Meatloaf Cupcakes with Potato and Cream Cheese Icing

Editors Note:  My recipe was chosen for the spotlight this week!! YAY!! http://www.realwomenofphiladel
phia.ca/post/spotlight-videos

This is my final entry in the Real Women of Philadelphia Contest! I've had a lot of fun coming up with new recipes and altering old recipes so they met the contest requirements.  I think this recipe is the one that I had the most fun with - they just looked so impressive and seriously tasted delicious!

I've tampered with quite a few different meat loaf recipes over the years and I love love love my final edition!  This recipe has brown sugar BBQ sauce in it, which adds a lot of sweet tang and moisture to the "muffins." When I was frying up my onions for the meatloaf, I cooked them at a higher heat than I usually do and they turned a delicious caramel color!  YUMMM!!  The Potato and Cream Cheese Icing took several attempts trying to get the right consistency and right flavor.  The end product was well worth the trials!  The trick is to get the potato mixture completely lump free so when you're piping through the large star tip, the lumps don't back your potato mixture up!!  A potato ricer makes this a non-issue though!  I think the part that I enjoyed the most was finishing it with the "sprinkles!" Everyone can decorate their own!  I think this would be fun for a birthday party or dinner party - something that tastes delicious, with readily available ingredients, and is a fun twist on an old classic!

Meatloaf Cupcakes with Potato and Cream Cheese Icing
2lbs lean ground beef

1 1/2 cups bread crumbs

1 cup Kraft Brown Sugar BBQ sauce

1 tbsp whipping cream

1 large onion

1 large egg

1/2 tsp + another 1/2 tsp minced garlic (divided)

3 tbsp milk

1/2 cup light Philadelphia Cream Cheese (brick)

5 medium potatoes

3 TBSP butter, divided

Salt & Pepper 

1/3 cup green onions, chopped

1/3 cup real bacon bits

1/3 cup parsley, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Grease muffin tin.

3. Dice onion.

4. Melt 1 TBSP butter in pan over medium heat, add diced onion and fry until onions are clear, about 5 min. 

5. While onions are frying, peel and cut up potatoes into small uniform sized pieces.  Put in large pot and add enough water to cover. Boil for about 15 minutes or until you can easily cut potatoes with a fork.

6. Add 1/2 tsp of garlic to onions and cook until garlic is fragrant, approx 1 min. and then remove from heat.

7. Put ground beef in large mixing bowl.

8. Beat egg. Add 1 tbsp cream to egg and whisk until blended.

9. Add egg mixture, bread crumbs, BBQ sauce, 1/2 tsp each of salt and pepper, and all of the cooked onion to the ground beef and mix thoroughly. (using your hands to mix is quickest and easiest!)

10. Roll ground beef mixture into 12 balls large enough to completely fill each muffin mold. Pat balls down to make them smooth on top.

11. Bake at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes.

12. Once potatoes are finished, drain water and add to a mixing bowl.  Add remaining 2 TBSP butter, 3 TBSP milk, 1/2 cup cream cheese, remaining 1/2 tsp garlic, and salt and pepper to taste.  Mix on medium high until smooth and all the lumps are gone.  **Use a potato ricer before adding the potatoes to the mixing bowl for an extra smooth finish!** 

13. Insert a large star piping tip into a piping bag (or snip the corner off a disposable zippered bag), add your Philly mashed potatoes, and squeeze all the potatoes down towards your tip and remove as much air as possible from the bag.  Bunch excess bag together above potatoes and keep this tightly pinched so potato mixture will go out the tip, not up into the bag.  (If you don't have a star tip, no problem, just cut the corner off of a zippered bag and use the same way -  it just won't have the fancy wavy edges).

14. Once meatloaf cupcakes are cooked, loosen around edges of the meatloaf with a knife to remove easier.  Place these on a plate lined with paper towel.

15. Starting around the edges and working your way into the middle, apply firm pressure to your piping bag to squeeze potatoes out the tip and spiral the potato mixture up like an ice cream cone. Once you've spiralled the potato mixture to a peak in the middle, release pressure and lift up. Place on serving plate. Repeat until all meatloaf cupcakes are "iced" with the mashed potatoes.

16. Sprinkle with green onions, bacon bits and parlsey.

17. Serve immediately while still hot!

Dips!

Okay, so I was thinking of what else makes me feel good. Appetizers! Well, more specifically, anything that's ooey gooey cheesey goodness, that you can reach a cracker or chip in and come out with heaven smothered all over it. So, I'm going to blog about my hot spinach dip, yummy Cheese Almond, and Nat-cho Chili. They are all delicious, some quicker than others, but generally all of these are always a hit 100% of the time. I remember one day after going to Janine's convocation party and sampling the Cheese Almond, Reagan and I were absolutely in love with it. A couple days later, after class we headed over to Reagan's for lunch. We stopped by the grocery store to see what we needed, and decided to scrap all other plans and just make Cheese Almond. So we pigged out on it and had it as an entire meal. I'd encourage you to do the same!

