Mini Feta Stuffed Turkey Meatloaf
Turkey Meatloaf Muffins are stuffed with feta cheese, sun dried tomatoes and shredded zucchini. Topped with a perfect glaze that doubles as extra dipping sauce, this mini stuffed turkey meatloaf recipe is a perfect kid friendly dinner that is ready in half the time of a traditional recipe.
My kids love anything shaped like a meatball! If it resembles a meatball, they are willing to try it! My oldest daughter has decided she doesn’t approve of feta cheese, but I know its the texture and not the taste that she doesn’t like. I set about to find a fun way to incorporate the taste of feta into a meal without her being worried about the texture.
These mini meatloaf muffins resemble a family favorite – meatballs! Topped with a sweet glaze, they are a fun and easy meal that I love to use to gently push my kids flavor boundaries. By adding a layer of feta cheese into the middle of these mini meatloaves, it is a great way to expose her to the flavor of feta without the texture.
Feta stuffed turkey meatloaf muffins
These meatloaf muffins are a great meal if you are looking for comfort food but you need something more weeknight friendly. Because these are individual sized, they are quicker to bake!
How to make feta stuffed mini meatloaf muffins
These meatloaf muffins are so simple to make. They are a lot faster than a traditional meatloaf because they don’t need as long to bake! Instead of spending an hour in the oven, these are ready to eat in about half the time.
To get the full recipe, please scroll down to the recipe card below, but here is a general idea of how to make these meatloaf muffins (because its always a good idea to have a general knowledge of how to make a recipe before you start to cook!)
- Preheat your oven and prepare your muffin pan by spraying it with non stick spray.
- Grate a zucchini on a large hole box grater and squeeze out the excess moisture.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground turkey, breadcrumbs, diced red onions, chopped sundried tomatoes, shredded zucchini, egg, milk, and spices.
- Fill each muffin well halfway with the meatloaf mixture.
- Sprinkle feta cheese over each mixture, and then top with the remaining meatloaf mixture.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the glaze ingredients. Remove half to another bowl and save.
- Spoon the remaining half of the sauce over each of the meatloaf muffins.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Allow the meatloaf to stand in the muffin pan for 5 minutes before serving!
Prepping ahead of time
These mini meatloaves can be prepped ahead of time to make dinner easier.
- You can mix up the glaze ahead of time and store it in the fridge in an airtight container until ready to use, up to a few days ahead.
- The onions and zucchini can be prepared ahead of time and stored in air tight container in the fridge.
- The spices and breadcrumbs can be measured ahead of time.
- If you are really short on time, these can be baked ahead of time and reheated easily, too!
How to serve Feta Stuffed Meatloaf Muffins to your family
These mini stuffed meatloaf muffins are simple to serve to your family.
- For younger kids: Cut the meatloaf muffin into bite sized pieces and serve with extra glaze as a dipping sauce on the side.
- For older kids: Serve these as is, with extra sauce. Because more sauce is always fun!
Serve these with mashed potatoes or cheesy rice and a colorful veggie side dish like easy roasted green beans.
How to make mini greek meatloaf muffins kid friendly
These mini meatloaves are a great kid friendly dinner. They have a pleasant taste and being individual servings makes them fun for kids! Even though these mini meatloaves have flecks of shredded zucchini, diced sundried tomatoes and crumbled feta cheese on the inside, these will be loved by your whole family.
Two great tips for making any meal kid friendly is to get them involved and interested in what you are serving. Try the following tips for getting your kids interested at the dinner table and in the kitchen.
Dinner conversations with kids
Dinner time is an excellent time to engage your kids in fun conversation surrounding your meals! This helps to take the emotional gut reaction of “Eeek! New food!” out of the equation and helps to bring about a more analytical processing of each component of dinner, which helps kids be curious enough to actually try it!
Try these conversation starters:
- What taste buds do you use for these mini meatloaf? Sweet, sour, etc? Do you use different taste buds for the meatloaf and the glaze or the same?
- We put brown sugar and apricot preserves in the glaze. Is it as sweet as you expected it to be?
- What is your favorite part of these stuffed mini meatloaves? What would you change if we made it again?
Read more about how to explore the sense of taste with your kids.
Kids in the kitchen: How your kids can help you cook
Getting your kids in the kitchen is an easy way to help them be more interested in trying new foods! This muffin tin meatloaf recipe is great because it helps kids learn to be more comfortable with different ingredients and they get to practice their measuring, mixing, and stirring.
This recipe is perfect for beginner cooks because it is so easy! And it is a great recipe for kids to experiment and become more comfortable with new flavors – which means they are more likely to eat it!
- Kids aged 1-3 can help you wash and dry the zucchini, pick parsley leaves off of the stems, and measure the ingredients out.
- Kids aged 4-6 can do everything above, plus help you chop the sun-dried tomatoes, grate the zucchini, squeeze the liquid out of the zucchini, and add the glaze to the top of the meatloaf muffins.
- Kids aged 7-10+ can help you do everything above, plus help you mix the meatloaf, and add the meatloaf to the muffin tin.
*Please note that these recommendations are generalized, and to please use your personal discretion with your child’s skill level. And always, always supervise! Read more about how to have your children help you in the kitchen.
Easy Kid Friendly Side Dish Recipes:
Other Kid Friendly Turkey Recipes:
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Feta Stuffed Turkey Meatloaf Muffins Recipe
Ingredients
- Meatloaf:
- 1 zucchini shredded and excess moisture squeezed out
- 1 lb ground turkey
- ½ cup breadcrumbs
- ½ cup diced red onion
- ¼ cup milk
- ¼ cup diced sun dried tomatoes packed in oil drained
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons oregano
- 1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 oz crumbled feta cheese
- Glaze:
- ½ cup tomato puree
- ¼ cup packed brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoons apricot preserves
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon ground mustard
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 F.
- Spray a muffin pan with non stick cooking spray and set aside.
- Grate a zucchini on a large hole grater. Collect the shredded zucchini into a pile and squeeze out as much excess liquid as you can, either with paper towels or a cheese cloth.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground turkey, breadcrumbs, onions, shredded zucchini, sun dried tomatoes, spices, egg and milk together (everything for the meatloaf muffins except the feta cheese!). Mix together but do not overmix.
- Fill each muffin cup half way with the meatloaf mixture.
- Add 1 tablespoon of feta cheese to each muffin well.
- Top the feta with the remaining meatloaf mixture. Fill each muffin well all the way, as much as you can!
- In a small bowl, whisk together the galze – the tomato puree, brown sugar, apricot preserves and mustard.
- Equally separate the glaze into two bowls. Save one bowl for a dpping sauce afterward.
- Take the remaining glaze and evenly spread over each muffin well.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Allow to sit for 5 minutes to cool before removing from the muffin pan and serving.
- Serve with the remaining glaze as a dipping sauce.
- Enjoy!
- Enjoy!
