Hidden Treasure Mini Meat Loaves

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When my kids were growing up there were two things that they liked when it came to food.  One was getting their own individual dish of something and the other was dishes with interesting names.  So this could have been Cheese Stuffed Mini Meat Loaves, but my kids would have preferred Hidden Treasure Mini Meat Loaves.

Meat loaf isn’t the standby in this home that it used to be what with the price of ground beef now, but I do make it fairly often.  This one is still a favorite because each person gets their own little meat loaf with cheese hidden inside and topped with a tomato gravy.  Even though kids no longer live here, these are always welcome at our table.

Various cheese can be used here.  I have used cheddar, Swiss, Colby/jack and mozzarella.  For a little kick, pepper/jack would probably be good.

The tomato soup topping is something that my mother always put on meat loaf, and I have continued this tradition.

Hidden Treasure Mini Meat Loaves
1 1/2 lbs. lean ground beef
3/4 c. quick or old fashioned oats+ 
1 t.  salt
1/4 t.  pepper
1 t. poultry seasoning
1/4 c. chopped onion
3/4 c. milk
1/4 c. ketchup
1 T. Worcestershire sauce 
1 egg
8 (1/2x1 1/2 sticks) cheese of choice
1 can (10 oz.) condensed tomato soup

Place ground beef in a mixing bowl.  Add oats, salt, pepper,poultry seasoning and onion.  Mix together well.  An easy trick to measure the liquid ingredients is to measure the milk into a 2-cup glass measuring cup.  Add ketchup until the liquid reaches the 1 cup mark.  Add Worcestershire sauce.  Break egg into the cup and mix everything together well.  Pour into ground beef mixture and mix gently until everything is well combined.  Putting a stick of cheese into each one, shape mixture into eight equal size mini loaves.  Make sure that cheese is totally encased in the meat.  Place loaves in a greased baking pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Place equal amounts of undiluted tomato soup on top of each loaf.  Bake 15 to 20 minutes more.   Spoon any soup/gravy in bottom of pan over meat loaves when serving them.  Makes 8 servings.

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