A Different Type of Cupcake

I have been using pinterest to keep track of my recipes recently, so my cookbooks and recipe binder have become somewhat neglected.  I decided to revisit my cookbooks and recipes the other day and found a recipe for mini meatloaf muffins that my mom had given me a while ago.  My mom often send me recipes she sees or has tried and think I will enjoy.  I decided it was time to finally give it a try!

These "muffins" use ground turkey breast and lots of chopped up veggies.  According to the recipe, each muffin has about 142 calories and the recipe makes 9 muffins total.  Obviously, I halved the recipe because I did not need 9 muffins for myself.  Turns out, even with halving the recipe I made 6 decent sized muffins.  The recipe also called for using ketchup, but I was craving BBQ sauce so I used that instead.

They tasted delicious and were super easy to make! The muffins were extremely moist and perfectly cooked.  When I took them out of the muffin pan, I was surprised at how well they stayed together.  Making meatloaf muffins made me feel like I was taking something retro and making it cool and up to date (yea...I just admitted that).  And with the 4th of July coming up, meatloaf screams America!

I'm going to give you the recipe with the changes that I made to it.  Just remember, you can use ketchup or BBQ sauce and you can easily double the recipe if cooking for a crowd.

Mini Meatloaf Muffins
Ingredients:
1/4 cup diced onion
1.5 cup bagged broccoli slaw (chopped)
2/3 pound ground turkey breast
1/4 cup quick cooking oats
2 egg whites (or 1/4 cup liquid egg)
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbl BBQ sauce

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix together all of the ingredients.
3. Line or spray muffin pan.  Distribute mixture into muffin tins. (I used 6 muffins but depending on the size you could use more or less). 
4. This step is OPTIONAL.  Spread the top of each muffin with 1 tsp of BBQ (I'm a dipper so I skipped this step and reserved extra BBQ sauce for dipping).
5. Bake for 30-35 minutes.  Muffins will become firm and lightly brown on the edges.

I had 2 muffins and roasted a veggie mix from Trader Joes (asparagus, mushrooms, and red onion) for a complete, filling meal.