Karen’s Turkey Meatloaf Muffins

(My adaptation/combination of several different turkey meatloaf recipes)

Makes 36 muffins @ 120 calories each

3 pkgs. (20oz each) Ground Turkey 93/7
3 large Eggs, lightly beaten
3 cups old fashioned Oats
4 Tbsp Dried Minced Onions
3.5 cups (entire 10oz bag) frozen chopped Green Bell Peppers
3 tsp. Minced Garlic
1.5 cups diced Carrots
1.75 cups diced Celery
1 cup Open Pit Original BBQ Sauce

Preheat oven to 400°F.
Generously grease muffin pans.
Mix all ingredients with clean hands. (remove rings first)
Fill muffin cups to about 1/4″ from the top.
Bake at 400°F for 17-20 minutes until internal temp is at least 165°F.
Allow to cool then pack into freezer dishes with foil in between layers, allow to cool then freeze. This helps with portion control, counting calories and easy reheating of single portions.

I used frozen green peppers because that was easy and I had them already. I was out of frozen onions, so used dehydrated instead. Fresh could be used in both cases.

Enjoy!

Ok, we made and tested this recipe and it was good, “a keeper”. We all agreed we would totally make these again! So be brave and try something new. The meatloaf recipe would be easy to cut into 1/3 of the recipe if that is too much, I wanted to do a bit of investment cooking to have some to freeze.

I was cutting veggies for a salad that night anyway, so diced up the celery and carrots then got them made and baked also. The muffins can be quickly reheated or eaten cold. (Meatloaf is sometimes better cold.)

I wasn’t sure about the carrots in meatloaf myself but since I have no objections to eating carrots, I decided to try it as one recipe had zucchini AND carrots in it, you will note I didn’t bother even trying zucchini. I diced them smaller than 1/4 inch so they added color and flavor and were small enough to cook through. I was amazed how quickly the muffins baked!

See photos. I fit 6 in a layer, then used foil for next layer and it looks like I could have put in a 3rd layer, but figured 12 muffins per box was enough. This is a 64 oz/8 cup rectangular generic container. Love having these in lots of sizes around the house, they are very inexpensive and when they get gross you can throw them out guilt-free!