Turkey Meatloaf

I wanted something homey and comforting for Sunday dinner a few weeks back so I turned to an old favorite, Ina Garten's Turkey Meatloaf.

I've made this recipe a bunch of times so I can't believe I never blogged about it. Baby Girl ate a ton of this, more than me actually. We'd cut some up for her and she'd inhale it then ask for more. I made the full 5lbs for 5 adults and 1 child and we had just enough leftover for lunches for four adults, plus a little extra for late-night sandwiches.

Turkey Meatloaf
Recipe from Ina Garten

3 cups chopped yellow onions (2 large onions)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (1/2 teaspoon dried)
1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
3/4 cup chicken stock
1 1/2 teaspoons tomato paste
5 pounds ground turkey breast
1 1/2 cups plain dry bread crumbs
3 extra-large eggs, beaten
3/4 cup ketchup

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a medium saute pan, over medium-low heat, cook the onions, olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme until translucent, but not browned, approximately 15 minutes. Add the Worcestershire sauce, chicken stock, and tomato paste and mix well. Allow to cool to room temperature.

Combine the ground turkey, bread crumbs, eggs, and onion mixture in a large bowl. Mix well and shape into a rectangular loaf on an ungreased sheet pan. Spread the ketchup evenly on top.

Bake for 1 1/2 hours until the internal temperature is 160 degrees. Serve hot, at room temperature or cold in a sandwich.

Meatloaf Muffins, Scalloped Potatoes and Green Beans

I'm sorry for all these horrible photos. I blame, in no particular order, rushing the take photos so we can eat, lack of natural light and unphotogenic food.

Meatloaf muffins are one of my favorite dinners to make because they're so simple yet so delicious.


I mixed meatloaf mix, some salsa, one beaten egg, and bread crumbs in a bowl, then put some of the mix into each cup of a greased muffin tin. I baked them, along with the potatoes, at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes. The green beans were simply steamed and tossed with butter, salt and pepper.

Meatloaf Muffins

Meatloaf muffins are one of my favorite ways to cook meatloaf. Everything is already portioned out and it only takes 30 minutes to cook.


For these I added salsa and breadcrumbs to the meatloaf mix, then topped each muffin with ketchup. Mashed potatoes and corn rounded out the meal.

Cheeseburger Meatloaf, Scalloped Potatoes and Broccoli with Cheese

A few weeks after giving birth to Baby Girl a few of my friends got together to make us some freezer meals. My friend Lauren made us Cheeseburger Meatloaf, which might sound weird but was amazingly good.


She shared the recipe with me and I've since made it for dinner a few times. It's easy to throw together and has great flavor. Lauren adds a squirt of yellow mustard to the mix so I do, too. I served the meatloaf with scalloped potatoes (yes, from a box) and broccoli that SP asked me to coat with some shredded cheddar cheese.


I think my favorite part are the pieces of bread & butter pickles throughout the meat. Yum!

Cheeseburger Meatloaf
Everyday with Rachael Ray

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing
1 red onion, finely chopped
2/3 cup ketchup
2/3 cup bread crumbs
2 large eggs
1/2 cup bread-and-butter pickle chips, chopped
1-1/2 pounds ground beef
8 ounces cheddar cheese, cut into 1/3-inch cubes

Preheat the oven to 400°.

Lightly oil a rimmed baking sheet. In a medium skillet, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring until slightly softened, about 3 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine the ketchup, bread crumbs, eggs and pickles; mix in the onion. Crumble in the beef, add the cheese and mix together. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet and shape into a 4-by-12-inch loaf.

Bake until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers 160°, about 35 minutes.

Meatloaf, Potato Gratin, Broccoli

We love a nice, hearty meal on Sundays. I was in the mood for my favorite potato gratin and we had some broccoli crowns that needed to be used. SP suggested meatloaf to round out the meal.


I'm not sure what happened with the potato gratin but for some reason my mandoline cut the potatoes much thicker then usual. It still tasted fantastic, but the large chunks of potatoes were different texturally:


I used Ina's recipe for turkey meatloaf, substituting meatloaf mix for the turkey.


It was a delicious meal all around. While we were eating SP and I decided to reinstitute the Sunday dinners we used to have before we started saving for, and eventually buying, our house. Hopefully we can start inviting family over soon, although I don't think we're going to do it every week.

Meatloaf Muffins with Smashed Potatoes and Green Beans

As much as I hate to admit it, the weather is changing. Fall has arrived and it's time to put away the summer recipes for more homey, cold-weather meals. On Thursday I made one of my favorite comfort food meals - meatloaf muffins:


I usually throw whatever sounds good into my meatloaf, along with the requisite breadcrumbs and egg. This time it was some onion, red pepper, a jalapeno and a little chipotle salsa. I put the muffins into a greased muffin tin and top each muffin with a little ketchup. They bake for 35 minutes at 425 degrees.

While the meatloaf muffins cooked I scrubbed some red potatoes and cooked them for smashed potatoes, which I made with sour cream, butter, scallions, salt and pepper and a splash of milk. I love leaving the skins on when making mashed potatoes. I also picked up some green beans at the farmers market (the last day for the market by my office...boo!) so we had those steamed.

