Waistline-Friendly Turkey Chili

I know many of us are looking forward to that first day of spring, I definitely am. Well, unfortunately it's still winter and we still have to deal with the cold. Here it's been chilly, but the sun has made a comeback in the last week or so. It makes me want summer to come even faster! So to make my chilly winter days go faster I throw some ingredients in a crock-pot, sit back, and let the aroma of chili warm me up. :)

What's better than a bowl of steaming delicious chili to heat up those cold nights? Nothing! Well, maybe a nice mug of hot chocolate and a fire place, but those don't count right now. I was really craving chili and the huge snow storm was on it's way. So since I was stuck in the house, I just set up the crock-pot and 8 hours later I had a hot bowl of chili in front of me. Not only can you make chili super healthy, but it's so easy to make. The pot does pretty much all of the cooking for you. That is why chili is one of the best meals in the world. :)

I do warn you, if you are sensitive to spicy then I would alter the recipe a little so it's more to your liking. The flavor isn't too strong, but I know some people that would push the bowl aside. Now, if you love the spice, then I would add a jalapeno or haberno into the mix. 

The recipe was originally prepped on the stove top, but I like my crock-pot so I went in a different direction. If you don't have 8 hours, then you are more than welcome to use the stove. Both methods are in the directions for you. :)

Waistline-Friendly Turkey Chili
allrecipes.com


Ingredients:
1 pound ground turkey
1/2 cup diced onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup diced green bell pepper
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 cup medium salsa
1 cup chipotle barbeque sauce
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chilies
1 cup corn kernels
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon dried cilantro
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup fat-free sour cream, for garnish (optional)

Direction:


In crock-pot:

1. Heat large, nonstick pot over medium heat and stir in the ground turkey, onion, garlic, green pepper, and red pepper. Cook and stir until turkey is crumbly, evenly browned, and no longer pink; about 10 minutes. 
2. Meanwhile, pour tomatoes, salsa, barbeque sauce, green chilies, corn, and black beans into crock-pot. Add cooked turkey mixture to crock-pot. Season with lime juice, cumin, red pepper flakes, chili powder, and cilantro. Stir to combine. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 8 hours. Check occasionally to stir.
3. Serve with a dollop of sour cream if desired. 

Over stovetop:

1. Heat large, nonstick pot over medium heat and stir in the ground turkey, onion, garlic, green pepper, and red pepper. Cook and stir until turkey is crumbly, evenly browned, and no longer pink; about 10 minutes. Pour in tomatoes, salsa, barbeque sauce, green chilies, corn, and black beans. Season with lime juice, cumin, red pepper flakes, chili powder, and cilantro. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until flavors develop, 1 to 3 hours. Serve with a dollop of sour cream on each serving.

Makes 8 servings.

Nutrition: Calories 212; Fat 5.1g; Cholesterol 47 mg; Sodium 1030mg; Carbs 27g; Protein 15.5g; Fiber 3.1g

Banana Bread

I have wanted to make banana bread for so long! I discovered it's deliciousness only a little over a year ago, and since then I have wanted to make my own. Yes I have gone to the store and used the boxed quick bread, but that doesn't count as making it from scratch. My only problem was that I was too impatient to wait for the bananas. There were a few bananas I had that were at the perfect ripeness, but I got busy and didn't get to them before they went bad. I should have put them in the freezer till I had the time. Well, I didn't so I had to wait once more for bananas to get to that perfect point. A few days before I made the bread I bought three bananas specifically for this reason. I looked online on how to quickly ripen bananas and I found the brown bag trick. You know what I'm talking about. You place the bananas in a brown paper bag with a tomato or apple, and the bananas should ripen within 24 hours or so. Well, I don't know what I did wrong but nothing happened to those bananas. I kept them in that bag for almost 2 days and, nothing. So I found another method online. If you place your bananas in a oven preheated to 300º for 10 minutes they should blacken. While they definitely blackened. This method brings all the natural sugar forward and gives the fruit a more sweeter taste. Even though this method sounds odd, the bread turned out great. I tasted nothing wrong. I'm sure if you just waited for the bananas to get there on their own, the bread would be even more delicious!

Banana Bread
Cooking Light Complete Cookbook


Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cooking spray

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350º
2. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt; stirring with a whisk.
3. Place sugar and butter in a large bowl, and beat with mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute). Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add banana, yogurt, and vanilla; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist.
4. Spoon batter into an 8x4 inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350º for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on wire rack, remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack. 

