You know, I was going to share a meatloaf recipe here, but here's the thing about meatloaf: Everyone has a favorite. Some like it super juicy, some more dry, some with more ketchup, some with BBQ sauce, the list goes on. So here, I am just going to show you a DIFFERENT way to serve up whatever YOUR favorite kind of meatloaf is. Ok? Good!
Grab your stuff. When I make meatloaf, I tend to just throw whatever in there. Makes things easy. You will need bacon though. Don't forget it!
Here, I used:
1 lb grass-fed ground beef from a local family farm (Can you hear me up here on my soapbox? Lol)
Some ketchup
A couple eggs
Some bread crumbs (saltine crackers are the normal route I take, however)
A clove or two of minced garlic
Half an onion (I REALLY wish I had only used a quarter. Seriously)
Salt and pepper
BACON!
You will also need a muffin tin. Whaaaat?!
First fry up your bacon. Plop some in a cold pan, turn it to medium-low, and just let it do it's thang. We don't want to cook it all the way, though! No, no! Just about halfway done.
Oh, and preheat your oven to 375.
In the meantime, add all your ingredients to a bowl.
Yeah, I put WAY too many onions in there. I think i'll stick to my typical onion powder for next time. I just needed to use up this onion, ok?!
Ketchup! I just squirted it in there for a bit.
Eggs and everything else.
Now's the fun part. Moosh it all together! Don't use a spoon. What's the point in making meatloaf if you don't get to relive your childhood and squish your hands through that raw meaty mixture? :)
Check your bacon. Mine looks about halfway done, I guess. It doesn't have to be perfect.
Move em to a paper-towel covered plate to soak up the excess drippings.
Once they've cooled off for a minute, you can cut them in half! This isn't totally necessary. You'll see why.
Now, grab a handful of your meatloaf mixture and roll it into a ball.
Spray your pan with a little cooking spray, and then set that little guy right into the muffin cup thing. Here's where the fun begins. You can either drape a piece of bacon over the top. . .
. . . or wrap the bacon around the ball!
I did a few different things, and then one plain one. Just experiment! Pop these into the oven for 30-35 minutes. During the last few minutes, I like to turn the oven up to broil just to make sure the bacon is nice and crispy. :)
Can you see these? See all those onions?! Oh, it was overwhelming. But, please note, I hate onions. Haha!
Extra notes: As you can see, this only makes enough for about 3 people. BUT, it's no problem to double or triple the recipe. You'll just have to do it in batches if you don't have more than one muffin tin, like me. Also, most meatloaf recipes have you put a ketchup based sauce over the top either at the beginning, or at some point during the cooking process. You can certainly do that with these as well as if the bacon is wrapped around the outside. I don't know how I feel about putting ketchup right on top of that wonderful bacon. :)
