These individual meat loaves are topped with a sweet and tangy sauce. The sausage in this recipe yields a more complex flavor than your standard meat loaf.
This was a great recipe for meatloaf. I do have a little tip for those who mentioned the grease. Use 2 disposable pans. Poke small holes in the bottom of 1 pan along the sides, then place that pan inside the other disposable pan that has a small ball of foil in the bottom (so the bottom of the top pan won't rest on the bottom of the second). As the meat cooks, the grease will drain down into the second pan, leaving the first one, and the meatloaf, fat free. Works for me.
Read MoreI had high hopes considering all of the rave reviews. The beef/sausage combination gives a nice texture, but the taste is rather bland, Without the sauce, it has little flavor. I may stick with the meat combination, and add green peppers, diced tomatoes, and some minced garlic to enhance the Italian seasonings of this recipe the next time I make meatloaf. Adding some of the sauce to the loaves may help also.
Read MoreThis was a great recipe for meatloaf. I do have a little tip for those who mentioned the grease. Use 2 disposable pans. Poke small holes in the bottom of 1 pan along the sides, then place that pan inside the other disposable pan that has a small ball of foil in the bottom (so the bottom of the top pan won't rest on the bottom of the second). As the meat cooks, the grease will drain down into the second pan, leaving the first one, and the meatloaf, fat free. Works for me.
I followed some of the other reviewers suggestions and used shredded cheese. I also added a little more italian seasoning. I cut back on the sugar, and used a mix of bbq sauce and ketchup for the topping. Tasted great. My 15 year old daughter, who claims not to like meatloaf, liked it. It's always helpful to read the reviews for ideas! Thanks everyone :)
Hmm...I rarely leave a bad review, however I found that the addition of sausage left me with little pans of grease. I put each into mini loaf pans, however the grease filled the bottoms of each one. Perhaps if I had shaped loaves and place them all into a 9x13 pan like the recipe said, maybe the outcome would have been different (honestly I don't think so though). Also, the flavor of the sausage was so overwhelming, that the flavor of the parmesan/ritz crackers (which I love in food) was completely covered.
Great meat loaf, but lean ground beef (or better yet, ground venison) is essential. Otherwise the loaves are too fatty because of the sausage.
Oh my gosh -- my kids just love these! They call them "mini-meat lumps" and everybody is happy when these are on the menu. We love them for lunch the next day, sliced and made into sandwiches with some of the leftover bbq sauce spread on the meat.
I had high hopes considering all of the rave reviews. The beef/sausage combination gives a nice texture, but the taste is rather bland, Without the sauce, it has little flavor. I may stick with the meat combination, and add green peppers, diced tomatoes, and some minced garlic to enhance the Italian seasonings of this recipe the next time I make meatloaf. Adding some of the sauce to the loaves may help also.
I WAS REALLY DISAPPOINTED WITH THIS ONE. THE SAUCE WAS WAY TOO KETCHUPY AND BARBEQUE TASTING. THE MEAT LOAVES WERE INCREDIBLY GREASY, AND I WAS VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH THE FLAVOR AND TEXTURE.
Good recipe. This was a real pleaser at my supper table.Use lean ground meat and use the 9x13 pan. I only used ketchup on top. Yum Yum!
My husband says this meatloaf was AWESOME! It will replace my current recipe which I have been making for years. It's a keeper.
Best meatloaf we ever had! The sausage adds a great flavor to it, and the smaller loaves are much easier to store as leftovers.
This is my go-to recipe for meatloaf. The little loaves come out so moist and delicious. This recipe is simple to make and the results are always 5 star!
Love, love, LOVE this recipe! I substituted bread crumbs for the crushed crackers and 1/3 cup applesauce per egg (because of food allergies in our house) and it still came out FABULOUS! Very glad I doubled the recipe and now have more in my freezer!