Hot Spinach Dip

3/4 cup fat free sour cream

3/4 cup light mayo

1/2 cup feta cheese

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

1/2 tsp crushed garlic

1/2 onion diced

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp hot pepper sauce (or more if you like it spicy)

1 pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed and wrung out.

Fry garlic and onions in margarine, until clear and fragrant. Mix together the rest of the ingredients in a medium bowl while this is frying. Then add the onions and garlic to the spinach mixture. Pour into your favorite casserole dish or mini crockpot. Bake at 350 deg for about 30 minutes, or if in mini-dipper, heat for atleast 1 hour. (Or you could pop it in a sourdough bread bowl.)

Serve with bread, crackers, or tortilla chips.

P.S. Can you believe I didn't put cream cheese in this??

Cheese Almond

1 cup shredded swiss cheese

250g (one spreadable tub) of 95% fat free cream cheese

1/3 cup light mayo

1/2 cup browned slivered almonds.

Mix first 3 ingredients together. Brown almonds in a pan on the stove or in the oven, and sprinkle on top. Bake at 400 deg for 20-30 min or until bubbly and slightly browned.

Serve with crackers.

Nat-Cho Chili Dip

Your favorite chili recipe or your favorite canned chili

2 cups grated old cheddar

1 250g tub 95% fat free cream cheese

Spread cream cheese in a thin layer in the bottom of a square pan. Cover with chili and top with grated cheese. Bake in oven at 350 deg for about 30 minutes or until heated through and cheese melted.

Serve with tortilla chips.

*I will post pics of these the next time I make them!

Chicken Phyllo stuffed with Spinach & Feta, topped with herbed Sabayon

Alright, so I tallied up all the votes, including one being my own. So thank you to those three faithful readers for submitting your vote! I ended up going with the Chicken Phyllo and it was absolutely delicious! I ended up stuffing it with my all time favorite mixture, Spanikopita! Topped it with this 'Herbed Sabayon', which was absolutely delicious and served it with wild rice, some mixed veggies, and a yummy Mandarin Raspberry Salad. My mom wanted to make sure I included that "it was a hit." haha - thanks Mom! :) I altered a recipe that I found on the Canadian Living website to more suit our tastes! This was my first time working with phyllo pastry and admittedly, these took a long time to prepare. My phyllo wasn't 100% thawed when I tried to use it, which lead me to a lot of frustration! But eventually it all came together and it was well worth it!

Chicken Phyllo Stuffed with Spinach & Feta and topped with Herbed Sabayon

4 large chicken breasts, cut in 1/2 (or 8 small/med ones), butterflied so they open like a pamphlet or sliced in the middle so they open like a book.

16 sheets phyllo pastry

3/4 cup butter/marg melted

Stuffing Mixture:

3 cups fresh spinach, chopped or 1/2 pkg frozen

1/3 cup feta cheese

1/3 cup cream cheese

1/3 cup mayo

1/2 - 1 tsp garlic, crushed

1/3 cup cooked bacon, chopped (I use Oscar Mayer Real Bacon Bits)

Herbed Sabayon

4 egg yolks

3 TSBP Chicken Stock

2 TBSP dry vermouth

1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley

2 TBSP chopped fresh basil

2 TBSP chopped fresh oregano or fresh thyme

1 TBSP lemon juice

1/4 tsp each salt and pepper

Defrost phyllo pastry overnight in fridge or for a few hours on the counter.

Mix together your stuffing mixture.

**While working with phyllo sheets, cover with a damp cloth so they don't dry out.** Place one sheet on the counter, brush with butter, top with second sheet, brush with butter again. Place chicken near one of the edges (left or right), add stuffing mixture and fold chicken over to cover stuffing. Fold sides over and roll up. Place seam side down on a greased rimmed pan. Brush top with butter. Repeat with remaining chicken. (You can put this in the fridge with saran wrap for up to 8 hours ahead).

Bake at 350 deg F for 45 minutes until phyllo is golden and chicken is cooked through and no longer pink.

Herbed Sabayon

In the top of a double boiler (or I just use a glass mixing bowl on top of a regular pot of boiling water), whisk the egg yolks until they are light in color, whisk in the stock and vermouth (you can use white wine or extra chicken stock if you don't have). Place on stove over simmering water and whisk until it's nice and thick. Whisk in the herbs (I only had fresh parsley so used dried spices for the others), lemon juice and S&P. If too thick to spread, add a little more chicken stock to thin it out. Serve over the chicken phyllo bundles.