Friday, April 14, 2017

#1852 foodie Friday: meatloaf muffins

I just realized that the name of this post doesn't sound very good, but the little meatloaf or big meatball tastes really good, so bear with me. Maybe you can think of a nicer name.

I had about a pound of ground beef and believe it or not, I didn't want to make tacos again. I had made these individual meatloaf things before and decided to try it again. Here's what I put in a bowl:

A handful of bread crumbs
A good slosh of milk
An egg
A palmful of finely chopped onion
A pinch of cayenne pepper
A pinch of red pepper flakes
A couple of pinches of cumin
Some salt and pepper

Mix all those ingredients together, then put in the ground beef, and stir it up until the meat incorporates all of the ingredients.

Cut up six small cubes of cheese. I used cheddar jack because that's what I had. A sliced up stick of string cheese would be good, too.

Spray a muffin tin (I used a six-muffin tin) with non-stick cooking spray. You don't want the meatball/loaf to stick!

Take a clump of the meat mixture into your hand and put a cube of cheese in it. Mold the meat around the cheese. You might find you need a little more meat to cover the cheese. Form a ball with the meat. It's probably going to be between the size of a golf ball and a tennis ball. It should fit into the muffin tin very nicely. As I mentioned, I had a six-muffin tin, so the balls were a slightly large. They looked like big meatballs.

I chose to put a dollop of BBQ sauce on each ball. I put the muffin tin on a foil-lined cookie sheet and popped it in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes. After the cooking time was finished, I let them sit in the muffin tin for a few minutes to rest.

Because I had sprayed the tin generously, there was no sticking. The cheese inside the meatball was all melty and yummy. There was a little kick to the flavor because of the spices I used. As far as I know, there are no rules to the spices. Use whatever you like. I bet Italian seasoning would be great with some mozzarella cheese. You could do a little marinara instead of BBQ sauce and you'd have an equally delicious but different flavor than what I had.

The balls were not dry - I would even dare to say they were moist.  The trick to moist meatballs is the milk in the bread crumbs. When I haven't added milk, I find the meatballs or meatloaf seems very dry.

MT really liked this dinner. It is simple and good and you probably have everything you need to make it in your kitchen right now. This is truly a 30 minute meal. I like making it in the muffin tin because the portion is easy and perfect. The meatballs taste good the next day, too. About a minute or so in the microwave and you've got a tasty snack or lunch..

Happy Friday!

2 comments:

Kteach said...

Sounds good and easy :)

Lizzie said...

I'll try that, although I don't have a muffin tin. But I like the idea of the cheese in the middle.