This recipe was delicious. I have to say it was the best meatloaf that I have ever had. I used 1 1/4 lbs of Plevalean ground beef which has dried cherries and oats in it and 1/2 a tube of the breakfast sausage. There was very little grease in the pans. This recipe made enough for two dinners. Instead of using the ketchup/brown sugar mix I used Sweet Baby Rays bbq sauce and just drizzled it.
I did change this by making one loaf. Only used half lb. sausage. Extra Italian seasoning and worcester. Mixed my crackers with the milk and added chopped mushrooms. I also added cayenne pepper to the sauce. Thank you for the recipe.
I just made this tonight. I used ground turkey and turkey sausage to cut some of the calories and grease down. I used half the milk because I thought 1/2 cup was too much and I used half the Parmesan because I had the store bought stuff and it has a lot of salt in it. I also made one big loaf instead of the mini ones. It turned out great! I will be making it again!
This is a great recipe that I have used over and over again. The only thing that I do differently is I saute my onions because I don't like to bite into crunchy onions. But I do that on serveral recipes.
Who would have thought that meat loaf could be soo good?!?!?!? I like to take the "butt ends" of a loaf of a bread & place a slice under each loaf. You won't be disappointed with this one!!! :)
Loved it...changed a little du to the ingrdients I had on hand... I used Italian Style Bread Crumbs in place of the cracker crumbs. Did not use any onion as I had none, substituted with onion powder with pasley flakes (about 1tsp.) Used 1.25lbs of ground chuck and 1.25lbs of ground sausage (we have a local store that sells the 2 together in a nice package). Ended up cooking for the full 90 minutes. Loved the taste and texture. Not much grease either. With the Italian bread crumbs instead of cracker crumbs, it gave it a really nice flavore. Loved the brown sugar/ ketchup topping (kept me from having to use cold ketchup for my meatloaf. Loved it...Thanks for a great recipe.
This is my most favorite meat loaf recipe. No matter where I take it, it's gone immediately!!
Very tasty. I like these for a change but definitely wouldn't want to replace traditional ground beef meatloaf. I love the individual meatloaves though and will definitely use that concept more often.
I don't like meatloaf but my husband asked me to make this. I was very surprised I ended up enjoying it. I did not make individual loaves, I just made two regular size loaves. Cooking time was the same.
I made this meatloaf for dinner tonight. It was moist and delish! It was a huge hit and I will definately be making this again. Thanks for the recipe!
I don't like meatloaf but my husband asked me to make this. I was very surprised I ended up enjoying it. I did not make individual loaves, I just made two regular size loaves. Cooking time was the same.
I halfed the sausage and it came out less greasy without comprising the taste. Overall this was a wonderfull and left the plates clean. Will make again THank You
The meatloaf turned out great i loved the addition of sausage, i used honey garlic and it was awesome. i also made a batch with no sausage and double beef and it was very tasty too, i ment to take a picture but i was too focused on getting into it that it was gone too fast lol.
I made these last minute and only had ground turkey. I also used a little basil, rosemary, and oregano in place of the italian season, and 2 cloves of chopped garlic and salt and pepper in place of the garlic salt. Still- very yummy! My only complaint was that the texture was less meaty than we prefer (a littler mushy). I'd definitely make it again!
These little meatloves were a big hit. Everyone liked having sauce cover the entire loaf, instead of just being in the top portion (like with traditional meatloaf). I used ground sirloin and the loavesd were still moist and delicious.
The sauce is VERY good! Other than that, I don't know if this is "too off the beaten path" or what, but it wasn't good. The sausage was overbearing, the Italian seasonings were way off. Maybe made as a basic meatloaf with the sauce, but this isn't a keeper by any means. Perhaps my palate is off.
Forget the kid rating...what kid likes meatloaf? But, man....this is wonderful and thanks Ann! For my tastes I don't like the sausage to be too spicey. But this is the best meatloaf I've ever tasted!
