BBQ Meatloaf Minis

This week's assignment in Child Nutrition and Cooking was to make a balanced dinner. It had to include protein, vegetables, and a carbohydrate. This wasn't too difficult for us as that is typically what we do for dinners made at home anyway. A "normal" meal at home will be served with at least one to two vegetable sides, sides of rice and/or bread, and a dish with meat in it.

I already had this meal on the menu, so I threw it together for dinner tonight and turned it in! I got the recipe from a Taste of Home Magazine, but threw in a few extra ingredients. The original recipe was just meat, stuffing, water, BBQ sauce, and cheese. I felt like it needed some vegetables and seasonings added to it so this is what I came up with!

6 oz package stuffing mix

1 cup water

2 Tbsp BBQ sauce

1 lb ground beef

1 cup spinach, shredded

2 carrots, shredded

3 green onions, chopped

Desired seasonings, to taste

Mexican style cheese

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Combine stuffing, water, and BBQ sauce.
• Mix in ground beef.
• Mix in spinach, carrots, green onions, and seasonings.
• Divide up among 12 ungreased muffin tins.
• Bake for approximately 18 minutes (until internal temperature reaches 160 degrees).
• Top with additional BBQ sauce, if desired, and sprinkle with cheese.
• Bake for another 5 minutes, until cheese is melted.

Something in my kitchen that I LOVE for cooking meat is this thermometer my mom got me for Christmas. It's nice because you can use it as a normal timer or you can set a desired temperature, insert the thermometer, and it will go off when it reaches that temperature. There's a long flexible cord that attaches the thermometer to this unit that will reach into the oven and the door can be closed on. Rather than setting a timer for "x" minutes when cooking a meat dish, I like to set this to the correct temp for whatever meat I'm cooking (it comes with a chart for various meats) and wait until it goes off!