Mini Cheddar Meatloaves

Well, y'all, I did it! Earlier this week I posted about using what was in my pantry to save some money at the grocery store. I stayed under my goal of $60!

And believe me, it wasn't easy. I had hubby and one child with me. I tend to spend more when I'm not alone because the extra people add extra items to the cart! But I managed to stick to my list and keep the grocery bill down. Yay!

This is one of the family's favorite recipes and I usually have the ingredients already on hand. We like meatloaf and I make it often. The only thing about fixing it that I don't like is the amount of time it takes to cook. A full size meatloaf is going to take about an hour in the oven to be thoroughly cooked. Who has time for that?

These miniature meatloaves are the answer to the long cooking time. Because they're smaller, they cook up in about 25 minutes - less than half the cooking time of a full size loaf!

If you have a family favorite meatloaf recipe, it's easy to convert into mini loaves. Once you've mixed up your ingredients, divide it into four portions per each pound of meat. So a recipe that calls for one pound of ground meat will make four mini loaves. If your recipe uses 1 1/2 pounds of ground meat, then you'll get six mini meatloaves. Two pound of meat? Make eight mini loaves. Easy!

Here's what you'll need for these yummy cheddar filled mini meatloaves:

1 lb ground beef
1 egg
1/4 cup steak sauce or barbecue sauce, plus more for basting
1/4 cup panko crumbs
2 TBSP dried minced onion
1 teas sea salt
1/2 teas pepper
2 oz cheddar cheese, cut into little cubes (I take an 8 oz block of cheddar cheese, then cut off 1/4 of it to get 2 oz)

In a mixing bowl, beat the egg, then stir in the steak sauce, panko crumbs and seasonings. Crumble the ground beef over this mixture, then dump in the cheese cubes. Using your hands, mix together.

Shape the mixture into 4 separate loaves and place on a foil-lined pan. I try to shove any visible cheese cubes deeper into the meat so they don't melt off onto the pan, but they will leak at some point. Like this.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until the meat is no longer pink in the center. About halfway through baking, brush the loaves with a little more steak sauce or barbecue sauce.

Look at that gooey, stringy cheese!

Yummy!