When cooking a meatloaf place bacon rashers on the bottom of the pan to add moisture and flavor to the meat. It will also help to turn the meat out when ready.
I have but bacon on the top of my meatloaf, buy never on the bottum. Have you ever tried putting a little bit of salsa in your meatloaf. I do it all the time. It just kicks up the flavor a little .
Those are all great tips. Instead of ketchup, I sometimes use barbeque sauce to give it some kick. Onion soup mix is a good substitute for when you don't have onions on hand, and adds more beef flavor as well.
I've made individual servings of meatload using a muffin pan before. It can work out very well. I agree, using some other tomato based product in place of ketchup can be a lot of fun as well. I routinely use the onion soup mix in my meatloaf instead of chopping onions. That has always worked well for me.