Smoked Keto Meatloaf Balls - Tis the Season!

Good day and welcome back to the channel! Today, we're hitting the easy button. We're making a tasty dish that is perfect for meal prep or just for sharing with friends and neighbors (or both!): Smoked meatloaf!
I've shared a version of this recipe on the channel previously. This version is the most basic version of that recipe. Think of this as a base...a starting point to allow you to get something simple and tasty, but also something that can be modified to suit your tastes/needs.

What additions or adjustments could be considered?
How about adding in some diced onion? Maybe some fresh garlic? Maybe some carrot?
What about mixing in some diced caramelized onion?
How about stuffing the meatloaves with some cheese? Or cheese + pepperoni + some marinara sauce?
How about doing a bacon weave to wrap your meatloaf?
How about adding a beautiful glaze to finish the meatloaf?

The possibilities are endless! You can make this your own thing! But, need to start with a solid foundation. And for me, that foundation begins with:
3 lbs ground beef (80:20)
2 lbs bulk sausage
~ 1 cup of Parm cheese (shugeda shugeda works great here)
~ 2/3 cup of your favorite BBQ rub (I used Simply Marvelous Cherry rub
https://bigpoppasmokers.com/products/simply-marvelous-cherry-rub
with some Complete Seasoning from Badia and some chipotle powder added)
3 eggs, mixed

Prep your smoker and get it up to temp, then mix all ingredients in a large bowl until they are all evenly distributed. Then, form into loaves or whatever shape or shapes you like. I chose to go with roughly created large "balls" that weighed ~ 3/7 of a pound each.

NOTE: Since the ground beef was 20% fat and the sausage was likely at least that, you'll end up with cooked loaves that are smaller than whatever you started out with. Shrinkage is real!

Cook meat leaves until internal temps get to be at least 165. Depending on your cooker and the size of your loaves, that may take between 45 and 90 minutes. To be sure you're getting to the right target temperature, use a temperature probe.

BTW: One of the main lessons from my BBQ and cooking journey has been to use temperature probes or instant read thermometers. It's really helpful to KNOW that the cook is done. And, for cooks that take place over long periods of time (say, doing a couple briskets in the smoker), it's REALLY helpful to have a probe for the cooker. That way, if there is a problem and the fire goes out on your cooker, you know about it soon enough to do something about it. If you don't know and you think everything is hunky dory, you can go to check on your cook hours later only to find out that you now don't know if your food is safe to eat. You don't want to make people sick. You also don't want to toss out multiple briskets that have been hanging out outside in non-food safe temps for hours.
This model allows multiple probes and connects via your phone. I don't own this specific version, but I have a model that's very similar.
https://a.co/d/eTONN8J
It's on sale now for $34 at Amazon. This isn't sponsored content and I don't get anything if you purchase this product. I'm just using it as an example of something you can add as a modest investment to help improve your cooking.

Let me know what you think of this meatloaf template!