Not Yo Mamma's Meatloaf Muffins

For some people, the word meatloaf conjures up unappetizing memories. I must say I ate my fair share of nasty meatloaf as a kid. Despite the name of the post, my mom made a pretty good meatloaf, but somehow I was forced to eat greasier versions at other houses with unidentified crunchy chunks.

Now that I have you reliving all of those terrible meatloaf experiences, I wanna introduce this recipe. My mom found this recipe in Cooking Light magazine and I fell in love. It's delicious! The perfect amount of moisture without grease. A delicious flavor from sauteed onions and garlic. And best of all, they're all ready in individual portions! So whether you've had an aversion to meatloaf in the past or you love meatloaf, you've got to try this recipe. 

The recipe calls for lean ground beef. However, since I'm humbly inching towards my "bikini by summer" goal, I decided to try the recipe with ground turkey instead. I've gotta say...it wasn't bad. But if I'm being honest, I prefer the beef. Turkey is just so much leaner (hence it being better in the attack against my love handles), which means that it's not as juicy as the ground beef.

I made some mashed potatoes. I know, not the healthiest side on the planet. I used a pastry bag to pipe a little bit of mashed spuds on each meatloaf. Wouldn't this be great for kids? How fun for a kid to have a "cupcake" for dinner.

Diner Meatloaf Muffins

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 cup onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup carrot, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 1/2 pounds ground turkey or extra lean ground beef 
• 1/2 cup ketchup, plus more for topping
• 1 cup saltine crackers (about 20), finely crushed
• 2 tablespoons mustard
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 eggs
• cooking spray

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrot, garlic, and oregano to the skillet and sauté a couple minutes. Set veggies aside to cool.

In a large bowl, combine beef, ketchup, crackers, mustard, Worcestershire, and pepper. Add the cooled veggie mixture and eggs, mix all together.

Coat 12 cup muffin pan with cooking spray. Divide meat mixture evenly among 12 cups. Top each muffin with a drizzle of ketchup (or BBQ sauce). Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until a thermometer reaches 165°. 

Serve with creamy mashed potatoes.

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