Mini Taco Meatloaves

For starters I have never been a big fan of meatloaf.  I don't like to look at large chunks of meat...I know I am weird!  It is totally psychological.  I also avoid it these days because most call for bread crumbs which does not go along with a gluten free diet.  This one uses tortilla chips...perfect!

Anyone who hangs around me long enough knows that I love Mexican food!!!  So to find a meatloaf that is more Mexican definitely caught my eye.  I at least had to give it a try.

Alex and I in North Carolina for Christmas with the snow!

I brag on my husband a lot, but this one takes the cake!  He was home before me the other night and knew I was starving so he did most of the prep work for this recipe.  This alone is not atypical behavior, but earlier that day he was working one of his board and train dogs that decided to run away.  When he grabbed the leash it wrapped around his finger and snapped it.  Poor guy probably fractured it because of the bruising he has.  So back to cooking, he made this recipe one handed!  What an awesome husband!

His poor finger!

We both have a bad habit of not reading recipes correctly and adding to much of something here and too little there.  The recipe called for 1kg ground beef.  This equals 2.2 lbs of meat.  Alex just assumed since a km is less than a mile when you run that surely this would convert to less than 1 lb!  He totally ignored the fact that I defrosted two 1 lb freezer bags of ground beef:)

All of this made me a little nervous that this was going to taste strong since we only had half of the main ingredient.  At this point I was so hungry I didn't care!  The conclusion, I actually thought it tasted great!  I wouldn't make it with 2lbs.  I liked the flavor with just one.  It does have a kick to it, but I loved it.  If you like milder flavors then I would double the meat.  (Don't worry you can freeze the left overs for another day).

Alex was shocked that he liked it too.  He told me when we got married that he would never eat meatloaf.  Guess I found a way around that!

I used a large muffin pan for the individual portions because I do not own a mini meat loaf pan.  It provided nice portion sizes.

I love the sauce you make to go on top.  It adds a nice sweet/spicy kick to the overall recipe.  Hope you enjoy!

Mini Taco Meatloaves
Source:  The Cottage Kitchen Blog
Serves: 6-8 (Mine made 12 muffin size meatloaves)

Ingredients:

1 kg ground beef (Or 1 lb if you are cooking it the Tutterrow way!)
2 cups tortilla chips (crushed)
1 cup cheese (grated)
1 cup salsa (again I used the fresh salsa from Trader Joe's)
1 large egg
1 taco seasoning envelope

Topping
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup brown sugar (packed)
2 Tbsp hot sauce (we used texas pete)

Preheat oven to 350.

In a small bowl whisk together the "topping" ingredients and set aside.

In a large bowl mix together the beef, crushed tortillas, cheese, salsa, egg, and taco seasoning until well combined.

Divide the mixture and press firmly into your preferred baking pans (spray with PAM first).

Bake for 20 minutes, remove, and spread a heaped teaspoon of the topping onto each meatloaf (I just covered them to my liking:)

Bake for another 20 minutes or until cooked through completely.

Yummy!