Turkey Chili February 25, 2010

This is one of our standard go-to recipes for weeknight dinners. It’s quick, easy, decently healthy and really tasty! I use the same general recipe that I stole from a Rachel Ray cookbook, plus I add a few of my own ingredients.  It calls for a can of diced tomatoes and what’s fun with that, is that you can switch it up a little bit. Sometimes I just use regular diced, sometimes if I can find fire roasted, I use those. This last time I used a can of Rotel- you know, the kind with diced tomatoes and little bits of chili peppers. It gave a nice extra kick of zest!

Turkey Chili

package of ground turkey (about 1.5 lbs)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 onion, chopped (I use a red onion, it makes it prettier!)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 1/2 c. frozen corn kernels

1 can (32 oz) diced tomatoes (any kind will do!)

3 scallions, chopped

1 tsp. poultry seasoning

1 1/2 tbsp. chili powder (I don’t ever use that much!)

1 tbsp. ground cumin

1 8 oz. can tomato sauce

1 chili packet (you can find it by the taco stuff or by the packetted spices- I use the low salt kind)

salt and pepper to taste

shredded cheese, tortilla chips and sour cream for toppin’

Method:

In a deep saucepot over medium high heat, saute onion in oil for 3 to 5 minutes.

Add garlic and cook 1 minute more. Add turkey and brown, about five minutes. Add bell pepper, corn , tomato sauce and diced tomatoes, as well as the spices. Bring to a bubble, stir in the scallions and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook about 10 minutes, though I can never wait that long, I usually make it to 8 minutes or so! Top with cheese, sour cream and crunchy tortilla chips. Dig in!

Pat’s famous Beef and Pork Chili February 2, 2010

Mike and I are huge fans of chili and while we do have some favorites we usually make, we like to try new ones every so often. Through some Sunday morning research, I found a recipe for chili featuring both pork AND beef. Oh yes, and BACON. That sounds like a recipe for success to me! Of course, it’s from foodnetwork.com, and its by those creepy cooks The Neelys, but its okay, they don’t stand before you making you uncomfortable with their innuendos when you make their recipes at home! So I was able to overlook this part!

I am more a fan of quick chili or one I can throw in the crockpot and leave alone, but this one was complicated. It did call for a lot of meat browning and watching and then when all ingredients are added, you  have to let it simmer for an hour and a half! Not to mention the fact that they don’t sell meat in the increments needed and I ended up not realizing this and throwing in um…four pounds of meat instead of two! Needless to say, the pot was crammed full of chili, and the seasonings were off as it was more meat than it called for. I didn’t realize that until it was too late!

The chili was actually really good despite all of these things. I am not sure I’d go so far as to bother making it again, but it has been providing us with day’s worth of lunches and it was a fun experiment to try out!!

Since I did not change anything, other than accidentally over adding meat, I’ll just post the link: HERE!

Give it a try on a quiet afternoon when you have no place to be for a while!