All you need is a side dish of crushed cucumber salad to go with this dish, and you have a very satisfying meal.
Combine ground beef, onion, bread crumbs, egg, and onion soup in a bowl and mix well.
Shape into a loaf and lay strips of bacon over the top.
At this point, you have two options:
1) Put the loaf in a conventional oven at 350 degrees for about an hour.
2) Put the loaf on a smoker grill at 200 degrees for about two hours.
Sauté onions and celery in butter until tender.
Mix with remaining stuffing ingredients.
Place mixture in a cupcake pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until golden brown.
I always use real potatoes. Instant potatoes just don't seem right.
I never peel potatoes. I do wash them thoroughly, but they say the peels are healthy.
Sometimes I add sour cream or cream cheese or extra butter. It does enhance the flavor, but it also adds a lot of fat. So, it's your choice.
I usually do not make onion rings from scratch. The frozen ones that you can buy are pretty good. You just take them out of the bag and put them in the oven.
When you slice the meatloaf, put each slice in a pan and fry it in olive oil until you get a nice, crisp finish. The crispy texture will be a welcome variation.
Make sure you keep the onion rings in the oven long enough, so they get crispy. Wimpy onion rings will not help the dish. You need the crispy texture.
You might want to pour some beef or mushroom gravy on top of the whole thing. Since you will not have any broth from which to make gravy, you can just buy a pack and mix with water.
A good side dish would be a sweet carrot salad or chow chow.