The Beginning and Italian Turkey Meatloaf

     In January 2009, I made a New Year's Resolution to enjoy cooking dinner and actually make dinner every night.  I spent countless hours making up grocery lists and menus for six weeks which I would rotate.  Well, turns out I didn't really like my recipes enough to make them over and over.  I quickly stopped using my handy dandy (okay, someone has had too much of Blue's Clues lately) lists and menus and resorted to surfing the Internet for hours at a time looking for new, exciting, simple and healthy recipes.  HA. 

     Before I made my New Year's Resolution about dinner two years ago, my good friend lent me the cook book that she LOVES.  I flipped through it, didn't see any pictures to go along with the meals and gave it back to her.  (I know, really mature, right)   So, this year for my birthday, my friend went out on a limb and bought me the book for my birthday.  She was even going to try and take photos to go with each recipe so I would try it......but, upon turning 35 I have become much more grown-up and I think I can handle a cookbook without the pictures. 

     Because I think it was such a thoughtful gift AND my dinners are still seriously lacking AND these recipes are pretty healthy AND they come with a grocery list for a week of dinners, I have decided to cook each and every recipe....thus making it "My Own Julie and Julia".  One of my weaknesses is flipping through a cookbook and thinking, "No, that doesn't sound that good, don't have the ingredients for that one, that will take way too much time, that will be too much work...."   I'm hoping that by blogging about it, I will be more inspired to continue with it even after week 3 or 4 (when I usually piddle out).   I am not going to go in the exact order of the book, however it does start with Fall Recipes...yes, they are even organized into seasonal meals....how cool is that.  I will probably occasionally cook something of my own, but I am determined to try each and every recipe in this book....then I can document what I liked or didn't like about it, etc. 

     So, for those of you who also DON'T love dinner time, you are probably dying to know what the name of this cookbook is.  It is called, Saving Dinner by Leanne Ely.  You can also see more about her book(s)at SavingDinner.com   As much as I have hated cooking in the past, I am slowly realizing how important it is to feed my family something healthy and get us together as a family every night. 

     Without further adieu, let me tell you about my first dinner from her book:  "Italian Turkey Meatloaf".  This morning Hyrum and I headed to the WinCo.  I was able to get pretty much everything on my list with a little help from the butcher.  I think that is another one of my hangups, I never know which roast to buy or which cut....but this book tells you EXACTLY what to get.  I will admit I would not have normally chosen to cook this recipe just because I have some negative association with meatloaf from my childhood (no offense, Mom). 
     Around 4:15 I started preparing dinner.  Yep, wish I would have read the ENTIRE recipe and I could have seen that it has to bake for over an hour.  Luckily, I fed the kids a snack and they were able to hold out until 6:00 (an hour past our regular dinnertime).  The only other icky part of the recipe was using your hands to mix the turkey burger and the sausage.  I think I handled it pretty well.    I will admit that my meatloaf was not the prettiest sight, but it was good.  Layne said it tasted like something from Johnny Carino's (I will take that as a compliment).  My boys LOVED it and Kennedy managed to choke some down after asking if I put meat in it.  She is pretty sensitive to textures, smells and strong tastes. 

Will I Make it Again?  Yes.  However, I think that I may make it into meatballs and serve it with pasta.   I am not going to post each and every recipe, but I will post them or email them if people request them.  Now I have enough for leftovers tomorrow so I might not be trying a new recipe until Friday.  Wish me luck!