I know, I know, I know… I need a better camera. This doesn’t really look incredibly appetizing, but it was. Roasted garlic smashed potatoes, parmesan peas, and Turkey Meatloaf in Mushroom Gravy.

Here’s a photo of some roasted garlic, which is easy to make. Peel off some, but not all, of the skins on a bulb of garlic. Chop off the very top, place in a baking dish, and cover in olive oil. Cover the whole thing in foil and bake at 375-400 for 45 minutes or so.

OK- I know I’m not the best photographer, and I don’t have a great camera, so my turkey meatloaf might not look amazing to you, but it tastes great. Trust me.

I started by chopping a large yellow onion, 2 carrots, and one shallot. I added them to a hot pan with 2 TB olive oil- first the onions to let them soften, next the carrots to soften, and finally the shallot and some freshly cracked black pepper. I cooked this down a little while preparing a homemade veggie broth, which I needed for the onion mixture as well as the gravy. Please feel free to use canned or pre-made veggie broth. I make my own, which adds an hour or so to the cooking process, but I usually have extra to use during the week.

For the veggie broth:

Simmer in a large stock pot filled with water- an onion, a couple carrots, some celery, 5 cloves of garlic (I like to smash mine), 1 TB whole peppercorns, a few bay leaves, a green onion, and some red pepper flakes. This is what I used for this particular recipe, but making a stock isn’t rocket science. You can add more of this, less of that.. whatever you prefer. When it has cooked for an hour or so, I add a few tablespoons of soy sauce.

Back to the meatloaf…

When my onion and carrot mixture was nice and soft, I removed it from the heat to let it cool. When the broth had cooked for at least 30 minutes, I ladled a cup or so into the onion and carrot mixture and mixed it well. Set this aside to cool completely because it will be mixing with raw poultry.

When the onion mixture cools completely, mix it by hand with a cup of parmesan cheese, 2 TB olive oil, and two whole eggs into the ground turkey. Break up a cup or a cup and a half of French or Italian bread (bakery-fresh bread is best) and add it to the turkey mixture. Transfer this to an olive-oiled Pyrex baking dish, brush the top with a couple spoons full of tomato sauce, and bake at 425 for 10 minutes. Then drop the temperature to 375 and bake until it reaches 180 degrees in the center, approximately an hour.

I served mine with mushroom gravy.

To make the gravy, first saute 1/2 of a yellow onion in 1 TB unsalted butter. Let that start to caramelize on medium-high, then medium-low, for 15 minutes or so. You can go ahead and caramelize the onions completely, but I was getting hungry and wanted to get on with this meal, so I let mine soften into a nice golden brown.

Next, add 2 cups sliced and somewhat chopped cremini mushrooms and let these get nice and soft. You can turn the heat back up to medium-high as they cook down. When they have decreased half of their size, add 2 cups of veggie broth (I used my freshly made stock), and stir in 1/2 TB cornstarch as a thickener. When the gravy reaches a nice gravy-like consistency, pour it over you meatloaf and enjoy.

I had some pizza dough in the freezer, and left-over turkey meatballs in my homemade sauce, so it was easy to throw together a pizza with sliced pepper and fresh mozzarella cheese.

I am mostly vegetarian. I was a strict vegetarian for years, and a few years ago, while living abroad, I decided I needed to start eating chicken in order to be able to eat since there was no such thing as “vegetarian” food in Bolivian villages. I am not a big fan of chicken right now for lots of reasons not worth getting into here on my blog. However, I do enjoy turkey, especially ground turkey, which I use to make turkey meatballs.

I would love to say that I go so far as to grind my own turkey. I don’t. I buy ground turkey from Whole Foods that already comes with salt, pepper, parmesan cheese, and a few other herbs. I make some meatballs with it, pan fry them in a little olive oil until they are brown on all sides, and them pour in some red wine, cover the pan, and let them cook on medium until they are almost cooked through in their red wine gravy.

Meanwhile, I make a homemade sauce.

For my sauce:

Start by sautéing a yellow onion in some red wine on medium high until it is soft. Then add two 28 ounce cans of whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes. Start to break the tomatoes in pieces with a spoon as you stir. It may take a while to break these down, but just keep going back to the pot over the course of the next 30 minutes or so, breaking them down each time you stir.

After adding the tomatoes, keep the heat of medium high until it starts to boil. Then add 3-4 cloves chopped garlic, stir, and turn down the heat to medium low. Then add some fresh ground pepper, some sea salt, and stir well. Sometimes I add a pinch of raw sugar, but I’m not sure you need to.

Let this simmer until the meatballs are ready to be added. Then turn the heat back up to medium high. Add some fresh chopped basil and stir. All of the tomatoes should be at least coarsely chopped by now. Add the meatballs, and all of their juices, into the pot, mix well, and let it boil for 10-15 minutes to be sure all of the turkey is cooked.

Enjoy with whatever you like. I just had mine in a bowl with some warm bread olive oil and basil.