Turkey Florentine Meatloaf

Meatloaf.  Not usually something that I'm all over making.  BUT my boys LOVE meatloaf.  I've never understood a big loaf of meat.  Mash it together and call it dinner.  But I get why my boys love it, thought still not my "cup of tea".  However, I happened to have some ground turkey in the freezer, and was stumped as to what to do with it.  The boys had been asking for meatloaf, and so, turkey meatloaf it was.  But, me being me, I needed to get more vegetables into that loaf of meat.  And this is what I came up with:

Turkey Florentine Meatloaf

1 1/4 pounds ground turkey
1 cup of spaghetti sauce (Florentine if you have it)
1/2 cup of Panko

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced

2 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons fresh Parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 teaspoon fennel seed, crushed (or use your bullet)

1 10 ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and very well drained
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a small bowl, combine the Panko and the Italian seasoning.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the ground turkey with 1/4 cup of the spaghetti sauce, bread crumbs, onion, garlic, eggs, Worcestershire Sauce, seasonings, Parmesan cheese and fennel. Mix well.  Divide the mixture in half in the bowl.

Press half the turkey in a prepared loaf pan.  With your knuckles or the back of a spoon, press a 1 inch deep indentation down the center of the loaf, leaving a 1” inch border on all sides.

In a third bowl, toss the spinach and 3/4 cup of the cheddar. Spoon the spinach mixture into the indentation.  Do not overfill.

Put the remaining turkey mixture over top of the spinach mixture, sealing the edges along the side of the pan.

Bake for 45 minutes.  Remove from oven and CAREFULLY dump out/remove any accumulated grease.

Spoon the remaining spaghetti sauce over the top of the loaf and sprinkle the remaining shredded cheese. Bake for an additional 15 minutes or until the meat is cooked through and the sauce is bubbly. Check using your meat thermometer.

Once done, remove from the oven and let stand for 10 minutes before serving. This loaf needs setting time before serving.

VERDICT:
We found the recipe suggestion size for the spinach to be just a little too much.  Next time I would reduce the spinach to approximately 2/3 of what the recipe calls for.  Otherwise, it was a tasty meal (even in my eyes!).

Turkey Sausage Patties

OK, so my friends are reading the title of this post and saying..."What?!  She doesn't like sausage, why the heck is she trying a sausage recipe?  Needless to say, they are baffled...at least for the moment.  And well, that's how I roll...I like to throw a little loop in now and then.  LOL.  It's true, I don't like sausage.  Not one bit.  Well, there was one time at a BBQ with friends, and my friend's Dad made homemade sausage, and that was good.  So maybe I should say that I don't like store bought sausage.  Or hot dogs...but that is a whole other story :-)  My boys, however, LOVE sausage, and whenever my parents make a trip south, my hubby always asks for a package of Jimmy Dean's.  

So, how is it that I came to here, trying a sausage recipe?  Well, on my last Costco run, I picked up some ground turkey.  Threw it in the freezer, and promptly forgot it was there.  Ground turkey isn't something that I often buy.  And it was in the freezer in the garage, I don't go in there very often.  The other day I remembered the ground turkey and thought, "Hmmm, I better find a recipe for that turkey."  Sit down, open a cookbook, and the book practically opens itself to a recipe for Turkey Sausage Patties, using, yes...ground turkey.  So there we have it...fate stepped in and here we are, trying this recipe.  Here it is:

Turkey Sausage Patties (Source: My Father's Daughter)

1 pound ground turkey

2 teaspoons fennel seeds
Pinch of chili flakes
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons fresh sage, finely chopped
4 teaspoons maple syrup
4 tablespoons olive oil

Crush together the fennel seeds, chili flakes, cayenne, salts and pepper. I used the back of a spoon and a bowl to crush the spices.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the ground turkey, sage, and maple syrup.  Mix well (get your hands in there!) - add in the spices, and continue to mix well.

Create small this patties from the mixture.  I made mine about 3" in diameter.  

Over medium heat, heat the olive oil in a skillet.  Cook the sausage patties for about 1 1/2 minutes each side, pressing down on the patty. 

VERDICT:
Our kids LOVED these.  My hubby's first comment was, these aren't as salty (which in my mind, is a good thing!).  Hubby didn't love the fennel (next time I will put in a little less) and would have liked more pepper (so do-able!)...but the kids...the kids just loved these.  I thought they were OK, for sausages!