Makes 14 servings

Nutrition: (1 slice) Calories 187; Fat 4.3g; Protein 3.3g; Carb 34.4g; Fiber 1.1g; Cholesterol 40mg

Spaghettini with Oil & Garlic

This week in the Pacific Northwest has been crazy! 6-8 inches of snow, with a 1/2 inch of ice on top of that, trees falling all over the place, no power...hopefully mother nature will give us a break soon. I was unable to get to work for a couple days so I was stuck in my house. There is a store that is a 5 minute walk away so I was able to go there when I needed something, but three straight days without going more than 1/2 mile away from my house is boring! The first couple of days I was able to cook, but on the third day when the power went out I was unable to do anything but snuggle up to the fireplace and read a book. So, since I was able to cook a bit more this week, I have a good stock pile of recipes just waiting for their debut. :)

This pasta dish is super easy. The night I made this I was not really feeling up to making a huge dish, but I was craving pasta. When my husband and I first started eating right and losing weight a couple years ago, pasta with garlic and oil was one of our main go-to recipes. It's not only low in calories, but you can put so much flavor in. After years of making this simple dish, I wanted to find a recipe that gave my original a bit of a twist. Now, when you look at the recipe and see that it asks for 10 cloves of garlic don't get scared. I know some people are a little skeptical about garlic, but because you slice the cloves the garlic isn't very strong. Then again, I love garlic. I put garlic in everything I can! So if you love it as much as I do, go for it. If you aren't that much into garlic, then you are more than welcome to tone it down on the garlic. 

In the end, this pasta has become one of my favorites. It's light, but flavorful. Pasta is always welcome in my kitchen! :)

Spaghettini with Oil and Garlic

Cooking Light Complete Cookbook

Ingredients:

6 quarts water

2 3/4 teaspoons salt, divided

1 pound uncooked spaghettini

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

10 garlic cloves, sliced

1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 cup (4 ounces) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Direction:

1. Bring 6 quarts water and 2 teaspoons salt to a boil in a large stockpot. Stir in pasta; return to a boil, stirring frequently. Cook 6 minutes or until pasta is almost al dente, stirring occasionally. Drain pasta in a colander over a bowl, reserving 1 cup cooking liquid.
2. While pasta cooks, heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, and cook 2 minutes or until fragrant and beginning to turn golden, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in 3/4 teaspoon salt, reserved 1 cup cooking liquid; parsley; and pepper. 
3. Add pasta to pan, and stir to coat. Return pan to medium heat; cook 1 minute or until pasta is al dente, tossing to coat. Sprinkle with cheese. 

Makes 8 servings (1 cup pasta and 2 tablespoons cheese)

Nutrition: Calories 303; Fat 8g; Protein 12.7g; Carb 44.4g; Fiber 1.6g; Cholesterol 10mg

Banana Nut Pancakes

Up here in the Pacific Northwest we are getting some great snow fall. When we get 2 inches on the roads, everything shuts down. Now they are predicting a storm that will drop 5-8 inches over night and freaking everyone out. I know it's sad! Thankfully though I have had the last few days off and haven't had to deal with those crazy drivers on the road who act like they have never seen the snow before. It has been nice being able to sit in my warm house and cook whenever I want. Today, I sat around and finished things up while the crock pot did the cooking. That recipe will be posted soon. :)

See all that snow, a total of 6 inches! :) I decided to keep the car buried and walk to the store. It was kind of nice walking around in the snow. Reminds me of college. Winters were always snow crazy over at WSU. 

I made these pancakes for the last day my soldier was home. For the entire three weeks he was home we talked about making pancakes, but for some reason we never got around to it. I'm sure if I hadn't worked 4 to 5 days out of the week, we would have had pancakes multiple times. This recipe came up at the right time because I happened to have an over ripe banana on my hands, and besides we love anything banana. I also added 2/3 cups oatmeal, because I had so much (and we just love oatmeal). These are great topped with honey, maple syrup...pretty much anything!

One tip I have while you make these is to set your oven to it's "warm" setting (or just below 200º), then while you have the last set of pancakes on the skillet you can put the first batch in the oven to keep them warm. I do these with eggs and bacon when I make a big breakfast! :)

Happy Flipping!

So I made my husband his favorite cookies before he left and the cheapest carton of oatmeal I could find was this gigantic thing in this picture. Since I have so much, and we love oatmeal, I decided to put a little bit in the pancakes. Yum!

