It's amazing what you can do to make food fun. Although my photo below isn't great I thought it would be a good idea to show what it looks like just out of the oven.
I understand that meatloaf cupcakes are the rage now for catering companies. When I heard this and saw another food blogger post a comment about it I thought I would try and make them. Plus, I think this would be a great Super Bowl item to add to your Game Day Menu. They're easy to eat and delicious!
You can use my recipe, or use the meatloaf recipe that you always use. Just remember to cut the cooking time down to only 30 minutes. My typical recipe cooks for 90 minutes.
I used the recipe I always use for my meatloaf only I put them in a large muffin tin, sprayed with non-stick spray.
I put the raw meatloaf mixture into the individual muffin cups patting down well to fill each tin completely. Then I spread the sauce over the tops of each meatloaf cupcake and placed the pan into the oven at 350 degrees for just 25 minutes. Much less time than it takes for a loaf to cook.
After 25 minutes I piped the sweet potato puree that I made onto each cupcake and let it continue to cook for another 5 minutes.
Each one was so easy to scoop out of their individual cups right onto a plate. I served it with a salad and it was perfect, delicious and fun to eat!
Here's a photo of one that I placed on a plate after I deleted some of the photos off my memory card. I think it would look nice as well with some of the extra puree piped around the cupcake for looks. However, we'd already eaten the remaining sweet potato puree by the time I cleared my memory card.
While eating, it occurred to me that these would taste outstanding piped with soft cheddar cheese on top as they came out of the oven, rather than the potatoes. I love soft cheddar cheese. I definitely think I'll have to try that next time.
Here's my meatloaf recipe followed by the recipe for the sweet potato puree.
Meatloaf
serves 6
2 1/2 pounds ground beef, (I use ground sirloin)
1 cup milk, (skim)
1/4 cup dried minced onion
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup dried parsley flakes
1/2 tsp. fresh ground pepper
Sauce:
1/2 cup chili sauce (Heinz)
1/2 tsp. Kitchen Bouquet
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. dry mustard
Directions:
Mix all ingredients except sauce in a bowl. Put into a loaf pan that's been sprayed with a non-stick spray. This may be done the day before or early in the day.
Bake at 350F degree oven for 25 minutes, then pipe on the sweet potato puree and bake for 5 more minutes.
The sweet potatoe puree was easy to make.
Sweet Potato Puree
3 sweet potatoes
skim milk
1 tbsp. low fat butter
Cooked potatoes in water for approximately 30-45 minutes at a low simmer until the tip of a knife can be inserted easily.
Drain, then run cold water over them and let them cool for about 15 minutes before handling them. Peel skins off and place in a large bowl. Add skim milk, heavy cream or half and half, plus butter. Whip using a hand mixer to make sure it's a very smooth consistency.
Place in a piping bag fitted with a star tip and add the sweet potato puree to the bag. When meatloaf cupcakes have cooked for 25 minutes, open oven and carefully pipe the puree on top. Close oven and cook for an additional 5 minutes.
Remove from oven and serve.