My whole family enjoyed this dish, even the kids! I really liked the texture of this meatloaf as compared with regular meatloaf. Everything about it was delicious!
This is one of the best meat loaves I have ever tried! It was so good that when I made it for dinner tonight Mick ate 4 BIG pieces! And he usually does not care to much for meat loaf and as far as the grease goes, people were saying there was to much grease in the pan after the loaf was cooked but there is very little if you use a good quality sausage and hamburger. ie; low fat content. I gave it 5 stars! Oh, and I wanted to mention that the sauce Elizabeth uses for this meat loaf would make GREAT baked beans as well. :)
This is an excellent Meat Loaf! I used 1 lb. of ground turkey instead of the pork because it's what I had on hand. Turned out great. Perfect portion size for a family, eveyone enjoyed having their own. And, no guess work on whether or not the middle of the large loaf is cooked through. Thanks for posting this recipe :)
SUPER! WE ALL LOVED IT!
Delicious! I wouldn't change anything in this recipe! Will definately make this dish again.
Very good. Making meatloaf into prsonal size portions is very clever. The sauce was good but a little to sweet. Next time i will reduce the sugar. Will make again.
This was a little more involved than my usual meatloaf but it was worth it. I actually used mini loaf pans instead of free forming the loaves. I was able to get 4 nice sized mini loaves out of the mixture. I thought the sauce would be weird and my husband wouldn't like it but we both really did like it. The sausage I bought said mild but it was spicy so the sweetness of the sauce help cut the spice some. Will make again.
Excellent taste, firm loaves, definitely will make again! I used individual size loaf pans, put the sauce on the bottom of the pan and reduced time to 45 minutes. What a beautiful loaf when they are turned out of the pan!
Excellent! For once, my husband loves my meatloaf. Moist and very flavorful. I did not use the ground sausage, but made it with lean ground beef only. Love the sauce!
wow, is this a delicious recipe! the two modifications i made were to only use 1/3 cup brown sugar in the glaze. also, being these meatloaves are half ground sausage, i chose to bake them on a lightly sprayed rack over top a foil-lined cookie sheet so the grease drained away from the food & there was an easy clean up. thank you, ann!
very good, but if you eat too much it gets sickening. Leftovers freeze well and actually taste better than right out of the oven. The flavor seems to sink in more.Would definetly make again. Kids love, and they normally don't like meatloaf.
This was the best recipe for meatloaf ever and now I don't make it any other way. Thank you!
I made this according to the recipe (left out parmesan because I didn't have any) and it was a big hit with my picky eaters. Easy to make, delicious, and plenty of leftovers to put in the freezer for another day. I may try it with turkey sausage next time to make it healthier but as is, it is great!
I didn't know if my family would like the sausage so I cut that to 1/2 a lb. and put 1 & 1/2 lbs. ground beef from chuck. I also used Italian flavored bread crumbs instead of the crackers which eliminated the need for the italian seasoning. There was no grease in the bottom of the pan and everyone loved it! Thanks so much for the recipe. It is a new family favorite!
I thought the sauce was too sweet, so next time I'll reduce the brown sugar. Other than that it was wonderful. I do have one recommendation. Make a double batch and freeze the mini loafs individually. Great for a busy family, just thaw out as many as you need...
This meat loaf was amazing!!! For garlic lovers: don't be afraid to add minced garlic. I added about 5 cloves and I could have even added more. For more of a low-fat recipe, use turkey sausage instead of pork sausage. It tasted great!!!
The first time I made these, I had never made meatloaf before. That day I didnt have any sausage so I just doubled the ground beef. Since then, I only make this meatloaf and I make it very often. I never use sausage and it still gets kind of greasy. But it is soooooo good. The men (dad, dh,sons) in my life praise this one as their favorite of all my recipes. THANK YOU for giving me this one. UPDATE: Still using this recipe and my fellas get excited every time.
