Friday, May 8, 2009

Turkey Meatloaf

I saw Tara on this season's The Biggest Loser, making Turkey Meatloaf and it looked so simple and delicious. I am pulling this recipe from Slim Shoppin's blog, which she pulled from Jennie-O's website, but I like her blog, so I'm doing some free advertising. 

Anyway, I'll be adding my own input in BLUE and illustrating with my very own pictures. :) I know you're excited.


First, I need to point out my new appliance! It did a FANTASTIC job on it's first use. I love, love, love it. And it was nice not having to spend time chopping all the veggies myself.

INGREDIENTS: 1 small yellow onion, coarsely chopped 

1 medium carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped 

1 stalk of celery, coarsely chopped 

2 chipotle peppers (canned in adobo sauce) 

1 (20-ounce) package JENNIE-O TURKEY STORE® extra lean ground turkey breast 

1/2 cup quick cooking oats 

2 egg whites 

FOR TOPPING: 1/4 cup fat free and sugar free ketchup 

1 tablespoon chipotle pepper adobo sauce (from canned peppers used in meatloaf)

 1 tablespoon brown sugar 

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350°F. In the work bowl of a food processor, combine onion, carrots and celery. Pulse until finely chopped. Add chipotle peppers and pulse until just combined. I found this in the Mexican food section of my grocery store.

In a large bowl, combine the ground turkey with the pepper and vegetable mixture. 

Add egg whites and oats; gently mix until combined. 

Place about 1/3 cup of the prepared meat loaf mixture into 9 wells of a standard size muffin pan that has been lightly sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Mine actually filled the entire muffin pan. Bake for 20 minutes.


Meanwhile, combine all of the topping ingredients in a small bowl; set aside. Remove meat loaves from oven and spoon the topping over each meat loaf. Return meat loaf to the oven and continue to bake for an additional 5-10 minutes or until meat loaf is firm and the internal temperature registers 170°F. Let meat loaf stand for 5 minutes before serving. Makes 9 (or 12) mini loaves. This Recipe is Biggest Loser approved

My sauce only made enough to cover 9 meatloafs, but I didn't mind because I wanted to try one without the sauce. 

The sauce was SUPER spicy-because of that chipotle pepper. The salad was the perfect side, because after each bite of meatloaf I could cool my mouth down with the ranch dressing. I would suggest using less of the abodo sauce, and subbing more ketchup if you want less spicy. HOWEVER, I do not suggest omitting the sauce all together. It really brought the whole meal together. The plain turkey meatloaf was lacking without that sauce. Overall, I give this meal a high rating. It was SIMPLE and DELICIOUS, and provided for easy clean up.

Try it out, and tell me what you think!


Nutritional Information for 1 mini loaf:

Calories: 110 Fat: 1 g Saturated Fat: 0 Sodium: 180 mg Protein: 16 g Cholesterol: 25 mg Carbohydrates: 6 g



Watch out for the baby though. He'll find the cookies while you're busy occupying yourself in the kitchen.