Mouthwatering Mini Meatloaves
Friday, June 15, 2012 at 2:00AM | Taneasha 
I don’t know about you, but I think the best parts of a meatloaf are the edges. So when I was considering making a meatloaf, I thought, why not make little ones so that there’s a much higher edge to middle ratio. And well… why not wrap them in bacon? Bacon is always a welcome addition.
Here’s what you need:
1 lb. ground turkey breast
2-3 small onions (they have to be small)
½ of a red bell pepper
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 egg
12 strips of bacon
Salt and pepper
In my world, bacon isn’t cooked unless it’s crispy. Nothing bugs me more than something wrapped in a soggy piece of bacon. With that in mind, you’ll need to par-cook the bacon before doing anything else. Lay the slices on a foil lined sheet pan.
Bake at 350° for about 10 minutes. Or until it looks about like this.
Remove it to some paper towels to drain and cool. Next, dice your onion and bell pepper and mince your garlic. You’ll want the pieces to be pretty small.
Now, pull out your meat. Drop it into a mixing bowl with an egg.
Mix them until the egg is fully incorporated. Hubby likes things spicy. Since I don’t really, I compromised and put in about a teaspoon of hot sauce. You can as much as you like… or none. This is a good time to add the salt and pepper as well.
Once that’s mixed in, go ahead and stir in the onion, bell pepper, and garlic.
Now, this is where the importance of having small onions comes in. If you can’t find any really small onions, you can just remove some layers to make them fit. Place a thin slice, about ¼ inch, into the bottom of each muffin cup.
Now comes the bacon. Place one strip around the edge of each cup. Mine was center cup, so it didn’t quite make a complete circle, but close enough. Look at that, a perfect little cup for your meat.
Fill each one and press it with wet fingers to smooth out the top.
I had two extra strips of undercooked bacon, and I’m pretty sure it’s blasphemous to waste bacon, so I just cut them up and topped each cup with a little piece.
Bake, uncovered, in a 350° oven for 45 minutes. I placed my muffin tins on a sheet pan just to be safe. When they’re done, they won’t really be brown, but the bacon on top will be cooked as well as the strips around the edges.
If you’re careful, you can flip the meatloaves over and serve them with the onions on top. The onions are sweet and caramelized, and I think they look fabulous that way. I plated them both ways so you could see the difference. Aren’t they cute?
I served mine with a slice of potato and zucchini pie, which was a fabulous accompaniment.
What full size recipe would you like to see miniaturized?
Reader Comments (1)
omg you totally are a freaky genius!! Those look fabulous... and the caramelized onion on the bottom... *drool*