Chicken Parmesean Meatloaf

One of my favorite recipes for our family is this Chicken Parmesan Meatloaf recipe from Weelicious:
http://weelicious.com/2013/02/20/chicken-parmesan-meatloaf/. 

In addition to being a healthy meal that everyone in our family loves, it's a great meal to cook on the weekend & have waiting for you in the fridge.

This is also a recipe where Jake loves to help stir the mixture & fill the muffin tins.

 Ingredients
1 pound ground chicken
1  garlic clove, minced (tip: buy pre-minced garlic in the refrigerated produce section)
1  small onion, diced
1 large egg
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup  grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup  marinara sauce
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients to thoroughly combine.
3. Pack greased mini muffin cups with the mixture. Fill to the top as they will shrink a bit during cooking.
4. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden and cooked through. If cooking a double batch, check after 20 minutes but continue baking for another 5 to 10 minutes as necessary.
Note: For a full size meatloaf, press mixture into a 9x5 loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes.

Ingredients:

Mincing garlic and the onion can take some time.  One tip is to buy pre-minced garlic.  The refrigerated shelves in the produce section usually have some great ready-to-go tubes.  We always have garlic, ginger, and cilantro in our refrigerator.

 

As I started chopping the onion, Jake asked if it would make me cry, why it makes me cry sometimes, why he wasn't crying, what onions smell like (really, you had to ask?), and if he could take a bite.  I told him that when we cut onions, we break open their little cells, allowing stuff to mix together that isn't mixed when the onion is whole.  Sometimes, that stuff gets into the air & irritates eyes.  He kept asking more questions & I really just wanted to finish chopping so I asked him to go upstairs & get the new microscope he just received from Christmas.

 

I gave him a little wedge of onion, a center circle bit, and a thin slice of skin.  I remember looking at onion cells as one of our first projects with a microscope with Mr. Tougaw during 9th grade biology at Mercer Island High School.  He was such a great teacher!

 

We didn't have any iodine for staining, but Jake had fun examining the bits while I finished chopping.

 

Once I finished chopping, Jake helped me measure some of the ingredients & stir.

 

After he helped spoon the mixture into the muffin tins, I baked the double batch for 25 minutes.  So yummy!