Individual Meatloaves

So here's my lunch plan...simple. For some reason, I don't feel like going all-out for lunches very often. Maybe that's my school-teacher mindset: twenty minutes to wolf down whatever you brought and rally the troops for the next thing on schedule. Don't get me wrong, sometimes a really nice, carefully planned luncheon can be really special. Today, however, is one of those typical, need-to-have-a-laid-back-lunch kind of Monday.

{and yes, that is a fishbowl with a fish in it on our table. This is his usual living place...we just happened to join him today.}


For our wedding my husband and I received a few cookbooks. One of my favorites is entitled Fast-Fix Meals by The Gooseberry Patch. I discovered this easy meatloaf recipe about a month ago. I had every ingredient on hand, which made it even easier. I've tweaked the recipe from the book to serve four individuals.  I also adapted a little more today...in other words, I did not have yellow onions on our last grocery list, so bear with me.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs. lean ground beef {I always use frozen, then thaw it.}
1/2 cup minced yellow onion {didn't use it today}
1/4 cup ketchup
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce {I used French's}
1 tsp. mustard {I used Grannie's Sweet and Tangy}
1 egg
3/4 cups dry bread crumbs or stuffing mix {I used Clover Valley chicken flavored stuffing mix}
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp. any barbecue sauce {I used Bear-B-Que Honey and Sweet Baby Ray's Honey}

How To:


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, beat egg, onion, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, two tablespoons of barbecue sauce {you'll use the other 1/2 cup later} and mustard with a fork.

Add ground beef and coat it thoroughly with the sauce mixture. Add the stuffing mix and stir until thoroughly coated with ground beef/sauce mixture.

Grease four oven-safe ramekins or small oven-safe ceramic serving dishes. {Instead of buying aerosol cooking spray, I use a piece of paper towel and soft margarine.} Divide and spoon meatloaf mixture evenly into ramekins or serving dishes.

Bake for fifteen minutes. Retrieve meatloaves from the oven. Using the remaining 1/2 cup of barbecue sauce, coat each individual meatloaf with a top layer of barbecue goodness. Return to the oven and bake for another fifteen minutes.

Once the individual meatloaves out of the oven, allow several minutes to cool--it's really hard to enjoy them if you end up burning yourself on the serving dish! This dish pairs really well with a tray of fresh, chopped veggies and corn bread or seasoned potato wedges.

Enjoy with whatever this Monday brings your way.