Individual Meatloaves with Tangy Sauce

One of the all-time favorite recipes at The Secret Chef was our Individual Meatloaves with Tangy Sauce.  I decided to make them the other night, only I baked them in muffin tins instead of forming them into little loaves.  They are awesome made with ground beef and pork sausage, but you can also make them with turkey.  I found bulk turkey breakfast sausage at Bolton Farm Market .  I always love their products, and I was inspired to make turkey meatloaves using their ground turkey and ground sausage. 

I also made some mashed potatoes, using a mixture of sweet potatoes and regular white potatoes.  It was the first time I mashed sweet potatoes, other than for baby food.  I guess I am late on that trend!  They were really delicious though!  My boys are having issues with cows milk, so I added goats milk and a tiny bit of grapeseed oil instead of butter.  I believe you could use any of your favorite mashed potato recipes though, and just substitute part or all of the white potatoes with sweet potatoes.  One thing I learned, is that next time I will cut the sweet potatoes into smaller chunks that the white potatoes, because they took a little longer to cook and made some small lumps.  Not a big deal for me though.

Individual Meatloaves with Tangy Sauce
Tangy Sauce Ingredients:
1/2 cup ketchup
1/3 cup barbecue sauce
2 Tbs. Dijon mustard
2 Tbs. brown sugar

Meatloaf Ingredients:
3/4 cup crushed buttery crackers (like Ritz)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup chopped yellow onion (or substitute 1 tsp. onion powder)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 pound lean ground beef (90/10) or lean ground turkey
6 oz. regular flavor ground pork breakfast sausage (you can also substitute equivalent amount of ground turkey sausage, ground beef, ground turkey, ground pork, etc.) but the sausage gives it a nice flavor
2 slices bacon (optional- I did not use them for the ones I made in the muffin tins)

To make the tangy sauce:
Mix all sauce ingredients together in bowl.  Set aside (this goes on top of the meatloaves, not mixed in).


To make meatloaves:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a casserole or baking dish (or muffin tins) with non-stick cooking spray.  Set aside.
2.  Add all meatloaf ingredients (except bacon) to a large bowl and mix together, using your hands or a large spoon.
3.  Shape meatloaf mixture into 4-6 mini sized loaves (or divide the meat loaf mixture evenly in the 12 spaces of a muffin tin).
4.  Top the meatloaves with the tangy sauce.
5.  Cut the bacon into 4-6 pieces, depending on how many small meatloaves you made, and place a piece of bacon on top of each loaf.  (I did not top the muffin tin meatloaves with bacon, because I felt the bacon would not have anywhere to drain off and it would just end up greasy).
6.  Bake, uncovered, for approximately 45 minutes to an hour, until cooked through.  (The muffin tin meatloaves should be done in 35-45 minutes).

You can make this dish ahead to freeze.  Tightly cover meatloaves after step #5, and freeze.  Thaw in the fridge and continue at step #6 to bake.

Enjoy!