BBQ Style Meatloaf Minis & Herbed Cherry Tomatoes

I've said it before and I'll say it again - I am consistently surprised and delighted by the amount of meals you can make in a muffin tin.  It's the perfect size for portion control, it makes meals compact that perhaps were not before, and it makes clean-up a breeze!!  Love love love it! 

Thank you to the incredibly brilliant Kraft for getting me started in the right direction here.  I have tweaked the recipe a bit to make it more to my liking (and my waistline's liking) and they came out great. 

I served Chatelaine's herbed cherry tomatoes as the side dish - they were tangy and sweet, and delicious!

BBQ Style Meatloaf Minis
1 lb extra lean ground beef
1 pkg stuffing mix for chicken (I subbed some bread crumbs and an egg)
1 c water (I left this out because I wasn't using stuffing)
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 c bbq sauce
1/4 c cheese whiz (I left this out - why add more fat, especially processed plastic fat??)
I also added cayenne, paprika, smokehouse bbq seasoning, black pepper and some liquid smoke - seasonings don't cost you in calories and can add so much in flavor

Heat oven to 375.  Mix meat, stuffing mix, water and garlic powder until blended.  Press into 8 muffin cups sprayed with cooking spray.  Make an indentation in the center of each with the back of a spoon.  Fill with bbq sauce.  Bake 30 minutes.  Top with cheez whiz, bake 5 more minutes or until melted.

Kraft offers some variations of this recipe -
Italian - sub italian seasoning for garlic powder, and pasta sauce for bbq sauce
Mexican - sub 2tsp chili powder for garlic powder, and salsa for bbq sauce

I think the next time I make this, I will add more veggies so that my meat is stretched and the fat/calorie quantities are lowered per serving.  Maybe some onions, sweet peppers, possibly even black beans.  I also made mine smaller, so my recipe made 12 meatloaves instead of 8.

Check out Krafts nutritional value versus mine below (per meatloaf):

KRAFT
380 cal
12g fat
31g pro
34g carbs
1g fibre

MINE
192 cal
10g fat
22g pro
4g carbs
1g fibre

Herbed Cherry Tomatoes
2 pints cherry tomatoes
1/2c chopped parsley (I left this out, had none on hand)
2 T EVOO
2 T white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp oregano

Cut tomatoes in half and combine all other ingredients.  Toss will until coated.  Yum!