Turkey meatloaf

So it has been a while since I made things to freeze and be eaten later.

Today I decided to experiment with some ground turkey. Lately since I've been just doing turkey meatballs, I decided to make a loaf instead.

I was feeling lazy and did not want to make bread crumbs, neither did I want to use the whole wheat bread that I had.

During December there were many sales on stove top stuffing. I admit I like stove top stuffing for some odd reason. I like homemade stuffing better but box stuffing is good and quick. So I crushed the bag of stuffing mix. I diced some yellow onion and some red onion. I like to have green peppers in my meat loafs but today I didn't have any peppers.

Since the box stuffing usually is well seasoned I just tossed everything into a large bowl and added two eggs. If I want to add spice I will normally add cayenne, today I added sriracha.

Also a little water to add moisture to the crumbs. I mushed it all together with the ground turkey.

The meat was formed into a loaf shape in to a 9x13 pan that was lined with foil. I would say the loaf was a little bit higher than the sides of the pan.

I basted the top of the loaf with more sriracha and topped it with tomato paste. Coating the whole surface with a layer of tomato paste. I set in the oven which was already hot from the cookie baking I did.

After 30 minutes in a 375 degree oven I poured a can of tomato sauce over it. This was to add more tomato to it as well as to prevent the tomato paste from burning.

I let it cook maybe another hour or so. I made the loaf a little on the higher side so that if I wanted make it into a meat loaf sandwich it would be the perfect size for the slice of bread.

Adding the tomato on top of the meat loaf just means the liquids in it will reduces and you get an intense tomato flavor. I actually do not mind if it gets a little blacked.

I decided not to add anything else to it being that I have not done this type of seasoning before. I did not want it to end up too salty. Options would have been maybe some cheese on top of the tomato. Some kosher salt to help bring out more of the tomato flavor. Or some fresh ground pepper.

I just plated it with a simple salad that was topped with a mild sesame dressing. No starch since there was stuffing in the meatloaf. It came out a little smaller than I expected. Next time I need to make it a little higher which would mean I more time in the oven.

Yummy!

Spinach salad

I happen to like salads so when asked to bring one for a party I try to think of something everyone would enjoy. Kent wanted to do spinach.

We like spinach salads that are served with a vinegarette. Preferably a balsamic that is tangy. But to simplify things I decided not to do everything from scratch. I guess we could have just bought a balsamic dressing. I find the bottled dressings tend to be too sweet. Kent was in charge of the bacon and washing the spinach. We plucked the stems off together and saved the stems in a zip sandwich bag to be used later for an omelette.

Bacon

The bacon was cooked in the toaster oven. Toaster oven bacon is a nice way to do a small amount of bacon with an easy clean up. Foil the toaster oven tray and lay out the bacon, I was able to place 4 slices on the tray.(Yes, I placed the bacon, but since I didn't want to keep an eye on them Kent was to make sure they did not burn and was cooked to crispy.) The bacon goes into the toaster oven, no pre heating and set it to 400 degrees. In 15-20mins maybe longer the bacon should be crispy. You might want to flip it at some point maybe even drain some of the fat dripping. Try not to open the toaster to much.

Onion

I bought a regular red onion so I sliced it and let it soak in some cold salted water to try and draw out the sharpness of the onion. Careful to not let it soak too long. It will become salty and lose its crispness.

Boiled egg

I don't have one set way of doing my eggs. Sometimes I start with the water at a slight boil, other times I'll place them in when the water is lukewarm. It all depends if I remembered to take the egg out to get to room temperature and the size of the eggs. Let's be honest here, even though the egg carton says large on it, the eggs in side will sometimes look small. I'm sure they need to be a certain weight to be considered large. It was probably a carton sabotaged by one of those people that stand there swapping eggs around. For a solid yolk, 10-15 mins at a full boil. If I feel the egg needs to be cooked longer I let it sit in the water after turning off the heat.

Ranch dijon dressing

The dressing this time was a mix of ranch dressing and a bit of dijon mustard. I added just a smidge of dijon so not to overwhelm the ranch. This got mixed in a zip sandwich bag for easy clean up and also easy of drizzling it over the spinach. Just careful cut the corner of the the bag. Being careful since the dressing can ooze all over the place if the hole is too big

Add a little more dijon and it makes a really good spread for a ham and cheese sandwich.

We had walnuts, but they never made it on to the salad.

Make sure the spinach has time to dry after washing. It is possible to layer everything and chill a couple hours before, but the spinach might wilt a bit so do it bit before you want to eat the salad. Spinach- toppings- spinach- toppings. Or you could always server the dressing on the side for those people that like to drown their veggies.