From BBQ weather to meatloaf weather in one day. Gotta love Spring!!

Ok, so we went from lovely 70's-ish weather to really rather cool and rainy over night. I love warming up the house via heat from the oven, and it's definitely a bit chilly in here, so meatloaf it is! I like to serve mine with mashed potatoes (that's a gimme, right?), steamed broccoli and maybe some salad to cut through all that heaviness. I love that meatloaf is kind of a convenient comfort food- regardless of what you have in the house, if you have ground meat, you can fashion some kind of loaf out of it... and you don't need buns or pasta like you would if you were going to make burgers or meatballs.

On to the loaf- I make a mixed meat loaf, using turkey meat and beef because it lightens the loaf, provides a better protein to fat ratio, and makes everyone in the house happy. You can easily just use all beef, or change the ratio. Also, so you know this is a rather Italian inspired loaf. I included green onions for color and some bright onion-y flavor.

Here is the recipe for this evening:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine the following:
1 1/4 lbs. ground turkey (I use 93/7)
1 lb. ground beef (I use 80/20)
1/3 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. powdered garlic
1/4 tsp. dried, powdered oregano
1/4 tsp. dried, powdered sage
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes, chopped (I use the jarred kind in oil, with "Italian Herbs")
4 green onions, sliced
1/2 cup ketchup
3 tablespoons each finely grated parmesan and asiago
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/3 cup shredded mixed cheese (I had Sargento shredded "Mexican Cheese", so I used that. If you don't have any extra cheese, just skip this step.)

Mix it all together. Place half into a loaf pan, make a pile of cheese down the middle of the loaf forming kind of a log shape. Finish by topping with the rest of the meat, top with more ketchup (about 1/4 cup) spreading it to cover the top of the meat. Bake for about 90 minutes, checking after one hour to see how it's doing. It should be pulled away from the pan, juicy and reach an internal temp of about 180 when done. While that's cooking, start working on your side dishes. Let it rest for about ten minutes while you finish your side dishes. Enjoy!

P.S. It's excellent the next day cold on some good sturdy bread with mustard. YUM!!