Mini Meatloaf Bites

Hey Peeps! I know, I know, its been a couple days since I last posted! Today I'm blogging from my little ol' home town in Northern British Columbia. I'm up for a quick weekend visit and managed to find some time to get this post together. :)

I made these cute little mini meatloaf bites for our Super Bowl party last weekend, but they would be cute to make for any gathering you're having at your place. You could even make these in regular sized muffin tins for a cute dinner party main as well. Use a mini muffin pan for appetizer size though so people can eat them in a bite or two! I found the inspiration for these on the blog First Look Then Cook but I used my own recipes for meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Have a look at her photos because hers are far prettier than mine - my photos snapped from my iPhone just don't do these justice (it also doesn't help that I had probably consumed more than my fair share of super bowl beverages before attempting to put these together..!!). But they were delish! And super cute.

Meatloaf Bites

Recipe minimally adapted from the Girl Can't Cook

Ingredients:

•  3/4 lb lean ground beef
• 3/4 lb ground pork
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 loves garlic, minced
• 3/4 cup bread crumbs
• 1/2 up hickory bbq sauce (plus extra for brushing after wards)
• 1 tbsp worcestershire
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 cup parmesan
• mashed potatoes
• bacon bits

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a medium sautee pan, sautee onion and garlic with olive oil until softened, about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.
3. In a large bowl mix together beef, pork and bread crumbs with your hands. Mix in sauteed vegetables, BBQ sauce, worcestershire, egg, basil, salt, peper and parmesan until uniformly mixed. Press scoopfulls of meat mixture into a mini muffin pan. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes or until cooked through.
4. Prepare mashed potatoes (I make mine with butter, whipping cream, salt and pepper. Make them wetter than you normally do, so you can easily pipe them onto the meatloaves).
5. Brush each mini meatloaf with BBQ sauce. Pipe mashed potatoes on top of each mini meatloaf, then sprinkle with bacon bits.

Hope you enjoy this one! We didn't have many leftovers because these were eaten so quickly when I put them out. Enjoy the last day of the weekend!

This post was linked up with Mouth Watering Mondays over at the Sweet Spot. Head over there ASAP to check out all the linky deliciousness going on this week. :)

Happy Cooking my Friends!

Super Bowl Recap

I hosted a small Super Bowl gathering at my place tonight. I made enough to feed an army... but isn't that always the way? I'm going to keep this post short because I will go into more details regarding some of these items in posts later this week. :) For now though, just a preview of what is to come this week - just some quick photos I snapped with my iPhone.

 As you can see in the photo above, I made some football themed chocolate dipped strawberries. Not perfect, but they're cute! And easy!

Cute little mini meatloaf bites - mini meat loaf brushed with bbq sauce with creamy mashed potatoes piped on top and then sprinkled with bacon. These were a hit! Recipe will for sure be posted this week, so definitely check back soon.



These were the strawberries, post dip, but pre-decorating. They look beautiful as is, but it was fun to do the extra step just in keeping in theme with the Super Bowl/ football thing!

Then I made some individual seven layer dips (but mine only had 5 layers because I'm fussy and don't really like veggies on top of my dips!! They were delicious. I made salsa (again, recipe will follow this week) and guacamole for these bad boys and topped with some Tillamook Sharp Cheddar and they were a hit.

Also made a couple of other things tonight that I didn't manage to snap some photos of with my iPhone. Made an amazing Reese's Peanut Butter & Oreo Frozen Pie (recipe will be up this week... sooner rather than later because it was sooooo good!) that was an absolute hit!

And the favorite cocktail of the night was Raspberry Beer Cocktail. Check out this easy recipe here.

Oh yeah, and we had some spectacular weather this weekend! So I got out with the dog on Saturday morning at one of our local parks and enjoyed it (yep, that pic is from our walk).

Oh yeah, congrats to the NY Giants on their win! They played hard and it was definitely a nail-biter toward the end of the game... I totally thought New England would pull through for the win, but I guess it wasn't in the cards this year. Sorry to any of you New England fans out there!!

What did you make for your Super Bowl get together? Do you make the same thing every year, or do you try to mix it up?  I would love to hear from you!

Happy Baking my Friends!

Potroast Meatloaf

First off - I have to apologize - I've gone from posting almost daily to posting only a couple of times a week. I just started back to full time work and hopefully once I get in the groove of things, I'll get around to posting more. I'm hoping to get up to posting about 4-5 times per week, so please bear with me while I get settled in my new job!

Secondly, I know meatloaf isn't exactly classy and that a lot of people don't like it, but I really like meatloaf and I found this lovely recipe for potroast meatloaf in Jamie Oliver's cookbook "Jamie's Food Revolution". It is so incredibly flavourful and your house will smell divine while it's cooking. So if you're not a meatloaf fan, do scroll a little further and at least have a look at the recipe - I promise it's delicious and you won't be disappointed.

Potroast Meatloaf

Recipe from Jamie's Food Revolution

Ingredients:

• 2 medium onions
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 1 level teaspoon cumin
• 1 heaped teaspoon ground coriander
• 12 plain crackers
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 2 heaped tsp dijon mustard
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 large egg
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2-1 fresh red chile
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
• 1 15-oz can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained
• 2 14-oz cans diced tomatoes
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 12 slices smoked bacon
• 1 lemon

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 475F. Peel and finely chop one of the onions. Place in a large frying pan on medium high heat with 2 lugs of olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Add the ground cumin and coriander. Fry and stir every 300 seconds for about 7 minutes until softened and lightly golden, then put into a large bowl to cool. Place crackers in a ziplock bag and smash up until fine crumbs. Add to the bowl of cooled onions with the oregano, mustard and ground beef. Crack in the egg and add another good pinch of salt and pepper. With clean hands scrunch and mix up well. Move the meat mixture to a board, then pat and mold it into a large football shape. Rub it with a little oil. Place meatloaf into a baking dish and put into preheated oven, and turn down temperature immediately to 400F. Bake for 30 minutes.
2. Peel the other onion and chop into 1/4 inch pieces. Peel and slice the garlic. Finely slice the red chile. Place the onion, garlic, and chile in a large pan on medium high heat with 2 lugs of olive oil, the paprika, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook for around 7 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds until softened and lightly golden. Add the worcestershire sauce, chickpeas, tomatoes, and balsamic vinegar. Bring to a boil then turn heat down and let it slowly simmer for 10 minutes. Taste the sauce and season with salt and pepper if needed.
3. Pick the rosemary leaves off the stalks and put them into a little bowl. Remove the meatloaf from the oven and pour all the fat from the pan over the rosemary leaves and mix up well. Spoon your sauce around the meatloaf. Lay the slices of bacon over the top of the meatloaf and sauce. Scatter the rosemary leaves on top. Put the pan back into the oven for 15 minutes or until the bacon turns golden brown and the sauce if bubbling and delicious. Serve with a mixed leaf salad and some wedges of lemon for squeezing over.

And that's that! It makes a lot of food, so make sure you have enough people to eat most of it or lots of containers for leftovers! I hope this recipe can change your opinion on meatloaf - it is easy and delicious! Bon apetit!

Happy Cooking my Friends!