Italian Deer Meatloaf is the absolute best meatloaf recipe ever. It’s moist, spicy, cheesy, and delicious–it’s all things good crammed into this recipe! The whole family loves it–even the kids, and it’s easy and inexpensive to make.

Meatloaf is one of my favorite foods, even though I have a hard time picking a favorite of anything. Meatloaf is comfort food and I guess that’s why I enjoy it so much.

I spent years searching for the meatloaf of all meatloaves and to me, this is it. When I made this recipe, everyone loved it. They told me to never make any other meatloaf recipe ever, so I haven’t.

Even though it’s delicious, it’s not very diet-friendly. It’s low in calories, but if you plan to eat sides with it like mashed potatoes and gravy, you might go overboard. Eat a nice salad with it instead. Be sure to take a look at my tips for making this a more diet-friendly recipe. 

Feel free to print our recipe card:

For those of you with more patience than me, you can use the jumbo cupcake tins or a jumbo muffin pan and make mini Italian meatloaves.

You can freeze the Italian Deer Meatloaf (mini or regular) for later use, with a vacuum sealer or a good quality freezer bag. This really helps when you need dinner in a hurry or you’re like me and don’t want to cook–not that I’m looking for ways to be lazy, but if it helps me accomplish that–YAY!!!

The good, the bad and the delicious…

• The Italian Deer Meatloaf is low in sugar and has vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, calcium, and a little fiber and it very high in protein.
• It might be too high in saturated fat and sodium, especially for those that are on special diets.

See tips below for making this a more diet friendly recipe.

Italian Deer Meatloaf Nutrition Facts

Yields: 2 Meatloaves (cut into 16 1″ slices) Serves 8	Serving Size: 2 Slices
Calories 359	Calories from fat: 20
	% Daily Value*
Total Fat 19	29%
Saturated Fat 8 g	42%
Monounsaturated Fat 0 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 62 mg	21%
Sodium 1544 mg	64%
Total Carbohydrates 14 g	5%
Dietary Fiber 2 g	9%
Sugars 4 g
Protein 32 g	63%
Vitamin A 13%	Vitamin C 6%
Calcium 18%	Iron 7%

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily value may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA, but were calculated by MyFitnessPal, Inc. by Under Armour, Inc. 

To make this dish more diet-friendly…

• To help lower the cholesterol and fat you could use less fat in your ground venison burger but keep in mind that for meatloaf you really need the fat. You want it to be juicy and moist. If you leave out too much fat the meatloaf will be dry and gross. This recipe was calculated using 80/20 ground venison burger.
• To lower the saturated fat, calories and sodium omit the cheese.
• To help lower the sodium, also omit the added salt and replace the spaghetti sauce with fresh tomato sauce and a dash of oregano and basil. This will change the taste, but it will still be delicious.
• To help lower everything, eat one slice instead of 2.
• Whatever changes you make to your Italian Deer Meatloaf, you can recalculate the nutrition facts at myfitnesspal.com

Bon Appétit