Being my Daddy & Husband DO NOT LIKE MEATLOAF, this was the BEST MEATLOAF for them EVER! HOWEVER, I DID substitute some things. I used NO Worstershire sauce AT ALL, (being I didn't have any). I used Jalapeno & Cheese Little Smokies in sub. for the Sausage. I grinded it finely and mixed it into the mixture. I did not use any BBQ Sauce, only the Ketchup & Brown Sugar. I left the sauce off of some being my Daddy does not like the "norm" Meatloaf sauce. I ALSO, used Muffin Pans for the "Mini Meat Loaves" which was awesome! It turned out perfect! I love all kinds of Meatloaf, but this was the BEST By Far to me! I love this website for recipes! However, anyone who uses this site KNOWS, YOU'VE GOT TO READ ALL THE REVIEWS FIRST!!!
This was the first time I tried this recipe for meatloaf. Really liked it and will likely make again. My one daughter who refuses to eat meatloaf even ate them!! They tasted a little like Italian meatballs. These were fairly simple to make and I had all the ingredients on hand, which is why we made them. I read the other reviews about the meat being really greasy, so I put on a cookie cooling type rack inside a jelly roll pan to be on the safe side. There really wasn't a lot of grease, but I used 85% lean ground beef and I used a 12 oz. roll of Jimmy Dean original sausage because that's what I had in the freezer. We liked the sauce. Went well with our garlic mashed potatoes we had.
Came out great, kids loved it. Even the one who normally doesn't care for meatloaf came back for seconds.
This meatloaf is VERY good. My whole family loved it, even the picky "I don't like meatloaf" people loved it. I made it as one big loaf without the sauce, because my dad is diabetic. It was still terrific.
I didn't love this recipe. I thought that after all the preparation it ended up being greasy hamburger with sweet catsup on top.
Did not like these at all. I think they would be better either with sausage or meat but not both.
I haven't made this exactly by the recipe, but I took several ideas from it plus reviewers comments and personalized it into my own, altering the meatloaf recipe I already had. First, I love making the individual loaves - they cook SO MUCH faster. Second, I had never thought of adding sausage, I now use 1 pound Neese's Hot Sausage (Neese's is available in NC and VA, maybe other areas) and 1 pound lean ground beef. Third, one of the reviewers comments of adding barbeque sauce led me try it myself, using my favorite Sweet Baby Ray's. Add about 1/2 cup to the meat mixture and top with the sauce. Fourth, adding italian seasons was a winner with me. Other alterations, I used bread crumbs instead of crackers, added green pepper, omited parmesan cheese & milk. My husband thinks this is the best meatloaf hands down he has ever put in his mouth. Have made it for others and they raved as well. I call it modern meatloaf :)
I made this for dinner last night...I did not used beef because my husband can't eat beef, but instead used ground turkey and to my surprise it was quite tasty! And...moist! I did add a little ground sausage that I had in the fridge, although good would probably leave it out next time. The only thing I found was the all the ingredients made way too much for the amount of ground meat. I sort of noticed that and thank goodness I mixed everything except the meat in a separate bowl. So, I gradually added the mixture to the meat until it was quite moist, but I did end up throwing out about 3/4 cup of mixture. The sauce on top made a lot - too much for the top of the loaf (I made one big one BTW.) I did save the ketchup/worcestershire/brown sugar mixture because I think it would make a good dipping sauce. However, a was a little sweet - I would use less sugar. Overall, good recipe and loved the parm cheese in it. I sprinkled parm cheese on top of the loaf prior to baking, which took about an hour. The melted cheese was yummy and it looked nice on top. I will definately make this again.
added 1/4 cup of rice, added the wosterchire also to the loaf 1 pound hamburger 1/2 pound ground turkey and italian sausage. topping- just ketchup and brown sugar.
Little in size but enormous in taste! What a nice recipe! Good for all the people who is meat lover!
Very good. My husband doesn't eat onions, so I used some onion powder, and it was still fantastic.
