On a Snowy Night, there is Mediterranean Turkey Meatloaf

There is life after Thanksgiving...

The meal was sweet, savory and delicious, but after Thanksgiving, is there still room for turkey in your life?

Many moons ago (well, maybe 6 1/2 years to be fair) I adopted Weight Watchers as a way to manage my food intake. After the post college and early marriage years of eating to excess, and whatever and whenever I wanted, I needed a reality check as to what was an appropriate food choice and portion size.

I used to be able to consume-in one sitting-an ENTIRE Papa Murphy's take and bake cheese bread (with extra cheese.) That's 1749 calories, 54 grams of fat. Nutritional Info

Thank you Weight Watchers for reminding me I really should only eat two slices, and if I drink some water and have a conversation, I would then be full. With weight watchers, I began to learn the limits of my nutrition, and looked into new foods. Its then that I fell in love with ground turkey, the holy grail of Weight Watchers protein. (Besides fish, that is.) 

Ground turkey helps keep post meal insulin low and is lower fat than red meat (although I have nothing against red meat in any way.)

I have a ton of ground turkey recipes, and tonight I employed a favorite to share with my family, as the promise of snow in Montana tonight created in me another turkey craving.

Mediterranean Turkey Meatloaf

Ingredients:

1 pound ground turkey

1 1/2 cups stuffing, wetted with 1/3 cup water

2 eggs

1/2 cup feta cheese 

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, plus 1/4 for sprinkling on top

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1/4 cup snipped sun dried tomatoes

A NOTE on sun dried tomatoes. I don't dry mine in the sun. I do, however, take my ripe Romas in the summer and run them through the dehydrator, then store them in a freezer bag in the freezer. They are sweeter and have a lovely concentrated flavor.

Set you over to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, put your stuffing in and wet it with about 1/3 cup of water. Use your hand to mix it about until the water is absorbed. 

In a large bowl, put in your ground turkey, now wet stuffing, and all other ingredients. Make sure your Parmesan is not green container in the fridge fake Parmesan. Spring for some real stuff.

Be a He-Woman and use your hands to mix and mash it all about until evenly distributed. Get out a loaf pan, make your mix into a loaf shape, and plop it in the pan. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese on top and bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes before you use a meat thermometer to check the temp. It'll be ready to come out at 165 degrees.