Okay I will be honest. I am not a fan of meatloaf. I don't know what it is. But then most of the time I am not a fan of a slab of meat. Must be really weird for most people. Oh well. However, my husband is a fan of meatloaf. So as the wonderful wifey that I am I make meatloaf for him.
Now if I have to eat meatloaf it better be fun. I had seen this recipe to make meatloaf using a muffin pan to reduce time. Ha! What a fabulous idea! Plus, then dinner can be cute. Of course I decorated the meatloaf with mash potato and bacon to make them look like cupcakes. I am weird. I don't apologize.
Diner Meatloaf Muffins
Adapted from From Dahlias to Doxies
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
1/2 cup ketchup
1 cup Club crackers (about 20), finely crushed
2 tablespoons mustard
1 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 eggs
cooking spray
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Add the onion, carrot, garlic and oregano to the pan and saute a couple minutes. Set veggies aside to cool.
3. In a large bowl, combine beef, ketchup, crackers, mustard, Worcestershire sauce and pepper. Add the cooled veggie mixture and eggs; mix together well.
4. Coat muffin pan with cooking spray. Use a ice cream scooper to scoop meat mixture into muffin pan. Top each muffin with BBQ sauce. Bake for about 25 minutes.
I love that there are veggies in this meatloaf. Somehow it makes me feel like I am serving something healthy. This was fairly easy to make. Ingredients were all items that should be easily found in the pantry. You can even substitute any kind of crackers. However, Club crackers are nice and buttery and ohhhhhhh sooooooo good. Use them if you have them. Making the meatloaf into little cupcakes really made me happy.
On Saturdays that El Hubby and I feel like giving ourselves a special treat we walk to a near by breakfast restaurant and eat outside with the pup. Those are my favorite breakfast times. It's nice and relaxing eating outside on a nice day. Sadly usually people do not opt to eat outside in Fresno. It's quite sad. Cause in other towns such as San Francisco it is quite common. But I guess that means move room for my little family. The pup loves going to Country Waffle. She loves when people walk by and ask to pet her. But mostly she loves when she gets eggs. Oh and we are good pet owners who bring the pup's own bowl and stuff. (don't want to make some people cringe by letting the pup eat off human plates) However the last 2 times that my little family went our favorite waitress has not been there. She is always so nice, pets the pup and makes sure we have water to give to the pup. My little family needs to start looking for another breakfast place near by because apparently all the other waitress are not too keen in serving people outside even though they have a patio. El Hubby heard one of the waitresses say "well they better leave a big tip". Now coming from a family of restaurant owners and having been a waitress at one time in my life before leaving a tip is very important to me cause I remember a time living off of tips. However, I would never say it out load. Plus, we never leave a mess and always clean up after ourselves. Whatever! Rude people make me angry and sad. So the hunt for a new breakfast place has begun. Hopefully I will find a place in walking distance that will let my little family eat outside.
Keep cooking friends!
XOXO
