One more for last week

Again I'm late, and again, it is a horrible picture. (I will be really glad when it stops being pitch black at 5pm at night so I can go back to taking some more reasonable pictures!)

Sunday was cold and the end of a very long weekend, filled with company and overnight guests and too much to do. I didn't really want to cook but forced myself to go with my plan ahead of meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Homey and with lots of left overs.

My recipe of choice for the meatloaf came from The Food Network and a show I had seen a few weeks back, Good Deal with Dave Lieberman. In it he made three make ahead meals that were easy on the budget and allowed for lots of left overs for a busy week. Just what we'd had and just what we needed.

I specifically wanted the turkey meatloaf recipe as I hadn't made any kind of meatloaf for awhile and hadn't used a specific recipe for any of those. Mostly meatloaf is a recipe I tend to just do by the seat of my pants. Or the contents of my fridge and pantry.

I was a little leary about trying a red pepper sauce after the fiasco that was red pepper pasta sauce a few months back but decided that since it wasn't going to be the feature flavor, I could risk it. And as luck would have it, my local grocery store actually had ground turkey in (doesn't happen that often) and specially packaged up the amount I wanted.

This was a good choice. It came together quickly, smelled lovely while baking (even my husband complimented the smell of dinner cooking) and was enjoyed all around. (One exception - oldest son was sick so picked at his veggies but chose to go to bed early instead. I find it amusing that my children tend to eat their veggies first at dinner time.) Left overs the next day were also quite good - the meatloaf had a bit of a warm kick to it, from the cayenne pepper in it.

So total new recipes (from actual books/magazines) is well above my required one.

Wonder if I can keep that up?