Few things are as beautiful as a field or forest with freshly fallen snow. Wintertime in our neck of the woods is sometimes a Currier and Ives painting come to life. It is a time for Holidays, for celebrations with family and friends, for warm blankets, cozy fireplaces and of course, for feasts. Put simply, wintertime is the comfy season. So why not spend the comfy season with some delicious, comfort-foods? Meatloaf is the ultimate comfort food in my opinion. It’s not fancy but it warms you up and makes you feel satisfied.
I’m always on the lookout for a good meatloaf recipe. But the trouble is most of them contain bread crumbs, powdered soup mixes or prepared sauce ingredients that I do not want to eat. The alternative was to come up with my own recipe containing only healthful ingredients. I had some trouble making full-sized meatloaves because they never seemed to hold their shape. The solution was to make meatloaf in muffin tins.
The recipe I bring you today is for paleo mini meatloaves. You could call them paleo meatloaf cupcakes if you prefer. Whatever you call them, these little meaty muffins are sure to be a hit with your family – including finicky children.
I performed the solemn duty of meatloaf tester. It was a tough job but someone had to do it.
The little morsels definitely passed muster. They reheat well which makes them great to take to work for lunch. These paleo meatloaves are so chock full of vegetables they make a meal in and of themselves. If you have picky children this might be a mechanism for getting some veggies into them without hearing objections.
Here’s how I make them.
Paleo Mini Meatloaves
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground meat – mixture of grass fed beef and/or pork and/or veal
- 10 ounces frozen, chopped spinach
- 1-2 teaspoons oil
- 1 medium onion, finely diced
- 6 ounces mushrooms, finely diced
- 2 carrots, grated or finely diced
- 4 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/3 cup coconut flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons pepper
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
- Thaw the spinach, squeeze out the excess water and set aside.
- Heat a pan on medium heat, add the oil and fry the onions and mushrooms until the onions are translucent and some of the liquid has cooked out of the mushrooms. Set aside to cool.
- Place the ground meat in a large bowl, add the spinach, carrots, mushroom/onion mixture, beaten eggs, coconut flour and all the spices. Use your hands to combine it well but do not overmix.
- Fill 18 regular size muffin tins to the top with the meatloaf mixture. (Greasing the tins may be a good idea if the meat you’re using is fairly lean)
- Cook for 20-25
-30minutes or until internal temperature reaches 160 degrees. - Allow to cool and use a knife to loosen meatloaves from sides of the pan before removing.
I like to serve the paleo mini meatloaves with marinara sauce – either homemade or a good jarred sauce with natural ingredients and no sugar. We used Rao’s.
The coconut flour means my son who has nut allergies and gluten intolerance can eat these meatloaves but it does not impart a coconut flavor. The mixture of beef, pork and veal gave the meatloaves a rich and delicious flavor, tender texture and lighter color which meant the colors of the veggies shone through. You could substitute the beef/pork/veal mixture with other meats like ground turkey or chicken. etc… But be mindful of the fat content. If the meat you use is very lean you may need to adjust the recipe so they don’t dry out. Let us know in the comments how it goes if you do use a different meat or meat mixture.
I recommend serving these little paleo meatloaves with some mashed cauliflower.
Let me know what you think. Thanks for stopping by!
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about your post of Feb 18th … it helps me to remember that the darkest shadows are created by the greatest Light – turn to that Light and the shadows won’t loom long before you. Be well.
Think they would turn out ok without the mushrooms?
I think you could make them without mushrooms. The benefit of having them is extra volume and they make the meatloaf less dense. I always put mine in a food processor so they end up so fine I don’t even notice them in the final product. If you leave them out you might want to add extra other veggies to make up the difference.
Just made them. Delish!! Instead of mushrooms which I didn’t have I used red and yellow bell peppers. Also I used almond flower as that’s what I had in the pantry. Oh also kale instead of spinach same reason! Will surely make again thanks!
I heartily approve of your substitutions, especially the kale!
Glad you liked them.
I wonder if we can use flax seed as a binding agent as my kid has egg allergies as well as gluten and casein?
Be careful of flaxseed. I once used it in hamburger and couldn’t eat it. I think the oil content of them made the meat taste slimy. Maybe different if you use whole flaxseed, but I ground mine.
I used ground flax and water as the binding agent in my daughter’s servings. The still thought they were yummy.
Why include flour at all? I think these would stll be great if it were omitted.
The flour and egg acts as a binding agent. You might be able to get away without it. Give it a try and let us know.
Lea, these are FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!! The smell of this mixture was that good I think I could of tried it raw. They really hit the spot. Meatloaf is not huge on my list, I have only cooked it once before and thought never again. But yours, I will be making them again and again. These will be frozen for emergency lunches. I will be the talk of the lunchroom!!!
I used beef and pork mince. I mixed the flour and seasoning with the egg 1st, bad move don’t think it blend well that way. I think my next batch I’ll try will be beef and lamb.
Thanks again Lea for another great recipe. I am glad I tried them.
Hi Michelle,
I just got back from the grocery store to buy ingredients to make these again tonight. They are good! I would agree you shouldn’t mix the egg with the flour first, that will just create a gooey glob that won’t mix into the meat. But hey, lessons learned. I do stuff like that all the time when cooking. You’ll have to let us know how they freeze. I can’t imagine they wouldn’t be just fine defrosted for lunches.
