Okay, I am doing meatloaf at church tomorrow night and plan on putting the meat into cupcake tins instead of doing the large loaf. I kind of figured that it would save me time and would make serving that many people easier. Would also make clean up easier. But am having a hard time coming up with a recipe. I need one that doesn't have any kind of milk in it...Any ideas?
Shelly, you could substitute beef broth for the milk, if your purpose is to soften the breadcrumbs. It will also add a little extra flavor and a bit of salt.
You might also want to make sure that there's at least one egg in it, since you want the meatloaf to hold its shape in those muffin tins.
Otherwise, I would just use whatever your favorite meatloaf recipe is.
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Use a bunch of eggs, Shelly. In meatloaf, and I don't have a recipe, I just wing it, I put minced onion, eggs (quite a few), Romano cheese, basil and bread crumbs. For the muffin tins you could roll the meat loaf into balls, so each serving would be a large meat ball. Sauce could be a tinned or bottled spaghetti sauce, or better yet (our favourite) is a combination of Alfredo and tomato sauce, usually a generic brand and the guys call it "pink" sauce. Or the old fashioned a la 60's and what my mother used to do all the time is Hunt's tomato sauce directly from the tin, heated just a little and drizzled over the top.
Or, if you leave out the basil, you can add a huge plop of ketchup to the meat and eggs mixture. (Don't cringe, it's really good!!)
Shelly -- I'm like KaeEll. I don't use a specific recipe for meatloaf either, but pretty much make it up each time. The best thing is if you can find a "meatloaf mix" in the meat section of your grocery store because it's a blend of hamburger and pork, and sometimes it also has either turkey or veal. The important thing is that the pork makes the meatloaf more tender. If you can't find the mix, you can always just use the hamburger, and I do that too!
I also use the canned tomato sauce on top, but (and this sounds a bit strange) I also barely sprinkle the top of the meatloaf with a little sugar when I first put it in the oven (and before using the sauce). For some reason, it seems to bring out the other flavors, and makes a nice crust.
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"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
I have an old favorite recipe, but it calls for a little bit of heavy cream and lots of cheese. It actually uses the cheese instead of the bread crumbs. And the topping is the best. Its tomato paste thinned out with balsamic vinegar and water. So good.
The recipe also has me fry off a few slices of bacon and then I saute the garlic and onions in the grease. Very good but not non-dairy friendly. I could always make him one pan of meatloaf without any dairy at all. And make my recipe for the rest of them. I will need to make like a ton of cakes, we have roughly 40 ppl who come Wednesday nights and I figure people will eat at least 2 each.
Oh right, it's the pastor that has the lactose thing going on. Quell pain, lol. Yeah, I'd be tempted to make him a separate pan of non-dairy and serve the others your tried and true one. It does sound wonderful.
It occurs to me, though, that you ought to leave out the cheese because that's dairy too. I momentarily forgot the purpose of this recipe exchange! LOL...
You could certainly do two versions -- one with dairy, and one without, and substitute beef broth or tomato sauce in the one without cream and cheese.
Okay, now I'm hungry!
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"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
Yeah, now I am trying to find an easier recipe to multiply. The one I was talking about has SO many ingredients. It says it serves 6 but doesn't say how much a serving is. Kind of a pain in the you know what. I may use the same recipe and just remove a couple items. I will use one of those meatloaf mixes. Usually I get one of those and then one of the large things of beef. Since I have to make so much and keep it relatively cheap. Ugh, this is frustrating
What do you guys think of this one, I may cut it a few pounds because I have another girl making cupcakes too since I can't get more then 4 cupcake pans into my oven. Plus this says slice into 5-6 oz portions, I don't think that I can get 5 oz into a cupcake tin
1. Place all ingredients in a very large bowl and mix thoroughly. 2. Place in 3 loaf pans and press down with spoon. 3. Bake at 300°F for 60 minutes. 4. Remove from oven and invert each loaf over 8-inch wire rack to drain grease and juice. 5. Spread ½ cup of ketchup over each loaf. 6. Cut into portions 5 to 6 ounces each and keep warm.
I think instead of ketchup I may use my tomato past thing
It sounds good, Shelly, and it definitely calls for plenty of eggs.
The only thing that worries me is the green pepper because some people are picky. I personally like them, but there may be some who don't. I'm wondering if you might not want to sautee those until they're a little bit soft before you add them to the mix. That way, you'd still have the flavor, but people who don't like peppers wouldn't be crunching into them.
Just a thought... Otherwise, it looks good to me!
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
Moore's got a good point about the raw green peppers, Shelly. I'd definitely cook them up until soft too, and if the grocery store has red peppers that are the same price, I'd do half and half for the variety and colour. Be sure to chop them up into wee pieces so they don't make clumps of flavour in the odd bite.
The recipe says to cook at 300, that sounds awfully low. How bad would it be for me to cook at the standard 350. Well and I just read some of the reviews that said it took way longer then the hour. I need to make sure that this stuff gets done on time. I am sure that cupcakes are faster anyways, but still need to be sure. I would rather they got done WAY to early and have to keep them warm then have them get done late
Oh and I may replace the bell peppers with some shredded carrots
Shelly, what I usually do with meatloaf is to preheat the oven to about 350 or 375, then turn it down as soon as I put the meatloaf in.
You might want to start the "muffins" at 350, and then turn them down to 300 or 325. Of course, your meatloaf muffins shouldn't take as long to cook as a regular meatloaf because they're so much smaller, and they'll be less inclined to dry out if you use the lower temperature.
Maybe you should just split the difference, and cook them at 325. I'll bet it won't take them long to be done.
-- Edited by Moore ideas at 15:17, 2009-01-06
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
