Gluten Free Meatloaf

I almost hesitate to put "gluten free" in the title of this meal. Over the past almost two years, I've learned a few things about gluten free. One, it's trendy. For some reason, people think it's "cool" to eat gluten free. I told my boyfriend that and he about fell over. He said, "Why on Earth would people deliberately try to eat gluten free? It's a pain in the ass!" He's right. I've done quite a bit of research on the topic, and outside of an allergy or an intolerance, there is absolutely no reason to eat gluten free. There's nothing inherently "healthy" about eliminating gluten or wheat from your diet.

Now, that being said, you can make a very good argument that getting carbs from other places, such as vegetables, is going to be healther. I will not argue one bit that fruits and vegetables are more nutrient dense than wheat. But what I will say is that when people prepare gluten free recipes, they're usually substituting some version of a gluten free all purpose flour for the wheat to make the exact same dish. You will never convince me this is healthier than eating wheat. It's simply harder and more expensive. End of story.

Another thing I've learned about gluten free is that it's generally synonymous with "dry" or "gross." Prepackaged gluten free goods are disgusting. I've only tried a couple, they were incredibly expensive, and definitely not worth the money.

So, all this being said, I struggled calling it gluten free. I finally decided to go with it though, because there aren't really any amazing gluten free meatloaf recipes out there. Meatloaf works largely because of the bread crumbs. Sure, you could substitute gluten free bread crumbs, but I've already talked about why this would be a bad idea.

This recipe is sort of a hybrid of a couple of different recipes I came across. The one I liked the most was a paleo recipe I'd found using almond meal (which I substituted for cashews, of course), but it was far too calorie dense and far too expensive. It took a little experimenting, but here's the final product. My 16 year old son often complains about what I cook (I just want something fried with gluten!), but he absolutely loves this. He'll take his serving, wait until we get ours, then scarf his down and run back for more. I usually have to fight to have any left for lunch the next day. Win!

Ingredients:
2 lbs ground turkey (I use the 90/10)
1 sweet onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 T. olive oil
3 eggs, whisked
1/2 cup oat flour (grind oats up in a blender)
1 T. chili powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a loaf pan with foil and coat with cooking spray.

Drizzle olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add onion and bell pepper. Saute until tender. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Combine ground turkey, eggs, oat flour, and seasonings in a large mixing bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon or, my preferred method, use clean hands and just "smoosh" it all together. Add onion and pepper and smoosh to combine.

Press meat mixture into loaf pan. Use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to create a little space between the meat and sides of the pan. Bake for one hour, or until center reaches a temperature of 160 degrees. Lift the meatloaf from the pan using the sides of the foil. Let cool slightly, peel foil away from the loaf, then slice.

Makes 8 good size slices.