Double-Duty Meatballs + Meatloaf

NOTE: My food stylist was unavailable due to stay at home orders. 😂 Please excuse this semi-unappealing photo. I promise these were mouth-watering good! // Now that the weather is heating up, meatballs and meatloaf just don’t sound as appealing as they did a week ago … but the truth is, the weather can change in an instant, and sometimes comfort food sounds great when you’re hunkered down in an air conditioned home. And if you have meat about to go bad in the fridge, consider making this recipe to freeze for cooler temps/above mentioned AC conditions. I used ground turkey and ground pork Italian sausage, but use what you have in the realm of these ingredients. Half the fun of cooking is experimenting, after all!

DOUBLE-DUTY MEATBALLS + MEATLOAF

INGREDIENTS:
1 lb. ground turkey
1 lb. ground pork Italian sausage
1 ½ cups panko breadcrumbs
1 egg
A couple heaping tablespoons dijon mustard
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
A few dashes of worcestershire sauce
⅓ cup (ish) grated parmesan cheese
Herbs: I used about ⅓ to ½ cup fresh herbs; rosemary, parsley, oregano, thyme (use what you like/have on hand), chopped
(NOTE: If you don’t have fresh herbs, use about 1/3 the amount of dried as fresh)
Salt & fresh ground pepper
Ketchup (for the meatloaf) 
INSTRUCTIONS:
Grease a loaf pan with cooking spray and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. If you’d like to add another egg, just increase the amount of panko breadcrumbs you add into the mixture. If it seems too runny or too thick, you can adjust by adding more breadcrumbs or cheese (if not thick enough), or another egg (if it seems too thick). Maybe you have a favorite meatball/meatloaf ingredient (I like to add blue cheese, for example), just toss it in.

Next, divide the mixture in two.

For the meatballs: Roll mixture into small balls, about the size of golf balls. I use a kitchen scoop to make my meatballs uniform, which helps in the cooking process.