Bacon Wrapped Turkey Meatloaf

My love for bacon runs in the family.  My mom loves it, I love it, and I am sure that Chip loves it because I wanted it always while I was pregnant.

My love for turkey is a close second and although it can’t be Thanksgiving all year round, ground turkey is my way of saying “oh yes it can.”

Once we went to the Grand Canyon for Thanksgiving.  It was lovely.  It snowed, the canyon changed colors a hundred times during sunrise, and we had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner at one of the  Grand Canyon’s nicest restaurants.  And all I could think about was that there were no leftovers.

Grand Canyon. Leftovers.  Tough choice.

If I were to do it again, I would.  Expect I would purchase a few extra meals “to go” pretending I had a sick child or relative back at the room and I would mini fridge and microwave these meals for the rest of the trip.

Go ahead, call me classy.

And while this meatloaf is no throwback to Thanksgiving, it does have turkey and bacon, which in my book, is a winning combo.

Bacon Wrapped Turkey Meatloag

Ingredients:

1lb ground turkey

6 strips (or more if you want to go wild) of applewood smoked bacon

6-10 mushrooms

1 red bell pepper

2 eggs

3 slices of multigrain bread (or any kind of sandwich bread you have on hand)

2 tablespoons plus a few squirts of ketchup

olive oil for greasing casserole dish

1 loaf pan (optional)

1 large casserole dish

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coarsely chop red bell pepper and place into large bowl. Finely chop mushrooms and add to bell peppers. Cut slices of bread into small squares, and add them along with the turkey (uncooked) into the same large bowl as the mushrooms and pepper. Add eggs. Use hands to mix ingredients together, making sure that everything is incorporated. Add ketchup and continue to mix. Once all the ingredients are mixed together, place into loaf pan in order to mold the meatloaf in a "loaf shape". Turn loaf pan upside down, allowing meatloaf to fall out into greased casserole dish. Lay bacon on top of the meat loaf, where each strip is touching and only one layer covers the top of the meatloaf. Squirt ketchup across the top for garnish. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Enjoy!