Take comfort in this Cooking Light meatloaf because it saves you calories, fat grams and time.

Winter is prime time for comfort food, an online survey says.

The ultimate comfort foods are homey favorites like meat loaf and macaroni and cheese, according to 61 percent of people polled by Allrecipes.com. And 73 percent say comfort food tastes best when it's cooked at home from scratch.

Before you reach for your cookbooks, you should know that many meat loaf recipes contain about 400 calories and 20 fat grams per serving — and those aren't nice numbers for people who are trying to lose weight.

But you can take comfort in this recipe because it saves you calories, fat grams and time. And diners agree it's delicious: this Cooking Light meat loaf got the highest rating from its readers.

An old-fashioned meat loaf takes about an hour to bake, but this recipe uses a muffin tin, which lets you sit down to dinner in half that time and makes portion control a snap.

This healthy remake cuts the fat and calorie count by using extra-lean ground beef and fat-free crackers. Also, I use Egg Beaters instead of two eggs here. That substitution doesn't change how the meat loaf tastes, but it trims off 90 calories and 10 fat grams.

So the next time you're in the mood for comfort food, you can have two of these meat loaf muffins, X\c cup green beans and ½ cup of lightened-up macaroni and cheese for just 442 calories and 9.8 fat grams.

1 teaspoon olive oil1 cup finely chopped onion½ cup finely chopped carrot1 teaspoon dried oregano2 garlic cloves, minced1 cup ketchup, divided1½ pounds 96 percent lean ground beef1 cup finely crushed fat-free saltine crackers (about 20)2 tablespoons mustard1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce¼ teaspoon black pepper½ cup egg substitute, such as Egg BeatersCooking sprayPreheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chopped onion, chopped carrot, oregano and garlic and sauté for 2 minutes. Let the mixture cool.In a large bowl, combine onion mixture, ½ cup ketchup and the remaining ingredients except cooking spray. Spoon the meat mixture into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Top each muffin with 2 teaspoons ketchup. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until a thermometer registers 160 degrees. Let stand for 5 minutes.Makes 6 servings.Serving size: 2 muffins. Per serving: 267 calories, 5.3 fat grams.Adapted from a Cooking Light recipe.