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Turkey Meatloaf

When I was a kid I hated meatloaf.  I'm not sure if it was the cook or just all the mushed up ground meat.  Either way it creeped me out.  Fast forward 25 years and its actually one of my favorite things but I rarely make it because the prep work.  Over 4th of July weekend we had people over and I made way too much BBQ chicken, which was great because we just reheated chicken all week.  Which is ironic because when I stopped fighting all I wanted to do was cook hot meals every night, as all I did was eat reheated food.  What I forgot is how convenient that is.  And allows me to make somethings that actually take too much time for a weeknight, ahead of time.  I planned out the week and got a few things ready over the weekend.  I took a lot of pictures but didn't post anything, wanted to make sure it actually tasted good!  The goal was to make it a little healthier and not red meat.  We already eat plenty of red meat in our house so I went with Turkey.

  • 4 lbs Ground Turkey (I used the ground thighs and breast, its a little richer with the dark meat and cheaper)
  • 1 16 oz package mushrooms ( I used baby bella because those were my favorite of the two TJ's options), finely chopped
  • Half a bag of shredded carrots (or 1 large carrot shredded)
  • 1 large sweet onion, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, diced
  • 1 bag of spinach, rough cut
  • 1/3 cup fresh parsley (fresh is great but dried would also do, just cut it down to about 1.5 tablespoons)
  • ~1 teaspoon salt
  • ~1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • ~3 tablespoons ketchup 
  • ~ 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 cup bread crumbs
  • 1 egg
  • 1 egg white
  • 1/3 cup milk
Putting it all together was pretty simple.  Sauté the onions and garlic until the onions are just starting to become translucent.  I like using grape seed oil as it has a high smoke point.  While the onions are sautéing, roughly chop up the mushrooms.



Next add carrots and mushrooms and cook until the juice cooks out, about 10 minutes. After its been cooking for about 5 minutes, mix the milk, eggs and bread crumbs in a separate bowl and let stand (sorry no picture, its ugly and boring).


After that add spinach and parsley, which needs only about 3 or 4 minutes to cook down and cook out the juices.  At the end add the ketchup, salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce and mix thoroughly.  


Once that is all cooked, mix into the ground turkey along with the bread crumb mixture.  I wish there was another way to mix it well but there isn't.  You have to get in there with your hands and mix it all together.  It's gross, I know but so worth it.  Once mixed, grease two loaf pans and pack the ground turkey mixture in.  

I also like to seal it with a bit of ketchup.  You don't need much and you can use a spoon to spread it out to cover the top.  It seems to help create a crust so the meatloaf stays moist.  


Bake at 400 degrees for about 45-50 minutes or until the center is 170.  In the end they came out awesome.  And I have an extra in the freezer for a night when I don't feel like cooking.



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