Monday, September 24, 2012

Mmm ... Monday: Mini Meatloaf Cups

Lately I've been feeling like I'm stuck in a recipe rut; everything seems so been-there-done-that-just-last-week.  A lot of it is because of the whole low sodium diet thing; I am still struggling to find awesome low sodium recipes, and it's often a lot of work to turn one of my favorites into something that could be considered "low sodium".  But I'm working on it.

Anyhow, I was making a double batch of my mother-in-law's meatballs, when I thought of a recipe I had pulled out of Kraft Food & Family magazine back in 2008 for mini meatloaves.  I took another look at the recipe and realized it called for a whole box of Stove Top Stuffing Mix (a big sodium no-no), but I started to wonder if I could just use some of the meatball meat and turn it into mini meatloaves.  So I gave it a try.



I put Prego spaghetti sauce in the divot in the middle ...


... and added mozzarella cheese after baking them in the toaster oven for 30 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.  Five minutes later ...



Voila!  They tasted pretty good, but I didn't make the center divot nearly large enough to have enough sauce in the middle.  You couldn't taste the sauce very much, but it was a pretty good first try.

So, a day or two later, I made my usual meatloaf recipe (with one adjustment ... I no longer use garlic salt in it, for obvious reasons) and put them into twelve muffin cups instead of forming into a giant oval.  I then made the divots, only this time I made them as big as I could to accommodate the maximum amount of filling possible.  For four of them I made a barbecue sauce/diced tomato mixture for the filling, and for the rest I used plain ol' salsa (mild for Mollie and medium for Bryson).


After 30 minutes in the oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit, I put Mexican cheese on six of the salsa loaves and sharp cheddar on the remaining salsa loaves and the barbecue loaves.  Then they went back in the oven for five minutes.


And the results ...




... delicious!  I will admit, they were a little greasier than regular meatloaf, likely because the grease has nowhere to go when the meatloaf is jammed into a muffin tin.  But they were oh so good!  I liked that I didn't have to add anything to it at the table, and they were super easy to serve.

The next time I make meatballs, I plan on giving the Italian version another try.  I have a feeling it could end up being my favorite.

Anyhow, check out the original recipe and see what you think.  Tweak it to your liking and see what amazing creations you can come up with!

Enjoy!

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