turkey meatloaf goodness

i know that what i am about to tell you to cook immediately may sound crazy, but seriously ... put it into the oven for dinner, soon. kids will love it, grandma's will love it, people who love meatloaf so much that they would cry for it (that's me!) but want to be healthy will LOVE it! adapted as a hybrid of my grandma's meatloaf (my fav) and this recipe.

2 lbs ground turkey
1 box o' stove top (unprepared)
1 egg white, one whole egg
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 packet meatloaf seasoning
splash (about an 1/8 cup) of milk
minced garlick (i like a lot, you might not!)
1/4 to 1/2 an onion, chopped up all nice like
salt, pepper

mix that all together, divide it up into a muffin pan that has been sprayed with non stick goodness.

wait, we're not done!

in a separate, much smaller bowl, mix up :

1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp dried mustard
3 tbs brown sugar

put about a spoonful of this delicious, harvene-ish, mixture on the top of each cup of meat and cook them at 350° until your thermo-meter tells you the insides have reached 165° (which took about 25 minutes in my oven)

i paired these little meat lovies with some blue cheese mashed potatoes (yukon gold potatoes, skin on [i cook mine in half broth, half water.] cut them up, cook them until they are soft. drain, return to pan to cook off some of that water. butter, fat free cream, 4 ounces of blue cheese, and a hand masher = yum!)

my husband seriously said, "i can't wait until you make these again next week!" slow down, bossy husband. slow down!

the nice thing about these is that they are adaptable to different flavors. sage stove top + marinara sauce topping would probably be all sorts of awesome and win. cornbread stove top + jalapenos + i am still thinking of a sauce = delicious! they really are good.

cup of meat cheers!!

ham fried goodness

a few nights back i made a delicious stir fry that i placed over quinoa. at that time i had me an idea - i love ham fried rice, ham fried rice is not good for me, maybe if i made extra quinoa i could use that in the place of rice and conjure myself up a beautiful ham fried quinoa that gave me all of the protein and none of the guilt. turns out, yes! yes, i can.

and so, with my leftover quinoa, i designed a new and improved fried 'rice' that tastes absolutely amazing. if you are still trying to figure out if you are a quinoa person, but you love brown rice, you will never know the difference! choose your own vegetables, saute them along with some chicken or ham (i love ham!), add in some leftover quinoa ('round 8 or so minutes, all together), and cook it all over medium or so heat until they start to taste great. push all of that to the side and add in a few eggs, scrambled, and cook them until they are almost done, but still a bit runny. mix together. add in enough soy sauce that you feel good about yourself, and if you have it on hand (i always do) a bit of sesame oil really pushes this dish over the edge. get everyone in the pan acquainted, give your husband the evil eye, tell him it sucks, and eat it all yourself so you don't have to share.

delicious! healthy! and eaaassssyyyy.

my good idea turned out great. go me. :)