As much as I love to cook I also love to experiment in the kitchen with spices and seasonings so that my food has lots of flavor, the other day I decided I was going to experiment with meatloaf... I had been seeing on pinterest more than a fair share of recipes for meat loaf in muffin pans .... seems simple enough but with meatloaf that recipe has to be perfect in my eyes because who wants to eat a ball of hamburger that has no flavor or just covered in ketchup... on pinterest I think you can find meatloaf covered in everything under the sun and well I am pretty tradional when it comes to meatloaf and there are certain things you eat with it ... potatoes being one of them .... I am also one of those people that have never liked for my food to touch especially things like mashed potatoes and corn. So now the experiment ... Hamburger meat is thawed ... Realizing I don't have onion or bell pepper and not in the mood to go to the store ... This is really turning into a life experiment. Open the spice cabinet and I begin sprinkling pinching dumping shaking garlic black pepper salt basil italian seasoning onion powder crushed red pepper a little more basil and garlic white pepper oregano. Ok let's move to the fridge grab some ketchup Worcestershire an egg. Pantry brown sugar bread crumbs and grab a spatula. Mix just until mixed didn't want to over work the meat and make it tough. I didn't measure anything just kind of added by sight and there was ketchup and Worcestershire in the mix but the brown sugar was for the glaze on top. I separated in small sections according to the muffin pan. Sprayed with non stick olive oil spray. I happened to be using a large muffin pan rolled each section into a ball and pressed down so that it fit snuggly into the pan and there were no air pockets or gaps. I baked at 350 degrees for about 15 min while I prepared the glaze top of brown sugar ketchup and Worcestershire mixing well no clumps if sugar. Pouring over each meat muffin and baking an additional 15-20 minutes or until reaching 160 degrees inside and cooked through. I don't like my top burned so I cook a little prior to putting it on. While it finished cooking I made roasted garlic and herb mashed potatoes. You can make homemade or from a box which ever you want, I let cool a few minutes and added to a party bag using a 1M tip I piped the potatoes on top of the meat loaf muffins and put them back in the oven for 5-7 min on broil to get slightly browned.
Of course I fed this to someone other than me to get honest reviews and they totally loved it and tried to lick the bowl it was delivered in but couldn't figure out how since it was a small Tupperware bowl. :) then requested the left overs the next day. I really enjoyed it and was angry at myself did not measuring anything because the flavor was outstanding. I served it with green beans the first night and broccoli the second night. I was even impressed with the potatoes and the meat together and decided it would be the way I eat my meatloaf in the future. So this experiment was a success.
