Meatloaf cupcakes

Last month was my sister-in-law's birthday. I told her that I was going to make her some meatloaf cupcakes for her birthday, and she was definitely agreeable. I had pinned a meatloaf cupcake pin, and I was dying to try it. A couple of days before her birthday, I went to check the recipe, but the pin just led to a picture. That annoys me so much on pinterest. I want to click on the photo and get to a recipe! Well, I decided I could do this myself, despite having only made meatloaf once or twice many many years ago. I started looking through my other pins and found 2 that I could combine: Parmesan meatloaf and garlic mashed potatoes.

I did not make the meatloaf gluten-free, as the recipe suggests, and I used dried Italian seasoning that I had on hand instead of the basil, thyme, and oregano (all three were in the Italian seasoning). Other than that, I followed the recipe as it is, and instead of a loaf pan, I used cupcake pans. The mashed potatoes were more of a free-hand recipe since I've made mashed potatoes by hand so many times. I basically followed the recipe but there was no measuring. I'm pretty sure I almost doubled the amount of Parmesan in the mashed potatoes because I love it so much. When the meatloaf cupcakes were done baking, I just dumped a big spoonful of mashed potatoes on top. I didn't bother trying to pipe the mashed potatoes or make them pretty, I just wanted them to be delicious.

And boy, were they! My dad doesn't like meatloaf at all, and he was raving about them. I will definitely be making these again.

Here are some photos:

Meatloaf:

With mashed potato "icing":