So my friends and I like taking turns making dinner at each other’s house every week. I love it because it gives me a day off and tonight was my friend Amanda came up with a great idea to serve meatloaf. Use a muffin pan. "I can't believe it," my first thought was, “why have I not thought of this?” I love it because it cooks a lot faster and everyone gets their own little meatloaf.
Meatloaf is a great way to feed people for cheap and you can put your own twist on every time you make it, so it never really comes out the same twice. Personally, that's more than okay by me. Like Amanda likes to put a ketchup, hot sauce and brown sugar mixture on top, where as I love to put BBQ sauce on top. You can also hide a lot of different veggies in it. I like onions and peppers in mine, and Amanda put spinach in which was another great idea.
Ingredients
- 6 ounces garlic-flavored croutons
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/2 onion, roughly chopped
- 1 carrot, peeled and broken
- 3 whole cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 red bell pepper, small dice
- 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 egg
- 2 lbs ground beef or turkey, or a mix.
For the glaze:
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 2 tbsp. brown sugar
- Dash hot pepper sauce
Directions
Heat oven to 325 degrees F
In a bowl, combine croutons, black pepper, cayenne pepper, chili powder, and thyme. Place this mixture into a large bowl. Combine the onion, carrot, garlic, and red pepper in the a bowl. Mix until the mixture is finely chopped, but not pureed. Combine the vegetable mixture, ground beef with the bread crumb mixture. Season the meat mixture with the kosher salt. Add the egg and combine thoroughly, but avoid squeezing the meat.
Pack this mixture into a 10-inch loaf pan to mold the shape of the meatloaf. Onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, turn the meatloaf out of the pan onto the center of the tray. Insert a temperature probe at a 45 degree angle into the top of the meatloaf. Avoid touching the bottom of the tray with the probe. Set the probe for 155 degrees.
Combine the catsup, brown, hot pepper sauce and honey. Brush the glaze onto the meatloaf after it has been cooking for about 10 minutes.
Or spay muffin pan with non-stick spray and scoop meat mixture about ½ cup in each tin. Bake for 15-20 min or until there is no pink Still glazing about 10 min after it is in the oven.
This was a great dinner with her, my husband, her son and another friend of ours. Fun and fast, we were all able to meet up after our busy day and still take a minute to catch up and with a classic dinner. It is great to see how different people will make the same classic food. We all left full and happy even though it was a Monday. I hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed our night.
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