Mini Meatloaf Muffins, Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Broccoli

I had used one pound of ground beef for the Swedish meatballs, so the other pound was combined with salsa, bread crumbs, a beaten egg and grated onion to make mini meatloaf muffins:


After I mixed the meat with the other ingredients I put it into muffin tins and topped it with some ketchup. They baked at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes, alongside broccoli that I cut into florets and tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper and chili poweder. Mashed potatoes rounded out this very comforting meal.

Meatloaf with Smothered Mushrooms and Cheesy Cauliflower

I saw Rachael Ray make Meatloaf with Smothered Mushrooms and Cheesy Cauliflower last week and it looked really tasty, so I put it on this week's menu.


Unfortunately I'm not sure if it was a winner or a failure. The meatloaf was good. I used ground beef for the meatloaf patties and they were pretty good because of the combo of Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce and grated onion. And I really enjoyed the smothered mushrooms in a sherry, beef broth and splash of heavy cream sauce, so that part of the meal worked.

What really disappointed me was the Cheesy Cauliflower. Now granted, I didn't buy the Boursin cheese (I actually meant to but forgot to put it on the shopping list), so it was missing that particular flavor. I tried to compensate by adding some garlic cloves to the cauliflower as it cooked and I still mashed the cauliflower with the chicken stock, Pecorino cheese, salt and pepper, but it had a really watery consistency. I tried boiling out some of the liquid, but it never got smooth like I was expecting it to. I've heard mashed cauliflower can be a stand-in for mashed potatoes, but mine didn't work out that way. I ended up adding a splash of heavy cream in an attempt to make them a little more interesting, but while the flavor was good, the texture was all wrong. I'll have to try to find another recipe for mashed cauliflower since I love cauliflower and it's a good, healthy vegetable.

Meatloaf, Potatoes, Green Beans

Sometimes I have to admit that Rachael Ray has some good ideas. Take her mini meatloaf muffins. Brilliant. I wanted to make meatloaf for dinner but I also wanted to exercise when I got home. With the meatloaf muffins I can still have dinner on the table in about 30 minutes. I rounded out the meal with mashed potatoes and steamed green beans:


For the meatloaf I mixed a little more than a pound of meatloaf mix (beef, pork and veal) with one beaten egg, some ketchup, diced onion, about a cup of bread crumbs, Worchestershire sauce, salt, pepper and some medium-heat salsa. Once everything was combined the mixture went into muffin tins that I'd greased with oil. I spread some more ketchup on top of each muffin and put them into a 450-degree oven for about 30 minutes until they were browned and crispy.

I cooked the potatoes with a few crushed garlic cloves and then mashed them with Plugra. I love that stuff....so sinfully rich and buttery. Yum! A splash of milk, salt and pepper made them even better. The green beans I just steamed until they were crisp tender. A very comforting meal.

Meatloaf, Potatoes and Broccoli

I totally forgot to post these pictures from Sunday dinner. I made meatloaf (Tyler Florence's ultimate recipe), mashed potatoes with the last of the Plugra and roasted broccoli.


Everything was sensational. I even cooked the broccoli to the perfect doneness - just starting to get brown around the edges, but still with some bite to it. And the roasted garlic pieces were crunchy and sweet:


This is truly our favorite recipe for meatloaf. It always comes out perfectly moist and the sweet, tart flavor from the red pepper relish is the perfect compliment to the meatloaf:


I think the best part, though, was that the mashed potatoes smelled like pure butter and tasted better than any I've ever made.

Dad's Meatloaf with Tomato Relish
Tyler Florence

Tomato Relish:

Extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves
2 red bell peppers, cored, seeded, and finely diced
2 tomatoes, halved, seeded, and finely diced
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 (12-ounce) bottle ketchup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Meatloaf:

3 slices white bread, crusts removed, torn into chunks by hand
1/4 cup whole milk
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 pound ground pork
2 eggs
Leaves from 2 fresh thyme sprigs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 to 4 bacon slices

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Coat a skillet with a 2-count of oil and place over medium heat. Saute the onion, garlic, and bay leaves for a few minutes to create a base flavor. Throw in the red peppers and cook them for a couple of minutes to soften. Now add the tomatoes; adding them at this point lets them hold their shape and prevents them from disintegrating. Stir in the parsley, ketchup, and Worcestershire; season with salt and pepper. Simmer the relish for 5 minutes to pull all the flavors together. Remove it from the heat; you should have about 4 cups of relish.

Place the torn white bread in a bowl and add the milk to just barely cover, swish the bread around in the milk and let it sit while you get the rest of the ingredients for the meat loaf together.

This is where you get your hands dirty! In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground beef and pork with 1 1/2 cups of the tomato relish, the eggs, and thyme; season with salt and pepper. Squeeze the excess milk from the bread and add the soaked bread to the meat mixture. To test, fry a small "hamburger" patty of the meatloaf until cooked; the patty should hold together but still have a soft consistency. Taste the patty for seasoning.

Lightly oil a cookie sheet. Transfer the meat mixture to the center of the cookie sheet and form into a log about 9 inches long and about 4 inches wide. Coat the top of the meatloaf with another 1/2 cup of the tomato relish. Lay the bacon across the top lengthwise.

Bake the meatloaf for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until the bacon is crisp and the meatloaf is firm. Rotate the meat loaf while it's baking every now and then to insure that the bacon browns evenly. Remove the meatloaf from the oven and let it cool a bit before slicing. Serve with the remaining tomato relish on the side.