been one of those days!

I wouldn't give up on it! A fallen apart meatloaf is just another word for a sloppy joe...light bread or a light bun, a salad, and you're done!

I agree- Siphon off the fat and salvage what you can

I think you have a few good ideas to salvage your meal but I must say I share your pain. I made a Mediterranean stew in my crockpot one time, with the intention I can eat it for dinner for the week, and in the very end when I was adding salt the top came off and half the container of sea salt emptied into my pot I scooped off all the excess salt, added water and let it cook down some more thinking that would help, when I took it out later on to eat it needless to say I had to dump the whole thing.

My crockpot and i are not friends either. i'd say about half the stuff i've tried to make in there just turned out to be congealed crap.
the only thing i've mastered is the art of turning a pork roast into good pulled pork sandwiches. otherwise- the crockpot sits in the back of my cupboard and can stay there til it learns to do a better job!

Lizzie, the only way to teach it to do a better job is to make it practice a lot

Drain the hamburger, add some canned tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and other veg if you have it and eat it over pasta.

I would love recipes for the meatloaf and the mediterranean stew, pretty please!

I once decided to try a couple of recipes from a new cookbook (corn beef and cole slaw). I'd never cooked corn beef before. the thing turned out like a giant piece of rubber. And I took a leap of faith and followed the recipe for the cole slaw even though the dressing sounded too heavy for me (duh!). What a disaster, ha.

the tips for salvaging your crock pot meatloaf sounded good, our dinner had to be completely chucked.