Turkey, thyme and leek meatloaf

One of the recipes on my menu planner for this week was the turkey, thyme and leek meatloaf from the December 2006 issue of the Good Food magazine.  This is another recipe that I have made quite a few times in the past, but I've never tried to work out how much it costs so I am interested in working out how much it costs.  Unfortunately I am not sure exactly how accurate my calculation of the cost will be as I bought the ingredients in Asda when I was visiting my parents house up north, but I think I will have a go anyway and convert the cost to Euro.

Turkey mince is not something that I have noticed for sale in my local shops, so if anyone reading this knows where I might be able to find some turkey mince I'd be grateful if you could point me in the right direction.  My local butcher doesn't sell it.  So, sometimes when I visit my parents I take a trip to Asda to buy some turkey mince specifically for this recipe.

I soften my leeks in a couple of squirts of fry lite instead of sunflower oil to lower the fat content and tend to use dried thyme instead of sprigs of fresh thyme.  Other than that I tend to stick closely to the recipe.  From previous experience I find that smoked bacon tastes a bit better on the top of the meatloaf than unsmoked.

The method of suggests putting the meatloaf under the grill to make the top crisp on top, however, I have found that it gets quite crispy in the oven so I've never bothered with this stage. 

The suggestion at the end of the recipe has tempted me a couple of the times in the past, but my husband has only recently started to eat butternut squash and cranberries so I haven't tried it yet.  I hope to try it sometime in the near future as I think the substitutions suggested sound delicious.

Cost - The turkey mince cost £1.98, the leeks cost £1 and the bacon was £1.  I had an egg, bread and dried thyme in and I've estimated 50p for them.  This brings the total cost to £4.48 which converts to €5.48 according the xe.com.  This feeds my family for two nights along with potatoes and vegetables.  This means that a meal for my family costs €4.20ish depending on what vegetables I serve.