Mini meatloaves to drool over! And pair some onion soup roasted potatoes with it!

Hi everyone!  Hope your week is treating you well so far!  So far so good here, work, dinner, online, errands, Wii, read, sleep, repeat...throw in alittle Jeopardy and Rich Bride Poor Bride so far and that's my week:)

Tonight I'm making (literally making right now - they are in the oven hehe) one of our faves - Mini Turkey Meatloaves from Martha Stewart.  What I like about this recipe is that there is alot of personal touches you can put into it, like what kind of mustard you use, or what kind of cheese you use.  What makes me nervous is them baking - you have to watch them very carefully (I guess I'm not doing this very well if I'm on here!) so they don't dry out.  Out of about 12 times, I've only had them come out a bit dry once, so I'll take it; no one's perfect;)

Another thing I love about this recipe is the ingredients - the only thing you most likely wouldn't have around the kitchen is ground turkey, and maybe the white cheddar cheese - everything else you most likely already have!  Gotta love that!  It's not Wednesday, but this is "wicked" cheap, so I'm going to post the breakdown at the bottom of cost.

What you'll need:

• 2 sweet potatoes and 2 red bliss potatoes 
• 1 onion soup mix packet
• 1/3 cup olive oil

For the potatoes - preheat oven to 450.  Cut potatoes into bite sized pieces and place into a 9x13 baking pan.  Pour onion soup mix and 1/3 oil over the potatoes.  I say DON'T mix the ingredients at this point - if the onion soup mix and oil end up all on the bottom of the baking dish, the little soup pieces will just burn up and cause a mess of a cleanup after, and it won't be as flavorful.

Bake potato mixture for about 35-40 minutes - when a fork can go through them, they are done:)  If you want to mix the ingredients, do so about halfway through.  This is what the potatoes, and meatloaves, look like about 1/2 way through:

Now for the good stuff!  You will need:

• 2 tbsp mustard (Martha recommends honey mustard, I used regular yellow mustard tonight, but have used dijon and horseradish mustard in the past)
• 2 tbsp ketchup
• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
• 1 egg
• 1 cup shredded white cheddar cheese
• salt and pepper

Mix the mustard and ketchup together in a small bowl and set aside.  If you haven't already preheated the oven to 450 because you're making a different side, preheat oven to 450 now.  Mix together ground turkey, breadcrumbs, egg, 1/2 cup of the cheese, and salt and pepper.  I find it works best to mix it by hand, so get your sleeves up!  Keep in mind, if the turkey has come out of your fridge just before you start, it's very brr chilly cold on your hands, so let it sit at room temperature for a bit for your hands' sake:)  Form turkey mixture into mini, egg shapes loaves (depending on the size, this recipe should garner you 4-6 loaves) and place on an ungreased baking sheet. 

I love how you can see the cheese in the forms - yum!

Spread the ketchup and mustard mixture on each loaf, and then cover with rest of  cheese.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until loaves are cooked through.  Enjoy!

 

Now, tonight I had 2 lbs of ground turkey, so I doubled the recipe.  Because I made larger loaves tonight as well, I garnered 8 loaves out of 2 lbs.  Sometimes, I'll make smaller loaves and it gives me 12.  No matter what, you want to make the loaves to be the same size so they cook evenly.  Also, because I made them a little larger, then took about 30 minutes to cook through instead of 15-20 minutes.  Again, it's all about watching them to make sure they don't overcook and dry out.  The husband made sure to tell me the one time they were a little dry;)

Here's the husband's plate - well his first helping - always a good sign when he goes back for more:)

Cost:

My favorite part!

2 lbs ground turkey - $5.00 - always a great price!
white cheddar shredded cheese (natural) - $2.75 (I had a coupon)
...and, well, I had the rest of the ingredients!  If you had to buy the breadcrumbs and potatoes, you would add about $5.00 more = $12.75 for a meal plenty big enough for a family of 4!  WOW!  Thank you Martha for a cheap but extremely tasteful recipe!  

So I'm stuffed!  Are you stuffed after your dinner tonight?  I hope so, in a good way:)  I'm off to Michael's to get some glue for scrapbooking (and when I mean some, I mean like 8 - I go through them like hotcakes) and to Target to just browse...I feel like browsing.  Then hopefully I'll come home, play some Wii, catch up on some of my fave blogs like this one, continue reading Scarlett, and get some good sleep.  Every morning I wake up saying "I'm going to bed at 10pm tonight!"....it never happens, I have too much I want to do!

Have a great night, everyone, and see you tomorrow for a new recipe I have yet to try!  Eek!