This is the one! My husband kept asking me for meatloaf. I tried every recipe I found, BHG, Pillsbury book, Fannie Farmer, Onion soup mix, beef-pork-veal, cajun, brown sugar, etc. I even tried those expensive pre-packaged mixes. All they did was convince us we had grown out of liking meatloaf. The texture with Ritz crackers was perfect. The sauce was not as sweet as others. The sausage made the loaf tender and juicy. I baked it whole in a meatloaf pan with built in drainer, at 350F for 80 minutes and it was perfect. But baking in in oversize muffin pans with extra glaze is great fun and yummy.
I love this recipe and my husband LOVES this recipe every time I make it. I do a couple of things differently that might be helpful to somebody. I place them on a grid on a cookie sheet which eliminates a lot of the grease. I also make them into patties and grill them in the summertime. Good luck!
This was very good. I did not like how sweet the sauce was. I would definately make the meat mixture again but just top it with Ketchup at the end. DH liked the sauce though. I would also leave the parmesian cheese off the top.
These were simply delicious!! I didn't have the cheese on hand so I left that out completely. Was totally impressed with this recipe. It will be the meatloaf I make from now on!
This is a very good recipe. I have a friend who does not like meatloaf always asking me to let them know when I prepare this for dinner again.
My husband gave this "3.5" and I give it "4.5" so we split the difference. He is not a big beef fan, so that he enjoyed this recipe says a lot. It was very moist and tasty. It tasted like neither sausage nor ground beef. I did make a few changes. I was out of ketchup, so used an 8oz can of tomato sauce in its place. This worked well. I also sprayed the pan with Pam. It's still very messy. I didn't use a muffin pan as suggested, because ours needs a good cleaning first. I will definitely try that next time. Thanks for a great one! This is surely a keeper in our house. (Added: We now use this mix ALL the time. We freeze it in thirds, and use it to make not only meatloaves, but also hamburgers and meatballs. We love this recipe!)
I've made this multiple times and everyone RAVES about it! The only thing I do different is use lean ground turkey (instead of beef) along with the sausage. I just prefer it taste-wise, but it also cuts down on calories, fat, and grease. I don't think the addition of the cheese is necessary, so I throw it in if I have any on-hand. Otherwise, I don't worry about it. My family loves it each and every time I make this meatloaf. It's definitely a "go-to" in our house!
My husband liked this-he doesnt like meatloaf.He says its the best meatloaf hes ever had :D
Excellent! My husband doesn't like meatloaf but he loves this! I make this into 1 meat loaf though and cook it for an hour and 15 minutes.
I've been making mini-meatloafs for years. My husband is a meatloaf freak and I can't stand hearing "Is it done yet?? I'm dying!!" for the whole time a large loaf cooks. The addition of the sausage was so good! The kids didn't really like the difference, but we adults did. Another good thing about the size is that you are sure to get yummy glaze with every bite!
THIS WAS GREAT!!!!!!!!!!We made 175 little meat loaves and everyone is really wanting more! Thank you again for helping me! We look forward to many more times on your sight! Cynthia
These were tasty. I used 3/4 italian bread crumbs and omitted the crushed crackers and dried italian seasoning. Also, even though I used lean beef and sausages, this was still really, really greasy at the bottom.
I cut this recipe in half and omitted using the sausage, and only used the ground beef. We found the meatloaves were not only moist, but flavorful, and the glaze was delish!
The meatloaves were great - the sauce was a little too BBQ - I prefer a more tomato base sauce for my meatloaf. But the flavor of the loaves was very good.
Best meatloaf ever, my only modification was to add some country style dijon mustard to the sauce for the top.
I love meatloaf and have tried MANY different recipes. This one is the number one favorite of myself and my family. Just awesome, did use a combination of pork sausage, turkey and ground beef. Wonderful!
