This week’s cooking projects from my recipe collection was to make my mini meat loaves, the subject of this post, plus, earlier in the week, blondies and bran muffins. My recipe for meat loaf is another example of one of my easy recipes whose formal existence lies in simply documenting rough amounts of ingredients required to make the dish, as well as filling the freezer with convenient prepared-in-advance foods in portions convenient for one to two people; admittedly, the recipe hardly describes a particularly technical, involved, or challenging dish.
First, I checked my container in which I collect and save bread crumbs and bread pieces to see if I’d had enough dried bread crumbs and bread pieces:
Although I did have a sufficient supply, I decided to add to it, by taking out a bread heel …
… which was sliced into spears …
… and then sliced again into cubes:
The bread was placed into a countertop convection oven in order to dry the bread cubes:
When dried (and perhaps slightly over-browned), the bread cubes were taken out of the countertop oven, and allowed to cool:
The cooled bread cubes, and some of my existing supply, were placed in a measuring cup and put aside:
Two onions were taken out …
… trimmed …
… chopped somewhere between coarsely and finely …
… and placed in a bowl, to be put aside for later use:
A serving plate was placed on a kitchen scale, which was set to imperial units, and set to zero:
Four pounds of ground beef were measured out …
… and placed in a large mixing bowl (well in this case, a large salad bowl):
The dried bread cubes and bread crumbs were added to the mixing bowl:
The chopped onions were added to the mixing bowl:
A large egg was cracked and added to the mixing bowl:
A teaspoon of salt was added to the mixing bowl:
And pepper was added to the mixing bowl:
Here is the mixing bowl with all the ingredients in it:
All ingredients were thoroughly mixed by hand:
The meat mix was formed into six individual mini loaves, and three mini loaves were placed in each of two loaf pans:
The meat loaves were placed in a countertop oven preheated to 350F:
Partway through the cooking, the meat loaves were removed from the oven, and basted with the drippings from the bottom of the baking pans:
At the end of the cooking, the meat loaves were removed from the countertop oven:
The drippings were transferred to a bowl …
… and the grease was cooled solid in a refrigerator:
The solidified fat was separated from the other drippings, which were saved in a container and frozen for use in some future soup not yet otherwise planned; the solidified fat was wrapped in paper towelling, and placed in the curbside brown box for municipal composting.
In the meantime, the meat loaves were placed on a tray, to be placed in the freezer to quickly cool down:
Sealable sandwich bags were identified with the intended contents and the date:
The now partially frozen meat loaves were placed in the sandwich bags:
Finally, the meat loaves were placed in the freezer again, for when I will be eating them.
They are really convenient to take out for last minute supper plans for two, and / or to have leftovers for lunches.