Turkey Meatloaf Muffins

Yesterday I ventured into the meatloaf making world for the first time. I essentially combined two recipes. The original one where I got the idea from Jamie Eason here and the meatloaf recipe from our Cooking with Beer book by Paul Mercurio. Most recipes call for a cup of oats, but we don't have rolled oats in the house (just steel-cut), so I substituted short grain rice. 

Free form cooking is our general method and involves taking whatever veggies are in the fridge and spices that sound good and for the most part ignoring that part of the cookbook recipes. All of the ingredients below are approximate measurements and done to taste. Essentially this recipe is 2 pounds of ground meat, chopped veggies, and spices. Also, I suggest taking a bit of the mixture and frying it in a pan and adjusting the spices as you see fit. 

These turned out fantastic. I am glad I tested bits in the frying pan. I ended up adding more chipotle spice and some apple maple bbq sauce to balance the heat with sweet. They are pretty filling too. I had one for dinner last night and one for breakfast this morning. They heat up nicely in the microwave. [...]

Ingredients

2 lbs ground meat (we used turkey)
1/2 of a large red onion- finely chopped
1/2 green bell pepper- finely chopped
1 cup mushrooms- finely chopped
3-5 garlic cloves- minced
3 egg whites
3/4 cup cooked rice
2 tbsp chipotle pepper
1 1/2 tsp Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute (or mix of dried herbs)
1- 2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp thyme
2 1/2 tbsp apple maple bbq sauce
2 tbsp Famous Dave's Devils Spit bbq sauce
1/2 porter-style beer (we used our homebrewed Honey Porter)

Prepare your baking dish. 

I liked Jamie's idea of using a muffin pan to portion them out. Spray or put some olive oil to keep things from sticking, although cooking will produce a lot of juice, so I am not sure how necessary this is. 

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl. 

I mixed everything, then added the meat, since you don't want to over mix the meat. I suggest using disposable gloves, because it keeps your hands clean and spreads less contamination around the kitchen. I used 3 pairs between the mixing, test frying, adjusting the taste, test frying again, and finally putting it in the pan. 

Form racquetball size meatballs and place them in the dish. 

I ended up with extra so they were more like 12 tennis balls. 

Cook at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.

Or 350 for an hour. I'm not sure what difference it makes, but each recipe had its own recommendation.

Uncooked

Ready to eat!

Thoughts and suggestions: 

1. I think going with smaller size portions in the muffin tray and using two trays may be better. (Maybe to make more bulk to get two pans add in double the amount of rice and more veggies?) 

2. They produced a lot of juice during the cooking and it was a bit messy. This is also why I think smaller balls would be better. I pulled the tray out to drain off the liquid after 10 minutes in the oven. Then I ended up putting a tin foil covered baking tray in the rack underneath to catch the overflowing liquid but not before it drained over and onto the floor of the oven. I still ended up draining off liquid by tilting the pan over and letting it fall onto the pan below. If you have any ideas for this- I'd appreciate suggestions. 

3. Once you take them out of the oven, I'd take them out of the muffin tin and onto a plate or baking pan. Because of all the liquid I think they would get soggy if you left them in and harder to remove.

These can be frozen or stored in the fridge. Either way, use freezer bags or tupperware, because sandwich bags don't hold in the aroma and your whole fridge will smell like them.

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 1 muffin

Amount per serving

Calories 182

Total Fat8g

Total Carb4.6g

Protein22.2g

Nutrition Facts according to Jamie Eason.