These nifty meatloaf muffins not only taste great, they do the portion control for you. And as long as I’m singing their praises, allow me to point out they make a delicious, easy lunch the next day. Leftover meatloaf sandwiches? Bah, humbug: I don’t miss the bread when these are on the menu.
Meatloaf Muffins
1 tablespoon canola or olive oil
2 carrots, cut in ¼-inch dice
2 celery stalks, halved lengthwise and cut across in 1/4-inch slices
1/2 cup chopped onion
¼ teaspoon each dried thyme, basil and oregano
2 large eggs
¾ cup ketchup, divided
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 ¼ pounds lean ground turkey
¾ cup whole wheat panko bread crumbs
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat 10 muffin pan cups with cooking spray.
- Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium. Add the carrot, celery, onion, thyme, basil and oregano and cook, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are tender, about 5 minutes.
- Beat the eggs with a fork in a large bowl; stir in ½ cup of the ketchup and the mustard, salt and pepper. Add the turkey, breaking the meat into crumbles; stir in the panko and onion mixture until well-combined.
- Spoon into the prepared muffin cups, pat lightly and mound each one slightly in the center. Spread the remaining ¼ cup ketchup over the top of each.
- Bake until a meat thermometer inserted in the center reads 165 degrees, about 25 minutes.
Makes 5 servings
Nutritional analysis for each serving (2 muffins):
270 calories, 22 g protein, 22 g carbohydrates, 2 g fiber, 11 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 754 mg sodium
this looks delicious. and i am always looking for meals to make ahead. i am going to mke them tomorrow. is the muffin pan size standard?
Yes, it is a standard muffin man. And you don’t need or want to use muffin pan liners– just spray the cups with cooking spray or lightly wipe them with oil if they are not non-stick.
Enjoy!
If you don’t use them all can they be frozen?
I believe they should freeze well, although I have never tried. They seem to get eaten up before we get the chance to freeze them…
Can you use hamburger instead of the turkey …not real keen to turkey burger
Lean ground beef would certainly work just as well, yes. ENJOY!
Marge, I see panko bread crumbs in all the stores but I don’t know what they are. What is panko? What flavor does it have? I’m sure I was very sheltered growing up and not very adventurous culinarily speaking, or any other way to be so ignorant.
It has nothing to do with whether you were sheltered growing up, because panko crumbs were not readily available here in the US grocery stores until recently!Panko are “shredded” Japanese bread crumbs– they are as though someone grated bread on a fine shredder and toasted it. They are great to use for coating chicken or fish (as well as lots of other things) because they give more texture than regular breadcrumbs. The shape– little shreds– makes them add more crunch, and less of a flat surface, than regular breadcrumbs.
Yikes- I hope that makes sense. Anyway, they are now available in most grocery stores, and in lots of places you can now get whole wheat panko, too.