turkey-loaf cupcakes

As of lately we have been trying to eat better and limit our eating out to once a week.... Which is a very difficult task for me because my family eats out ALL THE TIME. The hubs has it a little bit easier because his mom is Martha Stewart in the flesh and blood and made him meals three times a day when he was growing up. Along with our eating-better goal, I have limited my meat intake to just chicken and turkey. It's just a personal choice, plus I feel a lot better when I don't eat red meats or pork. My husband still eats other meats and so does my son, but they are kind of forced on the limited-meat diet because I am the cook in our household.

Tonight, I made turkey-loaf cupcakes. They were soooooooo good. I tried cooking with ground turkey once making turkey burgers and I did not like them, but this recipe is a total keeper. It's a modified version of the Six Sisters' Stuff Meatloaf Cupcakes recipe so if you want to make it with ground beef check out that recipe... But the turkey ones are pretty good. :)

Turkey-loaf Cupcakes
1/2 of a large yellow onion
2 celery stalks
2 carrots
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3 garlic cloves (the original recipe calls for 2, I used 3 small cloves)
1/2 cup of ketchup
1 1/4 pound of extra lean ground turkey
1 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
2 tablespoons of mustard
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 eggs

For the Glaze:
1 cup of ketchup
1 heaping tablespoon of brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon of dry mustard

For the Mashed Potatoes:
3 large russet potatoes
1/2-1 cup milk
1/2-1 cup sour cream
1 stick of butter
garlic powder, pepper, and sea salt to season

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

2. Put onion, carrot, celery, oregano, and garlic into a food processor until chopped to your liking. Personally, I am not a huge fan of super chunky meat loaf, so my veggies get a really good chopping. While the veggies are going in the processor, put the olive oil in a skillet to heat up. After the oil is heated through your veggies in there and give them a good sauté.

3. Combine the sautéed veggies, 1/2 cup of ketchup, and remaining ingredients into a bowl and give it a good mixing.

4. Combine the ingredients for the glaze in a small separate bowl and stir until the brown sugar is dissolved. Set aside.

5. Spray a cupcake pan with vegetable oil spray and scoop the meat mixture into the cups. Make sure you are completely filling the cups. After the cups are filled, glaze the tops of the meat with the ketchup glaze. Pop them in the oven for about a half an hour or so.

6. While the turkey-loaf cakes are in the oven, bring a pot of water to a boil. Peel and cut up potatoes and boil them for about 20 minutes.

7. When the potatoes are soft remove them from the heat and drain out the water. Add the rest of the mashed potato ingredients and mix either by hand or by electric mixer.

8. When the the turkey loaf cakes are done, carefully remove them from the pan and then scoop some mashed potatoes on them. If you want to get super fancy-pants you can put mashed potatoes in a pastry bag and make your mashed potatoes look like frosting.

9. ENJOY! :)

Note: I chose mashed potatoes because I had some russet potatoes that needed to be eaten. Mashed sweet potatoes would probably be a good choice as well.



After I made them, and B & his dad devoured them, I went to put the left overs in the fridge. I have no idea what exactly I did, but my clumsiness got the best of me and the pups scored big time!

{Guess they thought they were pretty yummy too!}

{B wanted his picture taken once I took a picture of the pups.}