I admit that I'm no cook, but I followed the recipe exactly and the end result wasn't as good as I had anticipated. The sweet and tangy sauce was really good but I thought the texture of the meat loaf was not quite to my liking. My wife said she really liked it and had seconds. I like the texture of the meat loaf that she makes better. Maybe I did something wrong, but to me it was just OK.
This is the best meatloaf that I have ever tasted. I cut back on the brown sugar for our taste, but other than that, its my favorite meatloaf!!!!!!!
I absolutely loved this recipe. I made it with 2 lbs. of ground turkey instead of the ground beef and sausage and it was not greasy at all. I also used onion soup mix instead of the fresh onions to give it even more flavor. My daughters (who claim to not like meatloaf) loved it and even had seconds! This recipe is definitley a keeper.
I love this recipe! I've been using it for years now and plan on using it for years to come. My family is not to keen on sausage so I use all ground beef but other than that I haven't changed a thing. Thanks for sharing it!
Even those in the family who are not keen on meat loaf loved these. Will definately make again. I add about 1 Tbls of chili powder to the sauce mizture, really kicks up the flavor. Also, I use the lower fat version of the breakfast sausage roll to decrease the fat content a bit.
As written, these little meat loaves are great! My family loves them. The first time I made them, I used the buttery crackers. The second, italian bread crumbs. To be honest, couldn't tell a major difference. I love the texture and the ease of these. The reason for 4 stars instead of 5 is because I thought they could use a little more zip. Maybe some peppers or something. This will continue to be my go-to meat loaf recipe. Thank you!
I love this recipe! I took other members' advice to cut back on the sugar and I used 1 and 1/3 pounds of beef and 2/3 lb of sausage to cut down on the sausage taste just a bit. I also used onion powder rather than fresh onion. This meat loaf is very moist and flavorful. Thanks!
I love this recipe! My 11 year old daughter makes this recipe and calls it her own! We've shared it with others who love it and even I, someone who dislikes meatloaf, enjoys this version. I think it's the sauce on top that makes it for me. Any recipe that my daughter can easily make and that everyone enjoys gets 5 stars in my book.
Wonderful! I absolutely loved this recipe. My husband thought the sauce was too sweet so I will probably change that up a little, but just to please him cause I thought it was delicious. The sausage adds so much to this great recipe!
I’ve have made this recipe dozens of times. Everyone that tries it, loves it. I think that the sausage and the sauce are the key ingredients that set it apart from other recipes . I’ve used mild Italian sausage and plain ground pork. I love it with the Italian sausage the best. Sometimes I buy the ground and sometimes I buy whole and remove the casings. Either way, it turns out splendidly every time. I follow the recipe as written. It’s awesome.
The taste component is there, but they're just so greasy, even using a lean beef.
The flavor of this was great. I only put 1/4 cup of brown sugar in the sauce and it was definately sweet enough. I used a muffin pan as others suggested and I won't do that again because it was difficult to clean.
Oh my goodness! Fabulous! Better meatloaf than what my mother and grandmother made! Thanks for sharing your recipe.
These mini meatloaves we really good! However, the sauce made a little too much and overpowered the flavor of the meat. I would cut the sauce in half next time.
HAMBURGERS! Seriously this is what we did with this recipe, I whipped it up (Minus the topping) and then formed them into burgers & Threw them on the grill. They were wonderful!! and smelled sooo good!
Very delicous! We all liked the subtle zing the sausage gave this meatloaf. I used homemade Italian sausage I made from a recipe off of this website. Do this free form as the sausage does let out a lot of grease and it would make the loaf stew instead of forming a wonderful crust.
My favorite meatloaf recipe by far. I use Ground beef sometimes and substitude the crackers with oatmeal because it is quicker.
Followed the recipe as given and the meat loaves were great. Will definitely keep this recipe.
The sauce was a little too sweet for my taste, so I cut the brown sugar in half. Otherwise, a great recipe!
