Mexican Meatloaf Minis

Saturday mornings are a zen time in our household. Melissa handles cutting out and organizing coupons and we both work out our meal plan for the week.

During one of these recent brainstorm sessions, I was perusing Pinterest for some meal ideas. I came across a couple of ideas that merged in my head. I don't remember what one was, only that it centered on Southwest flavors. And the other one was a meatloaf recipe.

Mexican meatloaf was born. Although the recipe we created was slightly different from what we envisioned. We were going to use cotija instead of queso fresco, but since we were using queso fresco in other meals that week, we opted to substitute that for the cotija.

The result was a spicy mixture, but could easily be reduced by the amount of pickled jalapenos and chili pepper. Crumbling a bit more queso fresco on the top also would help cool off the tongue.

Mexican Meatloaf Minis
6 servings

1 pound ground beef
3/4 cup crushed crackers
2 eggs
2 limes, juiced
1/4 cup pickled jalapenos, diced
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup queso fresco, broken into large chunks
2 teaspoons chili pepper
1 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons minced onion
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Chili ketchup
ketchup
chili powder

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine ground beef, crushed crackers, eggs, lime juice, pickled jalapenos, ketchup, queso fresco, chili pepper, cumin, minced onion, granulated garlic, salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl and mix by hand until all ingredients are incorporated well.

2. On a broiler pan, form 6 mini meatloafs and space out from each other.

3. In a small bowl, combine ketchup and chili powder to your tastes. Slather ketchup mixture on top of each meatloaf.

4. Bake for 45 minutes. Sprinkle more queso fresco on top of each meatloaf and serve.