Today, while sitting in beach traffic, I used my time to think about how I wanted to make a lighter version of meatloaf, a summer meatloaf, if you will.  I knew I wanted to use ground turkey instead of ground beef for this one and I also knew that I wanted to add a jar of pesto for moisture. I love traditional meatloaf with ground beef and tomato paste and all the yummy ingredients that we put in our meatloaf, but today I wanted to come up with a lighter version.  I’ve made turkey meatloaf with the traditional seasonings you put into a meatloaf made out of ground beef many times, however, I really wanted to try something new.  What I came up with was something I’m pretty proud of.

I started with two pounds of ground turkey. Using my Cuisinart 7-cup food processor, I minced up enough day old sourdough baguette to give me one cup. I set the bread aside after I processed it and then put two shallots and four cloves of garlic into the food processor (I did not want large chunks of shallot or garlic). I pulsed it until it was basically a paste.  The paste of shallots and garlic were added to my bowl with the ground turkey. I then emptied an 8.5 ounce jar of drained sundried tomatoes into my food processor and pulsed that into a paste.  This went into the meat mixture along with a 6.7 ounce jar of prepared pesto.  One tablespoon of whole grain dijon mustard, one tablespoon of kosher salt and a half tablespoon of ground pepper were added to my mixture along with the bread crumbs.  I mixed everything together gently with a fork and added the zest and juice of one lemon, mixing it gently again.  I formed my meatloaf into a loaf onto a baking sheet and put it into a preheated 375 degree oven for an hour and 10 minutes.

I served this marvelous meatloaf topped with a little lemon zest and for the sides I made roasted green beans (which my daughter told me if I make them the way I did tonight, she will always eat her vegetables!) and basmati rice seasoned with nothing more than salt and a bit of lemon zest.  I was working in my flower garden all day, so decided to make easy, yet flavorful side dishes.

I think this is also going to make for a wonderful sandwich in my husband’s lunch tomorrow.  I hope he thinks so too.  Dennis told me at dinner that this is his new favorite meatloaf.  This means he really loved it! I will let you know, I am known for my meatloaf.

Until next time, Kris