Glazed Mini Meatloaves

I'm back!!! No, I'm not dead, and no I have definitely not given up on this blog! And I have a whole bucketload of recipes that I've tried and loved over the past few months that I'm so excited about sharing! And all of them are very easy and quick which is always a good thing. I haven't had much time (if I've had time at all) over the past few months to plan or cook anything big or time consuming, so get ready for a bunch of simple but delicious dinner recipes to try out.
This first one went over really, really well. Is it just me or is everything better when it's mini-sized? Example: Cupcakes vs. Cakes. There's no guilt in a little cupcake! Riiiight..  Keep telling yourself that Mer. Another example: Sliders. My current favorite slider: the salmon patty sliders at Ruby Tuesday. Small and packed full of yummy flavor! These mini meatloaves fit right in to the "mini" category that seems to be everywhere lately. I had all of the ingredients for these meatloaves in my pantry and fridge which meant one less trip to the grocery store - Score! I loved how tender and juicy these meatloaves turned out. But my favorite part was definitely the glaze. Who knew 3 ingredients could taste so great together? I love the down-home taste and flavor of this meal. It's definitely going down as one of our regular meals from now on. (Picture and recipe courtesy of Mel's Kitchen Cafe)

Ingredients:

• 17-20 Salting crackers, crushed fine (about 2/3 cup)
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup minced parsley
• 3 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 1 1/1 pounds ground meat (I used ground pork, but ground beef or a combination would work great!)

Glaze:

• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 4 tsp. cider vinegar

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Stick cracker crumbs, milk, parsley, Worcestershire sauce, egg, mustard, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper together in a large bowl.  Crumble ground meat over and combined until uniform.  Shape mixture into oval loaves and place on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray.

Mix the glaze ingredients together in a small bowl. Spoon the glaze over the top of each meatloaf, reserving about 1/3 of the glaze for dipping. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the center of the loaf is no longer pink or registers 160 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. Serve with the remaining sauce.