Dinner: Zen and the art of meatloaf

The word for meatball in Italian is Polpette. The word for meatloaf is Polpettone or "big meatball." Makes sense. Think of this as big meatball meets a Caprese (mozzarella, tomato, basil) salad. It was soooo good.

Tonight's dinner...

Weight Loss RNY VSG Diabetes Health Fitness Cooking Food Menus BlogShelly's Caprese Turkey Mini Meatloaf

1 Yellow Onion, diced
3 Green Onions, diced
3 cloves Garlic, diced
1 - 14.5 oz can chopped Tomatoes, drained very well
1 1/4 pounds Ground Turkey, the average weight of 1 package
1/4 cup Italian Style Dry Bread Crumbs
1/4 cup Milk
1 Egg, beaten
1 Tablespoon Fresh Basil, chopped
2 Tablespoons Storebought Pesto Sauce
1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt
a few twists of Black Pepper
16 small Fresh Mozzarella Balls, cut in quarters
Butter/Oil for sauteing

Drain tomatoes thoroughly. Squeezing out any excess juice. Set aside. I do this an hour or so ahead to really have it drain. Saute onions till golden. Add garlic and cook 1 minute. Set aside to cool.

Soak breadcrumbs in milk for 1 minute. Beat egg. Add egg and soaked breadcrumbs to ground turkey. Add cooled veggies and all remaining ingredients (except mozzarella.) Mix till combined.

Divide into 8 equal mounds. Form into mini meatloaves or if you have this super groovy pan like me use it. Insert 2 mozzarella balls (chopped into 4 pieces) into each meatloaf and cover with meat. Bake for 45 minutes in a 350 oven. These freeze well either cooked or uncooked.

For dinner I served this with sauteed green beans.


Like Caprese Salad? Try this yummy Eggface appetizer as a first course.

Other Eggface Mini Meatloaves:

Shelly's Florentine Turkey Mini Meatloaf
Shelly's Italian Artichoke Mini Meatloaf
Shelly's Turkey Mushroom Mini Meatloaf
Shelly's Greek Mini Meatloaf
Shelly's Mexican Mini Meatloaf

Highlights of the day:

* I actually was hot at one point in the day. I was running errands which were not a highlight because everything that could go wrong seemed to but at one point I was stripping off layers of clothing. 76 degrees 2 days before New Year. Some "Winter" huh? Amazing. This message was not sponsored by the Southern California Tourism Bureau although it should be.

Now I'm no stranger to real winter weather. I grew up all my life on the east end of Long Island, New York. Here's some photo proof...


* Staying all zen and chill despite the above mentioned problems I had today which included forgetting stuff, losing stuff, locking stuff in the car, three trips to the same place, yeah it was just one of those should have stayed in bed days. Normally I would have been swearing in three different languages and my Sicilian blood would have been boiling but nope... I just rode the wave and at one point even laughed about it all. The day actually turned out nicely in the end too. A nice sunset walk, texts with one of my best friends, and I came home and read this quote...

"Sometimes things will fall apart in order for other things to fall into place"

I need to make a magnet of that or something. An insightful and timely message.

So there you go... I was rewarded. Ohm.

* Looked at puppies and kitties at the pet store today. Just looked. Not ready yet. I needed a fuzzy love fix though.

Listening to: James Morrison "Wonderful World"