Tasty Tuesday: Freezer Cooking and Blue Cheese Meatloaf

Do you ladies do much freezer cooking? I do a fair amount of cooking in bulk and freezing of things like muffins and cookie dough, but I had honestly never frozen a dinner. Isn't that crazy?? Since there are really only 2.5 of us eating dinner in our family, I am constantly cutting recipes in half and it struck me the other day: shouldn't I just make the whole thing and freeze half? I can't tell you how many nights I'm running around like a crazy person trying to get dinner together because I haven't planned well, it's been a crazy day, or the kids are in bad moods. When I read this post over at the blog Six Sister's Stuff, I was totally inspired that I should have a freezer cooking day once a month as well. I like some of the recipes that she suggests, but I think I may try to adapt some of our family favorites as well. Are there any prep-ahead or slow cooker meals that y'all love?

Today's recipe is for an amazingly delicious Blue Cheese and Caramelized Onion Meatloaf that I made last week for dinner.  I found the recipe, where else, but Pinterest (pinned from here).  My husband is sort of on the fence about blue cheese and my son is, of course, 2, so I was a bit skeptical that they would like it, but it was a hit!  You can make it as a large loaf, but I made ours in a muffin tin both so that they would cook faster and because I thought it was cuter.  I made a couple of minor changes to the original recipe.

Photo via What's Cookin, Chicago?

Blue Cheese and Caramelized Onion Meatloaf
Made 12 mini meatloaves, which would probably serve 3-4 adults

Ingredients

3/4 cup breadcrumbs (I used homemade from gluten free bread)

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (This was not called for in the original, but I like things extra cheesy)
1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
1 pound 80/20 ground beef
1 egg (slightly beaten)
1/2 cup caramelized onions
salt and pepper to taste

Ranch Dressing (my addition)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a muffin tin and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine cup bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, and crumbled blue cheese. Add ground beef, egg, onion, salt and pepper. Blend to incorporate all the ingredients evenly throughout.

Divide meat mixture evenly into the 12 muffin wells.  Make a small depression in the top of each loaf and squirt a bit of ranch dressing on top.  Bake meatloafs for about 20 minutes until cooked through and browned on top. Allow to cool slightly and serve.