Mix together half a kilo of ground beef, packet of beef consume, cup or so of oatmeal, handful of bread crumbs, handful of flour, teaspoon of black pepper, 1 medium onion diced (set aside 2 tablespoons for the sauce), two eggs. Mix until distributed evenly, set aside while making the sauce so the oatmeal can get nice and soggy.
The sauce is 1 packet/can of tomato paste, 3 heavy tablespoons of brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of mustard, cup of apple cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons of diced onion and a tablespoon of cumin. Mix it all together and cook on a low heat until the onions are soft and the sauce has thickened up like ketchup, then set aside. You can adjust the amounts to your liking.
Back to the mini meatloaves….stir the meat mixture once more. Heat a frying pan with a little bit of oil to medium. Then make your meat mixture into square patties the size of a slice of meatloaf. (I make them as I’m placing them in the pan, one less plate to clean.) Fry the patties until they are nice and golden on each side. You may have to put a few finished ones on the side to make room in the pan. When done, add all of the patties back into the pan and pour the sauce over them. When it looks like the sauce might start to burn, pour half cup of water into the pan to deglaze and cover with a lid on low heat for about 10 minutes.
Notes: From start to finish is about 30-40 minutes. The mini meatloaves were super most and tender, like butter. My mini food processor makes the onion chopping go much faster. This recipe served 4 of us, 2 are light eaters and we have enough leftovers to feed us again. This would probably feed 6 normal eaters just fine. I served these little beauties with boxed macaroni and cheese, but you can pair them with anything you’d like. You could even skip the side dishes and make sandwiches on French bread, that’s what I’ll be doing with the leftovers.
