Mini Meat Loafs

People either love meat loaf or hate it. My family, thank goodness, is the kind that loves meat loaf. What's not to love? If you love hamburgers, how can you not love a big loaf of ground beef flavored with onions and ketchup? It's heaven without the bun. Still, some people think of meat loaf and say, "Ugh." I don't get it. Maybe their mamas didn't have good meat loaf recipes.

Several years ago, a friend told me that when her mom used to cook meat loaf, she'd put a hard boiled egg in the middle of it. That recipe twist puzzled me.

"I guess she wanted to make sure we got enough protein," my friend explained.

"It's a big loaf of ground beef. How much protein did she think you needed?"

My friend shrugged. "If that wasn't the reason, I don't know what it was."

My guess is that back in the 1970's, the trendy thing to do with a meat loaf was to put a boiled egg in the middle. I bet that brown slice of meat with a yellow and white circle in the center accented the almond kitchen appliances perfectly.

My meat loaf recipe isn't so fancy. It's the one off the back of the Lipton Recipe Secrets Beefy Onion Recipe Soup and Dip Mix (Remember the good ole' days when it was just called Lipton Cup-o-Soup? I guess it didn't take long for the Lipton company to figure out nobody ever put hot water in that powder and drank it as soup. It only went in meats and sour cream. Now the name is longer than the list of items one can make with this packet of oniony goodness).

Even with this easy recipe, I've usually messed up the meat loaf. You see, the recipe says to cook the loaf for an hour at 350 degrees. And like an idiot, I believed the recipe. The last time I made meat loaf, it was hard and dry. The boys slathered it with ketchup just so it could slide easier going down.

The next morning (I don't think too well at 6:00 am), too lazy to make Davis a ham sandwich, I cut two biscuits in half and stuck meat loaf in them to make meat loaf sandwiches. Everybody loves meat loaf sandwiches, right? Wrong. Davis came home that day and begged me never to make meat loaf sandwiches for his lunch again.

"What did you eat?" I asked him.

"I ate the sandwiches. They were all I had. It was like eating hockey pucks."

Now, whenever Davis does something I don't like, I threaten to feed him meat loaf sandwiches for dinner. He straightens up real fast.

Tonight, though, I was more careful. First of all, I didn't make one big meat loaf. Instead, I used those little aluminum loaf pans and made mini meat loafs. They were so cute. Also, I watched the time carefully. After 30 minutes, I checked those little loafs, and they were still kind of pink inside, so I put them in for another ten minutes. That was the perfect time limit.
So here's the modified version of the recipe from Lipton Recipe Secrets Beefy Onion Recipe Soup & Dip Mix (Honestly, don't you think just one use of the word recipe in the name would suffice?):

Ingredients:
2 lb. ground beef (I get the leanest available)
3/4 cup plain dry bread crumbs
1 pkg. Lipton Recipe Secrets Beefy Onion Recipe Soup & Dip Mix
2 eggs
3/4 cup water
1/3 cup ketchup (actually, I just hold the ketchup bottle over the meat and give it one good squeeze)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients well. Put about a handful (or a large spoonful) of the mixture in a 2 x 3 1/2 (or so) aluminum loaf pan. My batch of meat filled five of those little pans. Bake for 30 minutes, then check the meat. If it's still a little pink, put it back in for another 10 minutes.

Because I'm leaving for Louisville, KY tomorrow, I made a big ole' dinner tonight. So I served the mini meat loafs with mashed potatoes, roasted broccoli (see the March 8 posting), and asparagus. I kind of overcooked the broccoli, but nobody complained. Otherwise, dinner was tasty, and I dare say Davis might be convinced to put a slice of his little loaf between two biscuit halves. Just maybe.