Meatloaf Muffins!

I have been wanting to make meatloaf and I had some unfrozen ground beef tick-tocking in the fridge, so I decided today needed to be the day.

I wanted to do something a little different and thought about making it in muffin tins.  I googled up some recipes to get an idea of how much meat would fit in a muffin pan, how long I should cook it, etc.

All of the recipes I saw called for using 1 1/2 pounds of meat and made enough for one pan of 12 muffins.  I decided to make a double batch, because, well, I have two muffin tins.  I figured the extra muffins would be great to freeze to pull out for lunches and such.

This is more or less the ingredients I used.  More, because I ended up not using the gravy mix and the onion powder.  Less, because I forgot to put the eggs in the pic.

This is what I actually used:

3 pounds of ground beef

2 eggs

1 small raw onion, finely chopped

1-1/2 cup of finely chopped raw spinach

1/2 cup of diced, cooked cooked carrots

2 cups of crushed Rice Krispies or similar cereal (or crackers, bread crumbs, etc.)

2 cans of Campbell's Tomato soup

A little salt

A little pepper

A little garlic powder

I used Rice Krispies instead of crackers or such, because I had most of a box left from making almond bark crispies a few weeks ago. 

My first thought was to pour the cereal in my big measuring cup and just crunch it up with a cup.  I thought it would be easier to measure it, but it was quickly obvious that the idea was a fail.  Instead I just dumped it in a Ziploc and squished away.

 








It took a couple of go rounds, but I got enough crushed to make 2 cups of crumbs.

I added the Rice Krispies crumbs, carrots, and eggs to the meat.



 

I also added the spices, about half the chopped spinach, about 3/4 of the chopped onion, and about 2/3 of the tomato soup to the meat.

Then I added the last of the chopped onion and spinach into the rest of the tomato soup.

 I mixed the meat up well.

I then spooned the meat into the muffin tins and topped each one with a couple of spoons of the tomato soup mixture.

I put it in the oven at 350 degrees.

Since my oven is rather small, I was concerned about having both pans cook well, so I put them in staggered like this for 20 minutes, then switched the pans and cooked them for another 20 minutes.  That seemed to be the perfect timing.

While the meat was cooking, I threw together a green bean casserole.  My recipe is here.  I rarely make green bean casserole, except on holidays, but I went in the kitchen a few days ago to find that my daughter had bought a couple of cans of onion rings and left them on the counter with this note attached.  :D  How could I say no to that?

All done and, oh my goodness, it was delicious!  I am so glad I made the double batch; I am really doubting any of it will make it to the freezer.  This dish will definitely see a repeat performance!


Postscript:

I ended up with a little more meat than would fit into the muffin tins.  I took that meat and baked it in a loaf pan.  It was only about an inch deep, but it made just enough to make a couple of meatloaf sandwiches.  (I looove me some meatloaf sandwiches.)