Mini Turkey Meatloaf

Most of our Saturday and Sunday mornings are spent watching the Food Network and trying brush up on what little cooking skills we have managed to gain over the last several months.  This specific morning we were watching the Pioneer Women while she proceeded to entertain with some low carb recipes.  We tried these mini turkey meatloaf balls in a muffin tin and to our surprise, it wasn\’t very difficult or hard to manage.  We adjusted it a little from her recipe, and managed to squeak in some chipotle peppers, which gave it heat, but wasn\’t too spicy.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups regular oats

1 cup whole milk

2 1/2 pounds ground turkey

4 slices bacon, cut into very small bits (or you can use bacon bits)

1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt (we used Trader Joes\’s)

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 cup ketchup, plus more if needed

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes ( we replaced with diced chipotle peppers)

*We also left out the finely minced parsley

*We doubled the entire recipe so that we would have plenty of leftovers. The extra we laid out flat in a bag and put them in the freezer.  The are much easier to reheat if you lay them out flat in the freezer.  🙂

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat 18 standard muffin cups with cooking spray.

Add the oats in a small bowl, pour the milk over them, and stir to make sure the oats are all coated.  Let then set for a few minutes.

Put all other ingredients in a large bowl and add the oats and any extra milk from the bowl to it. Make sure to only use 1/4 cup of the ketchup. Use your hands to mix it all together. Place a 1/4-cup scoop of the mixture in each greased muffin cup. Squirt about 1/2 teaspoon of the remaining ketchup on top of each meatloaf.

Use a spoon to smear the ketchup evenly over the top, then use it to nudge the edges of the meatloaves away from the pan a bit.

Bake for 25 minutes, then squirt another 1/2 teaspoon of ketchup on top of each, spreading it  with a spoon to cover as much of the surface as possible.

Continue to bake until completely cooked through and sizzling around the edges, about another 30 minutes.

Let them sit in the pan for 5 to 7 minutes before serving. Run a knife around the edges of the loaves to loosen them if they stick. Serve warm, and we made cauliflower mac and cheese for a side.