Gluten Free Meatloaf Muffins with Bacon

I love meatloaf, it’s easy to make, tasty and everyone in the family likes it so I have tried different gluten free meatloaf recipes. I like dishes that are easy to throw together, stick in a pot or pan and forget about for a while.

Last night, I was short on time, so I made meatloaf muffins instead of a larger meatloaf, they cooked much faster and the kids thought they were fun to eat.

I was poking around online for some great recipes, it’s always nice to try something different, even when it’s the something as traditional as meatloaf.

One of the challenges of making gluten free meatloaf is what to replace the bread crumbs with: suggestions include gluten free oatmeal, corn chips, gluten free bread crumbs and Glutino pretzels (these are the best gluten free snack I have found!) Have you heard of the Gluten Free Goddess? She has some awesome recipes. Here’s her version of gluten free meatloaf. I love the idea of the apricot glaze but needed to work with what I had in the house.

As I was reading, one comment said they never used a bread filler, hmmmm, best option yet! I usually use old-fashioned oats and grind them in the food processor with the milk and eggs but not this time, I opted to go grain free. The challenge was that the meatloaf had a lot of liquid in it which cooked over the muffin pan and onto the oven, guess I will be cleaning the oven today!

Here’s what I came up with and my family raved about it, even my daughter who’s the pickiest eater in the house! In fact, she said she would only eat the meatloaf if I put bacon on top… who doesn’t love bacon?

I served this with a green salad with a homemade sherry vinaigrette, raw vegetables and hummus.

Gluten Free Meatloaf Muffin Recipe

Ingredients

1.5 lbs lean ground beef or turkey (or a combination)
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 cup celery, diced
1 cup spinach, chopped (I love hiding vegetables in everything!)
1 clove garlic (optional)
2 tsp. olive oil
2 eggs
1 cup cottage cheese (my mom’s secret ingredient)
1/4 cup your favorite BBQ sauce
salt and pepper to taste
About 6 slices of bacon to cover meatloaf

Instructions

Sauté onions, celery and garlic until they begins to soften. Add spinach and cook until soft.

In a large bowl, blend ground beef, vegetables, eggs and cottage cheese until thoroughly mixed. Add salt and pepper to taste.

If using a muffin pan, cut bacon slices into thirds and put two small slices on the top of each meatloaf muffin.

Cook at 375 for 20 minutes or until juices run clear. It will take closer to 45 or 50 minutes to cook this same meatloaf in a larger pan.

Turn the broiler on and let the bacon on top of the muffins get brown and crispy, it won’t take more than a couple of minutes, so watch it carefully.

The gluten free meatloaf muffins turned out to be flavorful and juicy. The cottage cheese adds moisture and great flavor. The celery was still slightly crunchy which gave it great texture. And of course, the crispy bacon was a big hit!

If you use this recipe, place the muffin pan on top of a cookie sheet to collect any liquid that cooks out of the meatloaf, it was save your oven!