Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Turkey Meatloaf

Now that we're back on South Beach (curse you, phase 1!!), we planned out a menu and did a huge shopping trip to get ready for the week.  Somewhere along the line, I thought turkey meatloaf sounded like a great option so we got the stuff.  When I went to make it yesterday, it occurred to me that all of my SB meatloaf recipes are phase 2 or later - everyone wants us to use some sort of grain as a binder.  I wanted to just go for it and not worry about a cup of bread crumbs or oatmeal in the grand scheme of things, but Patrick was adamant.  No starch!!!  Well crap, now what?
This is the recipe I have in my book, and here is one from Kalyn, but flax seed meal?!  I don't exactly have that laying around. . . I had to improvise, and while not ideal (the way the fat came out of the meat was horrifying - I poured at least a cup of liquid off throughout cooking - ew), the loaf actually turned out quite well, and really delicious.  Who knew?

1 package of Jennie-O ground turkey meat (I think they tend to be around 1 1/2 lbs)
1 can of Italian seasoned stewed tomatoes, well drained and smooshed with your hands  (the better you drain these, the less liquid you have to worry about in your loaf later)
2 cloves of crushed garlic
1 tablespoon of Italian seasoning
1/2 tbsp of salt
1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese (I'd recommend more if you have it - I would've used more but we were out!  Keep the calories in mind though and don't go nuts)
1 egg

Smoosh everything together - with your hands or a fork if you're squeamish.  Preheat oven to 350.  Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray, and fill with meatloaf.  Sprinkle a little more parm on top if you'd like (I borrowed a few shavings from my roommate).  Bake until 160 - it took us about 40 minutes.  You might want to check it a few times and pour off any creepy oily water.  Let it sit for a bit and serve with South Beach ketchup (and Sriracha if you're so inclined, and we usually are; Patrick went for it, I went without).
The Italian flavors were really delicious and I'd recommend the combo for any regular meatloaf as well.

We served these with goat cheese stuffed Portobello mushrooms which I cooked alongside, based on another SB recipe that I also couldn't fully execute due to a lack of pasta sauce and basil (should've saved some of those stewed tomatoes I guess).  I put some sliced roasted red peppers down in a baking dish, put some medium sized portobello mushrooms (not the huge ones you'd use instead of a burger, but not the baby creminis either) on top of that, and filled the mushies with a slice of goat cheese and a sprinkling of pine nuts and baked at 350 for about 30 minutes.  Yum.  :)

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