Tales From the Minivan

I have been feeling so energized lately! On a whim 2 weeks ago, I moved Finn’s crib into Liam’s room. I was really overtired and rundown, don’t get me wrong I’m a huge advocate for co-sleeping it really worked well for us, but when you’re sick you get desperate! The first evening was not too bad, I had a lot of trouble getting him into the crib without waking him, as the railing was too high for me. When I lowered it everytime I’d raise it back into a locking position it would wake the little guy! He woke up about 3
times between 8pm and 12am, and Andrew went in to settled him down, he’d pick him right up and cuddle him and once he was back asleep he put him back down. From midnight until 8am….he slept right through! The next night, he only woke up once around 10pm and since he has slept through each night for 13 hours! He has dropped one daytime nap but I’m OK with that! Here’s a well rested Finn:

Since I’ve been so well rested I’ve been trying some new recipes, and my pal Sarah recommended this one! It was so good, I decided to take photos and show the steps! She’s a big fan of Rachael Ray and tries a lot of her recipes. The original recipe can be found here: Turkey Stuffin’ Meatloaf

I made a few modifications to it, as a few of the ingredients were American and I made due with what I had in the house. Here’s my version:

4 T butter
1 large Carrot diced (not in original recipe, but I added for colour)
4 stalks of Celery
1 large onion (I use a sweet vidalia, I love these)
5-7 cups of stale breadcrumbs (I seasoned mine with Bell’s season..a combo of marjoram, thyme, sage etc and baked them in the oven I also added salt and pepper)
1.5 lbs of ground Turkey
3 cups of chicken broth (may not need all of this)
2 eggs
EVOO- extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

I started by preparing the stuffing to set aside to cool before adding it to the ground turkey. Melt butter over med-high heat, once the butter is melted add carrots, celery and onion and cook until tender. Add breadcrumbs and broth and combine with veggies, you may not need all of the broth as you don’t want the stuffing to be too gooey.

Here’s a pic of the completed stuffing:

Once stuffing is complete set aside and let cool. For the next step I used my Kitchenaid mixer, but I’m sure you can do it by hand just as easy, I just love to put my mixer to use! Once the stuffing has cooled down a bit mix the ground turkey , 2 eggs and stuffing mixture together until combined. Make 2 long loaves, I set down plastic wrap to form the loaves and lined my pan with non-stick foil (I love the Reynolds Release Wrap!) then drizzle the olive oil over the loaves.

Bake at 375F fr approx 1 hour until the internal temp reaches 165F, I find a meat thermometre is one of the most useful kitchen gadgets I have!

Here’s a shot of the finished product. I made smashed potatoes as a side dish, they were really easy.

1 Bag of Mini Red skins potatoes
3/4 cup sour cream
1 onion sauted with 1/4 lb bacon (you can substitute bacon bits)
3/4 cup of grated marble cheese

Boil Potatoes with skins on. Once cooked add the remainder of ingredients and mix well. I found a mixer with combine them the best. Once they are smashed together put in oven safe casserole and bake for another 20 minutes! Enjoy!

It was a big hit with Andrew Mackenzie, Finn and myself! Liam on the other hand told us, “His brain wouldn’t let his hand feed it to him!” , and Ciaran filled up on the “tatoes” his favorite. I think the only reason he would try the meatloaf was because Liam wouldn’t. ARRRRGH!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 2:36 pm and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.