Mini Meat Loaves

1 cup ketchup

4 TBSP Brown Sugar

1 1/2-2 lbs ground beef (or 1 lb beef, 1/2 lb pork,  or any other combination you like equaling about 1 1/2-2 lbs meat)

1/2 cup bisquick mix

1 egg

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

3/4 tsp garlic powder

1 small onion finely chopped

Mix together ketchup and brown sugar.  Mix meat and all other ingredients together.  Add in 1/2 cup ketchup mixture.  Form small loaves/balls… make between 10 and 12 mini loaves.  Place in a 9x13 pan and pour remaining ketchup mixture over the top of each loaf.  Cook at 450 for 20 min. or until thermometer reaches 160 degrees.

I got the idea for this recipe on Betty Crocker’s website here and changed it according to what I had on hand (I didn’t have the onion, but it was still very good).  This is a keeper recipe because it was super easy, very fast and all my kids liked it.  Those are the kind of recipes I’m looking for!

Lasagna Roll-Ups

I saw this recipe on the Two Peas and Their Pod Recipe blog here.   I was so excited to try it.  I’ve been in a rut in my cooking and was really looking forward to trying something new.  This looked great and I thought my kids would go for it too.  I took their recipe and, like always, did my own version.

12 Lasagna Noodles, cooked in salted water to aldente, dained, rinsed, and layed out on parchment paper to cool

Filling:

1 15 oz tub of Ricotta Cheese (that is how big the Great Value container was, the TPTP blog recipe said 2 cups)

4 oz cream cheese (I added this to my recipe for the creamy texture and to make up for the less ricotta cheese in my container)

2 cloves garlic, minced (I used the squeeze kind that you store fridge that is already minced)

1 egg

2 cups fresh spinach chopped fine (the original recipe call for a 10 oz frozen spinach, but why use frozen when you have fresh)

1 cup chopped canned artichoke hearts

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

1/2 tsp dried Italian Seasoning (the blend of oregano, basil, etc)

Pinch of Nutmeg

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella  cheese

Mix all these ingredients together and spread on the flattened noodles.  I had more filling left over than I could fill in 12 noodles, so I guess can add more noodles to the recipe next time.  Then sprinkle some more mozzarella over the filling and roll up.  In the original recipe they put some marinara sauce on top of the shredded cheese before they rolled it up.  I didn’t because I got ahead of myself.  However, I would have run out of sauce had I done that.  It called for 4 cups of marinara sauce and I only had one jar.  I think that I’ll probably do it the same next time too though because I think that the cheese against noodles as I rolled it up helped keep it together and not be as slippery when you cut into them out of the oven.

Place some of the Jar of Marinara sauce on the bottom of a glass rectangle backing dish (I had to use one rectangle and one square because my rectangular dish was too small).  Place the rolled up noodles over the sauce and pour the remaining sauce over the rolls.  Sprinkle with Mozzarella or Italian Style shredded cheese and cover with foil.  Cook for 35-40 min. at 350.

I’m excited to try this again.  I’d like to try and add some ground beef or ground turkey next time… maybe to the sauce before I pour it over the rolls, or add some finely shredded chicken to the cheese mixture.  So many fun things to do inside the Lasagna Rolls!!  And the best thing is… my kids LOVED them and said they wanted to eat them AGAIN  TOMORROW!!