Totally Yummy Tiny Turkey Meatloaves

 I have a rotation of 3 or 4 different meatloaf recipes. One was given to my mom by a friend who has had this recipe in her family forever. Another was torn out of a magazine maybe 10 years ago. The third recipe I acquired after my son slept at a friend's house and his mom, my friend E, made it for dinner and he gobbled it. Yet, every few months when I decide to make meatloaf or turkey meatloaf, it's never a family favorite, rather I end up eating the leftovers for lunch 3 days in a row. This recipe is actually a combination of all three. While making this yesterday, I got a little excited that maybe, finally, perhaps, everyone would eat and enjoy this. Our afternoons are so ridiculously busily crazy, that I try whenever possible to assemble/prepare dinner earlier in the day so that I just have to bake off or reheat before dinnertime. Once this was prepared, I just covered it with foil to sit in the fridge for a few hours, then uncovered and baked for an hour while the potatoes (another post!) cooked. At last, a turkey meatloaf recipe that everyone loved, from Daddy to baby D! Let me know what you think, or send me your favorite recipe to try! This made a large loaf and 8 mini-loaves, which everyone preferred to the slices. You can easily halve this recipe if you don't need to feed 6 like I do! Eat and enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/3 pounds ground turkey
• 1 1/3 pounds ground turkey breast
• 2 eggs
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2-3 large carrots, peeled and grated (I used the multi-colored ones from TJ which were pretty!)
• 3 cloves garlic, grated
• 1 1/2 cups bread crumbs (a friend says you can sub cooked quinoa!)
• 2/3 cup milk (cow's milk, soy milk, non-dairy creamer, fat free half and half)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• kosher salt
• pepper
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

DIRECTIONS:

• Preheat oven to 400 degreed F and spray mini loaf pan or muffin tin (or large loaf pan if you prefer-tastes equally yummy!!)
• In a large pan, heat the olive oil and add the onion, carrot and garlic
• Saute until soft, about 10 minutes, stirring frequently so the garlic doesn't burn
• While the veggies are cooking, in a large bowl combine the meat, the bread crumbs, the eggs, the milk, and salt and pepper to taste (about 1 teaspoon each)
• Let veggies cool for a few minutes, and in the meantime combine ketchup, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce in a small bowl
• Add the cooked mixture to the meat mixture and mix well with your hands or a wooden spoon
• Add 1/3 of the ketchup mixture to the meat
• Divide the meat mixture evenly among the loaf/muffin pans and brush the tops with the remaining ketchup mixture
• Bake for approximately 40 minutes (50-55 minutes if you are baking a standard size loaf, and maybe 35 minutes if you are doing muffin tins), rotating the pans halfway through the cooking time
• Let set for 5 minutes before removing from pans