Thanks, Lea
Lea, I took my frozen bag of meatloaves out yesterday, transferred them to a glass container, took them to work, heated them in the mic and there I was the talk of the lunchroom!!!! They defrosted and reheated beautifully. They make for a fantastic lunch, especially for a day like I will have tomorrow where at 5am I can grab a bag and I am off to work with an fantastic healthy lunch.
Excellent, Michelle. I’m glad it’s working out for you as something you can take to work. I’m going to do the same!
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Has anyone tried using liners in the muffin tins? (the kind used for muffins or cupcakes)
Just curious, these sound delicious and i hope to try them some time this week!
Can I just tell you how awesome these are? This coming from a woman who, in her 30 years of life on this earth, has never eaten meatloaf before tonight. Thanks for making me a believer.
Thank you. I’m glad you like the recipe. Welcome to the meatloaf eaters club.
These are wonderful! Thank you so much for the recipe. My kids and husband loved them too and I didn’t get one complaint about the veggies in them.
Yay Sarah! That’s great news. I’m glad to hear it.
Lea
I made these and left out the eggs completely (a total accident!) and they turned out great – held together great. I used dark meat turkey and lean beef. Delish!
Cool! Thanks for letting us know about the eggless version. People who can’t eat eggs will be interested in knowing that.
Lea, I have tried a number of your recipes and have loved them all. You are my ‘go to’ place for food ideas. My husband absolutely loved these meatloaves (as did I). He has his eyes on donuts next!
Keep up the great work…. and thank you so much for sharing your great paleo food ideas.
Thanks Andrea, I certainly appreciate the compliments!
These are AMAZING! I used all turkey burger, added olive oil to the mix since it was pretty lean, and added basil to the mix as well. I will DEFINITELY be making these again! Yum!
Those look delicious!!
Yum! I used one pound of ground turkey and one pound of 93% lean ground beef. I omitted the carrots (not a fan) and the coconut flour (didn’t have any) and they held their shape together perfectly! I would suggest filling them slightly below the brim because they puffed up a little and oozed quite a bit of grease…. Although that could be because I omitted the flour. Who knows? Either way, they were DELICIOUS. My calculations for 18 cupcakes were 100 calories each. Thanks for the recipe!!!
I love all your recipes, and this one is no exception. I actually enjoy cooking now. Thanks for making eating Paleo so easy and delicious!
Thank you! These were 1 year toddler approved
!
YUM! YUM! YUM! We just made these for dinner, and OH MY GOODNESS! So delicious. This is our new favorite recipe. Thank you!
I made these with deer meat, no additions of pork or other and maybe only a tablespoon of flour. I also sauteed fresh spinach in with the onions and mushrooms instead of the frozen. They were awesome and my husband who never compliments food said they were great! Thank you!
I would love to give these a try! Do you think I could sub almond flour for the coconut flour? Thanks!
Rebecca, Almond flour would probably work fine.
Lea
Thanks for this recipe. These were so yummy. Even my 3 year old and 15 month loved them!
Johanna,
I LOVE hearing about kids enjoying these recipes! THanks for letting me know.
Lea
Just a word of caution: I made and ate these today, but they did NOT make my hair look as good as Lea’s. I’m really disappointed.
They were delish, though.
Ha! I wake up everyday with my hair like this – no effort at all, it’s weird!
WOW! These are fantastic. Thank you for a great recipe!
Whats the recipe on the header when you enter site? Its a pic of chicken drumsticks.
Dan, I think you are probably referring the a pic of the Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic recipe. Don’t let the amount of garlic scare you away -it’s delicious!
I recently found your blog through a friend and I decided to make these two nights ago. I followed the recipe exactly, using lean grass fed beef, as that’s all we had. My non-paleo fiancee (he’s at about 80% paleo – eventually he’ll get there) and I both loved them. My fiancee sliced them in half and made a meatloaf sandwich, going back for seconds. They also make excellent leftovers.
Thanks for a great recipe! I’ll definitely be making another one of your recipes soon!
OH my gosh, this is my new favorite food. Even my husband, who abhors onions spinach and celery (which I added) keeps stealing these from my stash. And the darned mashed cauliflower was a perfect accompaniment. Paleo is good.
these are fantastic! my only complaint is all of the fat that came from the meat (I mixed one pound 90% lean and one pound 80% lean) it kind of builds up around the edge of the mini meatloaf muffin.. but otherwise is delicious! I served with mashed cauliflower, yum!
I keep reading about all of the health benefits of eating organ meats, in particular liver, but I just can handle eating it. Both the smell and texture are just too much for me. But I made about 1/4 of the meat some finely chopped up liver, and you can’t even tell it’s in there! Awesome recipe!
That’s actually a great idea. I’ve thought of doing the same thing. Thanks for confirming that it works well.
My whole family loved these. They don’t like spinach but they loved these.:-)
I used almond flour because I didn’t have any coconut flour it was fantastic.
Thanks for sharing !
I’m doing the whole 30 right now and need something to take in the car on my long drive. How many of these would constitute a breakfast or lunch?
Thanks ,
Jen
Hi Jen,
I would probably end up eating three of these but it would depend on what else I was having with them. Good luck with the Whole30!
Lea