Turkey Meatloaf in Your Face

Growing up, I felt like I was probably the only kid who secretly actually liked meatloaf. When I decided to stop eating red meat, my meatloaf days were over. Until, of course, school lunches at the school where I taught, which made all kinds of things with turkey, luckily for me. However, as I am no longer there, neither is the turkey meatloaf. I was always kind of scared to try making it as there's usually a long list of spices and measurements of various ingredients that come with the territory, but I had extra ground turkey/sausage that was uncooked left over from when I made lasagna, so figured now was as good a time as any to test it out.

As a warning, my measurements are very loose. Basically, to make meatloaf, you just need ground meat, some seasonings, and to put it into a baking pan and bake it for a while. The rest of the instructions are usually pretty variable from recipe to recipe, as I found out after extensive research on the matter.

Alas, here's what I did, and I was very happy with the results.

Ingredients:

• About 1/2 lb ground turkey
• About 1/2 lb ground turkey sausage
• 1 small white onion, chopped
• About 8 crackers broken up (I used "Town House Light Buttery Crackers"...sounded good)
• About 1/2 an egg whisked
• 2 slices of potato bread broken into small pieces
• About 1/2 cup milk (or cream...undoubtedly better)
• About 1 tsp garlic paste
• About 1 tsp brown mustard
• About 2-3 tbps dry onion soup mix (lipton is really good)
  
• A few dashes of ground black pepper
• A few dashes of sea salt
• A few dashes of ground white pepper (not integral)
• A few dashes of cayenne pepper
• About 1 T "italian spices" (there are all sorts of brands of this stuff)
• About 2 T italian style bread crumbs (separated into 1 T and 1 T)
• About 1/2 cup tomato sauce (I used the kind I wrote about on an earlier blog)
• Dash of worchestershire sauce (prob unnecessary)
• Dash of "gravy master" seasoning and browning sauce (prob unnecessary)
• That's about it, but feel free to add or subtract as you please

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 375
2. Mix all the above mentioned ingredients together EXCEPT for the 1 T italian style bread crumbs, 2 slices of bread, and milk/cream
3. Dip the slices of bread in the milk/cream in a bowl, wring out, then break into small pieces as you toss into the rest of the mixture
4. Still holding aside the extra bread crumbs, mix the rest of the meatloaf mix. If it seems too wet (not easily forming and sticking in a loaf-like shape on its own), add more small pieces of dry bread or crushed up crackers. If it seems too dry, add more of the whisked egg and/or milk/cream)
5. Mold into a loaf-like shape and drop (or place, your choice here) into a loaf baking pan
   
6. Sprinkle remaining bread crumbs on top
7. Bake that business for about 45-60 min, checking periodically (should not be pink inside and should also not be a rock)
8. Consume.

Side Recommendations:

• Mashed Potatoes (follow previous blog recipe)
• Gravy (I used this "serv-a-gravy" brown gravy mix..."meatless parve!" Somehow that shiz is really good...trust)