I buy bulk hamburger and make three meat loafs and several dozen meatballs. I cook the meatballs and freeze them for later. The meatloaf I freeze raw in throwaway pie pans (round loaves) and cook them in my round crockpot on a rack that came with the crockpot. Because it cooks so slow, there is little shrinkage and can later be sliced really thin for sandwiches. Because it is on a rack, it doesn't cook in the fat. I seldom mix it the same way twice and am always surprised how good it turns out to be. It goes in the crockpot before I go to work and dinner is ready when I get home.