Diamond-style Meatloaf & Tacos

I don't usually post about food unless it's sweets. Cupcakes, doughnuts, candy- those are my things. But after another "Taco Tuesday" at my house, I thought I'd write about two of my dinner staples that my picky eight year old really loves. I see the "what's for dinner" question on every message board and Facebook group I'm in, at least once a week. I never read those posts because I hate cooking and none of us are eating any of those suggestions. Since other people seem to like recommendations though, here I am.

So, I don't really cook. I've said this before. I normally eat Jenny Craig meals, B eats more exotic ones from Trader Joes, and E eats stuff I made and freeze individually, like my meatloaf. Truth be told, I don't think I ever even had meatloaf until I worked in a group home in the 90's where it was a weekly meal. I really liked it but I was in my twenties and not making any meatloaves. I never asked or cared how one makes it.

I really love mozzarella cheese. I like anything Italian-style, despite not being any drops Italian (thank you Ancestry and 23andMe). Anything with marinara, vodka sauce, and mozzarella cheese, I'm in.

I think it was when E was in kindergarten that we got really busy with after school activities and I needed quick dinner for him. And still, I need something quick I can just pull out for him. Or even me, in a pinch. I grab a box of Parmesan cous cous, cut up some raw veggies, and dinner is served. I started making turkey meatloaf from seeing it on The Biggest Loser (Jenny O!). Somehow my turkey meatloaf evolved into "Italian-style".

My recipe:
3 loaf pans (sometimes I just buy the 3pk of foil ones in the supermarket)
3 packages of ground turkey

Three of each thing- (one per loaf)
1 egg
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 to 3/4 cup marinara or some red sauce like garlic and oil, etc.
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese or fresh mozzarella
1 & 1/2 cups of Italian style bread crumb

Bake at 350 for like fifty-five min and then in the last five minutes (to make an hour) throw some shredded mozzarella on top. E doesn't want it without seeing the cheese on top. Whether you made one or three, cut into slices however thick you want, then wrap them all individually in Saran Wrap or in those plastic fold-over baggies. Put them in in a freezer bag and voila, separate dinner for anywhere from seven to twenty-one nights. Or more.

I know the sour cream and egg sounds weird in meatloaf but hear me out. For whatever reason, the egg supposedly holds it all together, and the sour cream keeps it moist enough so that when you defrost or heat up in the microwave, it doesn't dry out. It tastes just as good heated up as it does when it's first made. I believe that sour cream is magic in most anything. When I was a kid, my friend Adrienne's mom made pancakes the next morning after a sleepover. They were the best pancakes I've ever had to date. Adrienne moved to Texas in early middle school and I'm 43 now. What does that tell you? There also used to be my beloved Frozen Monkey in Hoboken that had sour cream apple pie. Best apple pie ever... So there you have it.

Now let's talk tacos. To anyone who really knows and loves Mexican food, this is going to sound blasphemous. I'm going to go on anyway. I do not like like typical tacos because I don't like taco sauce. It's not for me. It's too spicy. I like bland food. Anyone who knows me has joked that I will love the food in a nursing home. I don't know what made me try any tacos, but maybe my mom made them in her Rita-esque way which was probably something like mine. I've never had Taco Bell or anything. Maybe I had them in Texas at Uncle Julio's? I don't know. If I did, I probably asked for them to be plain.

One of the first time I made tacos, I think I was pregnant. I couldn't even LOOK at raw chicken breasts, but in my mind I was craving chicken tacos, which I'd never even had. I bought ground chicken and my recipe was born.

No taco sauce for me. But I couldn't leave the meat dry though. That would be gross. What could I make it wet with? You guessed it! Marinara. I threw some marinara on that ground chicken. Voila! Wet chicken! Not a lot of marinara, but enough to make it red and moist. Then I thought, I'm not going to use Mexican blend cheese with marinara, so I got back with old standby, shredded mozzarella.

I think I ate "chicken marinara tacos" every other day for many of the months I was pregnant. It's been nine years and I still can't look at raw chicken breasts without wanting to hurl. Now, I make it once in awhile, and my kid, who hardly eats anything, has been eating six to eight tacos per time. He's eating until he's stuffed. He's using Mexican cheese blend and B is adding sour cream (see, magic!) to his, but they LOVE Taco Tuesday in our house. Now, would B be just as happy with regular tacos with regular taco sauce? Probably. But for three people we're using two pounds of ground meat and it's all gone by the end of dinner.

Just as an FYI- E likes the crunchy taco "boat" shells- I think they're called "Fiesta Flats". I forget which brand but I like the Stand N Stuff which is the other brand.

Individual meatloaf slices