Crock Pot Turkey White Bean Pumpkin Chili

Pumpkin is one of my favorite ingredients! Every fall I try to make as many pumpkin things as possible.  I have about three pumpkin recipes saved up for this year, but I was craving chili. I am not very good at just grabbing things out of the cupboard and throwing them together, so I thought it was safer to find a good recipe and curb my craving. When I saw that this one had pumpkin, I knew I had to do it. I started around 11:30am and finished other things I had to do while dinner sat in the crock pot. I was in the kitchen for only 15-20 minutes putting things together, the crock pot did the rest!

I found this recipe on one of my favorite food blog sites, Gina's Skinny Recipes. I found it about a year ago and go back for great healthy recipes all the time. The meals aren't just veggies and fruit. No. It's all different kinds of things you have been hoping was lower in fat or calories. Cookies, pasta...chili! I definitely recommend this site! 

You can pair this dish with corn bread, or as I did, pita chips!

Turkey White Bean Pumpkin Chili 
Gina's Skinny Recipes


Ingredients:

Cooking spray
2 lb 99% lean ground Turkey
1/2 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp chili powder, to taste
2 bay leaves
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
2 (15 oz cans) of white northern or navy beans, rinsed and drained
15 oz can of pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
4.5 oz canned chopped green chile
2 cups low sodium, fat free chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste

Optional:
chopped cilantro and chives for topping
fat free sour cream for topping

Directions:

1. Heat a large heavy saute pan over high heat and lightly spray with oil. Add meat and cook, breaking up until white, about 5 minutes. Add to crock pot. (Do not over cook as it will continue to cook in pot.)
2. Add oil to the saute pan, then onions and garlic, saute about 3-4 minutes; add cumin and saute another minute.
3. Add to crock pot. Add beans, pumpkin puree, green chiles, broth, chili powder, oregano and bay leaves. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours. 
4. Remove bay leaves and adjust seasoning to taste before serving. Garnish and enjoy!

Makes 9 servings

Nutrition: (1 cup) Calories 182.6; Fat 2.3g; Protein 23.3g; Carb 10.9g; Fiber 8.8g

If you have noticed I added a new printer friendly application to the bottom of each post. When you click the green button a small window will come up and allow you to edit the page to how you like. You can remove my ramblings in the beginning or remove pictures to save ink. Hope it works better for everyone!