Turkey and Black Bean Chili

One of the winter staples in our house is chili. I look for the healthiest way to make it so to keep fat an calories to a minimum. I can't say that I have done that necessarily but I like to think I did!

I start with ground turkey meat that I cook in a few table spoons of butter. I find that you need some fat and prefer real butter to oils or margarine. On a side note, I have a friend who cooks their chili meat in coconut oil - I've not tried that myself but I understand it can be somewhat strong. While the meat is cooking, I put a large can of crushed tomatoes and a 14 oz (or roughly that size) can of Hunt's Fire Roasted diced tomatoes into the crock pot which I set to low (I'll put it on high if I'm making it a 2-3 hours before dinner). Once that's going I drain and rinse a 14 oz can of organic black beans and let them sit to drain all the water out.

Back to the turkey - when it's almost done cooking, I add grated garlic, chopped onion, cumin, cayenne pepper, paprika, and chili powder then the black beans. I do not have an exact amount of seasonings, I dump the spices (eyeball what I prefer) then adjust to taste after everything is cooked. That gets mixed together and cooks a bit longer. Once it's browned I add the meat and beans to the tomatoes. This is the perfect time to do a little taste test to add spices to your preference. We are not super spice eaters, specifically due to L and C. One thing to try, which I did not do tonight, would be to add some cocoa powder, it makes the chili richer - it does not taste like chocolate! It is very good, keep in mind the color of the chili will be darker. If you've never tried it, you really should - you'll like it!

Once the chili is almost done, I add salt and pepper to taste.

When I put the chili in bowls, I add shredded cheddar cheese, avocado and sour cream. Very tasty!

Enjoy - Be Well!

Grilled Corn Salad and Fried Boiled Potatoes

It has been a very long time since I've "really" cooked. I was very excited to try two new recipes last night. I should mention they are both from Michael Symon's cookbook "Carnivore".

The first was my take on his Grille Corn Salad (pg 217 in his book). I currently do not have any gas in my grill or fresh corn on the cob so I used steam fresh corn from the freezer section. I combined the juice and zest of three limes with an avocado, roughly one cup one cherry tomatoes sliced in half, a clove of garlic that I minced and salt - I forgot the olive oil, scallions and cilantro - and I would not use the anchovies simply because it's not for me!

I mixed all the ingredients together then added to cooked corn - it is soooooo good! The lime was pretty powerful so I may think I'd use a little less. I think if I had remembered the additional things I forgot, I imagine it will be that much better!

The second I made was Chef Symon's Spicy Fried Potatoes (pg240) - minus the dipping sauce. This is easiest thing to make - ever! Boil the potatoes (small Yukon gold with the skins on) until they are tender, similar to making mashed potatoes, let them cool and then smoosh them so they stay in tact but aren't as large and thick, then fry them for a few minutes on each side. Remove from the oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Ugh - so good!

I served both with oven BBQ chicken - really not exciting, by any means!

If you get the chance, please, please try both recipes, you'll be happy you did.

Enjoy - be well!

Guess who I met!

Yep - that's right, I met the one and only Chef Michael Symon! He was doing a book signing at Williams-Sonoma in Natick MA - he's just as awesome in real life as on TV.

I'm such a stalker!

Steak, Spaghetti Squash Fritters and Roasted Potatoes - oh my!

I was really looking forward to dinner tonight - all day I plotted and planned knowing the one thing I was making was the Spaghetti Squash Fritters, Michael Symon's recipe naturally. From there, I decided on adding roasted fingerling potatoes and grilled flank steak. I bought the potatoes and squash at the local Farmer's Market and the steak at Whole Foods so everything was fresh and all natural.

The fritters I've made and blogged before but I'm doing it again because they are so yummy AND this time, they came out much better!

Chef Symon's recipe can be found on the Chew's website (http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/the-chew/recipes/Michael-Symon-Spaghetti-Squash-Fritters) which I tried to follow thinking I had all the ingredients...I didn't so I mixed it up just a bit. I started by roasting the squash on a 400 oven for about 45 minutes. In the past, I have cut the squash in half, giant pain in the butt, scooped the seeds and then roasted. This time, on the advice of a co-worker, I put the squash on a pan and roasted it as is - no cutting, no seeding. Once it cooled, I cut it in half (a LOT easier), scooped out the seeds and shredded the squash. It's very important to get all the moister out of the squash so I scooped that meat into a dish towel and gave it to the hubs to wring it out. Then added 4 ounces (or about that) of blue cheese, some garlic, chives (since I didn't have green onions), the zest of an orange and salt and pepper. Also added three tablespoons (maybe a bit more) of flour and one egg. Mixed it well and fried in canola oil then sprinkled with sea salt and more orange zest. In hind site, I could have skipped the chives because I couldn't taste it over the orange and blue cheese.

I bought red, white and purple fingerling potatoes at the Farmer's Market last week and wasn't too sure how I wanted to prep them. Ultimately, we decided roast them in olive oil, garlic, onions and salt and pepper. Mixed it so that the oil covered the potatoes and roasted in a 375 degree oven for 30-45 minutes; truth be told, I didn't really watch the clock, we don't mind the potatoes being over cooked. One thing about purple potatoes...they look funny but taste the same as a red or white potato. Plus, kids think they're fun!

I am still working on adding beef, good quality beef, into my diet. This is not easy for me by any means and I know the Hubs and L are very tired of chicken! I splurged on a flank steak at Whole Foods and attempted to grill it - still working on mastering the grill, too. I put some olive oil on it, salt, pepper, onion and garlic on both sides. Then I put it on a medium heat grill, roughly 6-7 minutes per side and got a nice medium steak for dinner.

The hubs and I were REALLY happy. This was the first meal I've worked on in quite a while.

All that was missing was a glass of wine for me and an Amstel Light for the hubs!

I hope you'll give the fritters a try, they are a good amount of work but worth it!

Enjoy - be well!

Baked stuffed chicken

As promised, here is the first of three videos - baked stuffed chicken. Ok - so I go the recipe from a Hunger Games cookbook and it's suppose to be stuffed groosling...whatever that is supposed to be. Actually, it's turkey.

Hope you enjoy!

Thank you to my cousin Leeann McKeon from Keon Films for making the video.

Oh boy - so many changes!

I owe you an apology for being off the blog for a while, we have been busy!

We moved, C turned one, L turned 11, the hubs turned.... And naturally, it was summer! Never the less, I'm back and will be posting my three videos shortly. I am looking to make more and see how things will progress. I can hope you will continue to follow me and tell your friends!

Thanks for your patience!
M~

upcoming posts - need your help!

Thank you to all of you who read my posts and my apologies for not posting in quite a while. I am working on some videos to post in the next few weeks...well the videos will be made and posted after over a period of time.

I am most definitely making my whoopie pies but want to know what you'd like to see me make. I have a recipe I've created based on a Giada recipe but this is all me. I think I'll make that one as a side dish, it's a potato and couscous salad.

Please either message me or post here what you'd like to see for an appetizer, salad and main dish. From there, I'll see what I can do!

Thank you and thanks again for reading!!!

Be well!