Mini Meat Loaves

I know some people eat meat loaf on a regular basis, but we rarely have it. This week I had some potatoes that needed used and decided to make mashed potatoes. Obviously, I needed something to go with those mashed potatoes, so I decided to try making meat loaf again. I used the recie from my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook and changed it a little. Then, instead of making an actual loaf, I made mini loaves using my muffin tin.

Mini Meat Loaves
Ingredients:

• 1 beaten egg
• 10 saltines crackers, crushed
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1/4 cup finely chopped green pepper
• 1 T. dried parsely
• 1/2 t. Italian seasoning
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1/4 t. pepper
  
• 1 lb. ground beef
• barbecue sauce

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl combine egg, cracker crumbs, milk, onion, green pepper, parsley, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Add ground beef and mix well.
2. Divide mixture evenly into 12 muffin cups.
3. Bake 20-25 minutes at 400° or until done.
   
4. Remove mini loaves from muffin tin and place on baking sheet. Reserve one loaf for making gravy, if desired, and top the remaining loaves with barbecue sauce.
5. Return to oven and bake for an additional 5 minutes, or more.
   

Removing the loaves from the muffin tins before adding the barbecue sauce gets them out of the grease, and they brown up nicely on the baking sheet. I think the grease is one of the reasons I never really like meatloaf, but this really seems to help. I used the reserved loaf and the grease from the muffin tin to make gravy, which went really well with my mashed potatoes!

To make gravy: break up reserved loaf in skillet, along with baking grease or oil. Add flour, a little salt and pepper and brown. Then, add milk and some reserved water from cooking the potatoes; cook and stir until desired consistency. (Sorry, I didn't measure anything)

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