A (slightly) healthier Meatloaf

My husband enjoys a good meatloaf. By good I mean, the greasiest, juiciest loaf you can find. He loves red meat. In the past 5 years, I have tried converting my family to ground turkey. It worked for a while until hubs decided it was playing games with his digestive system *insert an eye roll here*. I’d sarcastically ask “Are you sure it’s not the Taco Bell tacos or the Wendy’s cheeseburgers that are causing the trouble?”  

If the meal was easy enough, I’d prepare one with ground turkey for the kids and myself and a smaller one with ground beef for hubs. Meals like spaghetti, goulash or tacos. Kind of a hassle but he wouldn’t eat it if he discovered it was turkey. Yes, I did try to fool him a few times and a few times it worked. But then he started asking me straight up if the meal was made with turkey or beef.  So it was back to 100% beef for him. Honestly, at that point I began making fewer meals that included beef/turkey. 

A few months ago I started a new fitness program. You can read about it HERE. This amped up my desire to get hubs to eat healthier. I encourage him every week to cook with less butter, use less cheese and so on and so on. Sometimes the encouragement works and other times it pisses him off. On a recent trip to the grocery store I suggested meatloaf with ½ beef (the leanest) and ½ ground chicken. After some thought, he agreed! Win!! 

What you’ll need:

½ lbs ground beef (93%)

½ lbs ground turkey or chicken

1 cup 100% whole wheat bread

1 egg

½ cup onion, chopped

¼ cup mushrooms, chopped

1 tbsp parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

1 large tomato, diced

Mix together ground meat. Come on… use your hands, get ‘em dirty. Set aside.

Tear about 1 ½ slices of bread into small pieces, this makes about 1 cup (give or take). Add the egg to the bread crumbs and stir it. Add bread/egg combo to the meat and mix. Add the chopped onions and mushrooms, mix. Add seasonings and mix again.

Preheat oven to 375°. Prepare a loaf pan with foil and cooking spray. Press the meat into the pan.

Bake for 45 minutes. Meat must reach 165°. 

Spread tomatoes over the top of the meatloaf (photo taken before I did that... oops!). Serve with mashed or baked sweet potatoes and side of asparagus.