Well lucky me! I’m doing one of my favorite things in the world; vacation cooking. We’re in the mountains for a couple of days and I packed the cooler with supplies for a delicious dinner last night that would yield leftovers for a picnic while driving and hiking around today. The menu was a family favorite, turkey meatloaf, potatoes au gratin and green beans with sesame dressing. You could just as easily use beef or a combination of beef and veal for your meatloaf, but this is the one we love and the consistency is just perfect after an overnight stay in the refrigerator for sandwiches the next day.
While this meatloaf is great vacation food, but it’s nice for family night or casual entertaining because you can make everything ahead, really it takes about 10 minutes to assemble, and put it in the oven an hour before serving time. Sometimes when I make this for a crowd, I cook the meatloaf in muffin tins so everyone gets their own little individual meatloaf and more crispy outside pieces, the best part. But for us, it was a nice free form meatloaf with bacon on top. Meatloaf just looks sad on the plate without some kind of potatoes, and if you don’t have time for another recipe, baked potatoes are just spectacular with meatloaf. In fact I’m sort of wishing I’d served baked potatoes and had an extra one this morning for hash browns. Oh well, no one will starve here with meatloaf sandwiches for lunch. Don’t wait for vacation; this could be your perfect Sunday night supper!
Ingredients
1½ lb ground turkey (don’t use 99% fat free, it’s too dry)
4 slices of bread, any kind, torn in small pieces
1/4 cup buttermilk or milk
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 Tbsp olive or canola oil
1 egg
1½ tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp oregano
optional: several dashes of hot sauce
Topping
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup ketchup
1 Tbsp mustard
4 to 6 slices of bacon, cut in half
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil.
In a large bowl, soak bread pieces in buttermilk or milk.
Sauté onion and garlic in oil until soft, about 5 minutes. (If you’re in hurry or feeling lazy, you can skip this step, the onions cook in the meatloaf, but aren’t as sweet and caramelized.)
Add onions and garlic to the bowl with bread.
Add turkey, egg, and seasonings and mix together with your hands.
On foil lined baking sheet, shape meat mixture into the shape of a loaf of bread.
Mix brown sugar, ketchup, and mustard.
Spread evenly over meatloaf.
Top with bacon.
Bake for about an hour until bacon is crispy and browned and meatloaf is firm. *see note
Let sit for 10 minutes, slice and serve.
*After about 30 minutes drain accumulating juice in the meatloaf pan and repeat after 15 more minutes if needed.
For next day sandwiches we like whole wheat bread, with mayo, sliced cheese and lettuce- pickles on the side.
