Cooking with Chef Tess Video Meatloaf Turkey Cups 3 Ways

Here you go everyone! Episode One of Season Two! Each cup is around 50 calories and 2 net carbs and loaded with veggies! We love them. A lot.

Please feel free to share this video with your friends and family. We really want to get the word out that it is now available. 


Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

Meatloaf Turkey Muffin Cups Three Ways--Freezer Meals from Cooking With Chef Tess

Season TWO of my show will be airing on Heartland TV  in Las Vegas on channels 34.2 and on Cox cable channel 97 every Saturday at 1:30 pm starting June 24th! YES!!!!

There are several Heartland TV Affiliate Stations Nationally and we are hoping that we'll soon be on the network across the country We also filmed several one minute tutorial videos that will be airing on cox cable across the southwest starting in July. We'll keep everyone posted as those details are made public.

As for Saturday, here's the recipe:

Time-Saving Meatloaf Turkey Cups Made 3 Ways!

 Pepperoni Pizza Meatloaf Muffin Cup 

 French Onion Meatloaf Muffin Cup

Chimichurri Meatloaf Muffin Cup

Chef Tess Meatloaf Muffins

2 pounds ground lean turkey sausage

1 medium onion, cut into chunks

1 green pepper, chopped

2 large egg

1 cup Organic Grains 7 grain rolled cereal ---here

1 Tbsp. Chef Tess All Purpose Seasoning

1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

Put ground beef into a big bowl. Put onion and green pepper in blender. Pulse the blender to finely chop the vegetables into very small pieces then add them to the meat bowl. Add egg, bread crumbs and grill seasoning to the bowl. Next, mix together the smoky barbecue sauce, the salsa and the Worcestershire sauce. Pour half the sauce mixture into the bowl with the meatloaf mix. Mix the meatloaf together with your hands. Wash up.

Divide between 24 muffin tins sprayed with non-stick spray Use an ice cream scoop to help you fill meat into each tin. Bake 350° 20-25 minutes. Over 165 degrees internal temperature. When fully baked, top 8 of each of the meatloaf muffins with a spoonful of a flavor variation. 

Flavor Variations  

French onion

1 onion, chopped
1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 Tbsp. minced garlic

1 tsp lemon zest

½ cup beef broth

Saute onions in olive oil until golden brown. Add remaining ingredients and simmer until thick. 

Pepperoni Pizza

Spaghetti sauce

Pepperoni

Mozzarella

Italian Seasoning

As needed. Top each meatloaf with sauce, cheese, and pepperoni. 

 Chimichurri

If you're not familiar with it...Chimichurri is a sauce that is traditionally used as a marinade for meat in Central and South America. I almost want to call it a vinaigrette based pesto if I over simplify what it is.  I fell in love with it the first time it's flavors were unleashed on my pallet! It really lends a powerful punch of flavor and there are hundreds of variations on the internet.  This one is special because it is what I use for meat, but also for vegetarian dishes like this cheesy grain casserole.  I simply stir 1 cup of the prepared sauce into the base recipe and top it with roasted garlic.  Suddenly, everyone can't stop eating the meatloaf!

Chef Tess' Chimichurri Sauce1/3 cup red wine vinegar
2T fresh lime juice
1/2 tsp kosher salt
4-5 cloves garlic
1 shallot
1/2 jalapeno, seeded
1 cup minced fresh cilantro
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp dry oregano
1/4 tsp ground cumin
Combine all ingredients in a covered food processor and pulse until smooth.

Freezing Instructions:
Cool completely, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet or plate and freeze until solid. Transfer to a gallon sized freezer bag. Label well. with cooking instructions.

Heating and Serving:
Reheat in microwave from frozen, about 2 minutes each muffin. Or, bake in oven 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Today we are going to serve  them over mashed potatoes with plenty of fresh micro-greens. 

My Fitness Pal Recipe Nutritional information Yield 24 servings, 57 calories each, 2 carbs, 2 gram of fat, 10 grams protein, 


Special thanks to our friends at Organic Grains.com for ingredients and financial support to help make this show possible. We are so very thankful for all you've done for our family here at Chef Tess Bakeresse.

Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

Personal Italian Meatloaves with Olives and Sun-dried Tomatoes

On Monday I did a cooking segment with Fox 10 here in Phoenix. If any of you had the chance to watch, it was a lot of serious fun and, as always I giggled way more than I should. If you've never been inside a TV studio, this is the view from my side of the cooking table. As promised, I am posting the Italian meatloaves today. They are a nice little freezer meal to have on hand for personal portions. They're awesome for lunches, dinners, and any crazy cooking emergency. Just right in fact for any TV cook who happens to forget the main portion of her ingredients in a big red bag in the fridge that should have been taken to the studio, but in this case made her husband almost die of a heart attack and drive at break neck speeds to get said bag to her in time for the segment. When bags don't arrive...these are perfect. Yes. Even if the bag arrives with only five minutes to spare...plan B is still amazing. Amazing enough to go forward with anyway in front of all the morning viewers. How many people live in Phoenix anyway? I happen to know that figure. It's 1,567,453. The Phoenix-Mesa metropolitan area has a population of 4,281,899 (as of 2008) making it the 12th largest metropolitan area in the USA. I don't know how many are in the surrounding cities that watch the show, but...I'm just saying. These little guys are good.

I served them with some simple home grown spinach and fresh pressed garlic. Sauteed with the meatloaves. My son picked the spinach that morning. Isn't he sweet?

Chef Tess' Personal Italian Meatloaves

2 lb spicy lean turkey sausage

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup vital wheat gluten (by the yeast on the baking aisle)

1/2 cup minced onion

1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes

1T fennel seed

1T minced fresh garlic

1/4 cup tomato paste

4 oz part skim mozzarella cheese

1 Roma tomato, sliced in 12 thin slices

12 green olives, pitted

6 black marinated olives

1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine turkey sausage, oats, onion, gluten, sun-dried tomato, fennel, garlic and tomato paste until completely mixed. Divide mixture between 12 muffin cups. I use silicone muffin pans because they can go from the oven to the fridge/freezer and make removing the meatloaf a very simple process. When I'm ready to bake, I take half of the cheese and cut it into 12 cubes to go inside the meatloaf. Then I pinch the meat mixture around the cheese cube.

Bake 25-30 minutes. While they bake, slice the remaining cheese into 12 small slices, along with slicing the olives in half. Take the meatloaves out of the oven and top with a slice of cheese and one small slice of tomato. Sprinkle with parsley. Cheese will melt slightly.

Top with olives. Place in fridge and allow to cool. Transfer to freezer safe bags. Yield 12 personal meatloaves.

To serve: Defrost overnight in the fridge or place frozen meatloaf on a microwave safe plate. Microwave on high 2 minutes for one loaf, or 5-7 minutes for 4. To heat from frozen in the oven, place in personal ramekins or oven safe dishes, top with a few tablespoons of marinara sauce, and bake 350 degrees 15-20 minutes, until heated through or internal temperature of 170 degrees.

There you go.