BBQ Meat Loaf Minis

Last November, a friend and I went to a Taste of Home Cooking School event in Manawa, Wisconsin. I have been wanting to attend one of these for a while, so I was very excited to be able to go! I told myself that I wasn't going to buy any cookbooks at the event because I have so many the way it is... but this is me, and I should have known better. I ended up purchasing Taste of Home Easy Weeknight Dinners. I made a couple recipes during last school year, but I didn't use it as often as I could have. 

This school year, I resolved to bring more leftovers for lunch instead of cold sandwiches all the time. So I'm thinking I will make one or two recipes from Easy Weeknight Dinners each week, and I can then have lunch for the week. 

This week, I decided to try a recipe that is already portioned out -- BBQ Meat Loaf Minis (page 7). I am a huge fan of meat loaf and I was very intrigued by the use of barbecue sauce and cheese! The recipe basically has 4 ingredients: stuffing mix, ground meat, barbecue sauce and cheese. Water is added. I used Cornbread stuffing and honey barbecue sauce. 

The cheese isn't supposed to go in with the rest of the ingredients, but I couldn't resist adding more cheesy flavor to the mix. The meat loaf is baked in a muffin tin. At first it didn't seem like the amount of beef mixture was going to be enough for 12 "muffins," but the recipe made exactly 12 mini meat loafs.  I was pleased with the end result compared to the picture from the book. My mini loaves probably could have used more cheese on top to look more like the picture! I loved the barbecue flavor added to the beef mixture. The stuffing flavor was a little overpowering in the finished product. If I make this again, which I probably will put barbecue sauce in my meatloaf whether I use this exact recipe again or not, I will probably use more meat and add some extra spice.