Banana Nut Pancakes

skinnytaste.com

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 large banana, very ripe, mashed

1 cup 1% milk (I used non-fat)

3 large egg whites

2 tsp oil

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp chopped walnuts (optional)

olive oil or butter flavor cooking spray

2/3 cup old fashioned (or rolled) oatmeal (optional)

Directions:

1. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Combine milk, egg whites, oil, vanilla and mashed bananas in a bowl and mix until smooth. Combine wet ingredients with dry and mix well with a spoon until there are no more dry spots. Don't over-mix.
2. Heat a large skillet on medium heat. Spray cooking spray to light coast and pour 1/4 cup pancake batter. When the pancake starts to bubble and the edges begin to set, flip the pancakes. Repeat with remainder of batter.

Makes 3 cups batter, about 12 pancakes

With Nuts--Nutrition: (2 pancakes) Calories 145.7; Fat 4.0g; Protein 6.3g; Carb 22.1g; Fiber 3.1g

Without Nuts--Nutrition: (2 pancakes) Calories 129.1; Fat

Orange-Ginger Glazed Cornish Game Hens

Before my husband left for overseas I wanted to make him a nice fancy dinner, specifically something I have never done before. I really wanted to do a bird; roast a chicken or cornish games hens. Well, we found this recipe for cornish games hens and I went for it. Man, did those little birds cause a challenge. I was very happy with the outcome, and I would gladly do these again, but of course with a few changes. I am really bad at carefully reading a recipe apparently, because I completely missed the part about skinning the hens! I'm sure the little "burnt" spots wouldn't have been there if I actually have. Oh well, it was delicious and I know how to make it even better next time. 

I have slowly been able to get the pictures back up. I have been working non-stop and my down time consists of watching tv series and eating ice cream. The first week is always the hardest, and I'm getting through it one day at a time. I have been waiting oh so impatiently for news if I will be able to follow my husband overseas. Cooking and working are pretty much all I did during training, and I did not mind that. My schedule is a little off this week, but I promise I will get back into my old routine and recipes will be coming at a fast rate! 

Hope the weekend is good to everyone!

Pay no attention to the box of rice in this picture. I meant to make a little rice pilaf, but it didn't work out the way I wanted, so I nixed it. 

I probable should have picked out hens that were somewhat the same size, but the packaging said they were the same weight. Nothing was ruined, so I am sure it wasn't a big deal.

This is where I would have skinned the birds if I had remembered too. Opps :) 

I added a little bit of left over onions I had from earlier, you don't have too.

Orange-Ginger Glaze Cornish Hens w/ Oven Roasted Green Beans

Cooking Light Complete Cookbook

Ingredients:

3/4 cup fresh orange juice (about 3 oranges)

2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce

1 tablespoon water

2 teaspoons cornstarch

2 (1.5 pound) Cornish hens, skinned and halved

Cooking spray

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 475º
2. Combine first 4 ingredients in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Combine water and cornstarch in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add to juice mixture in pan, stirring with a whisk. Cook 2 minutes or until thick and glossy, stirring constantly.
3. Place hen halves, meaty sides up, on a foil-lined jelly-roll pan coasted with cooking spray; sprinkle hen halves with salt and ground ginger. Spoon juice mixture over hen halves. Insert a meat thermometer into meaty part of the thigh; make sure not to touch bone. Bake at 475º for 25 minutes or until thermometer registers 165º.

Makes 4 servings (1 servings = 1 hen half)

Nutrition: (Games Hens, 1 half) Calories 188; Fat 3.8g; Protein 22.5g; Carb 15.6g; Fiber 0.3g; Cholesterol 99mg; Sodium 487mg

Oven Roasted Green Beans

Cooking Light Complete Cookbook

Ingredients:

1 pound green beans, trimmed

2 teaspoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

Cooking Spray

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 475º
2. Combine beans and next 3 ingredients in a large bowl, tossing well to coat. Arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet coasted with cooking spray. Bake at 475º for 10 minutes or until tender, turning once. 
3. Remove pan from oven; add lemon juice to beans, and toss.

Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition: (3/4 cups) Calories 56; Fat 2.5g; Protein 2.1g; Carb  8.4g; Fiber 3.9g; Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 302mg

Gingerbread Biscotti

The past three weeks I had a great holiday vacation with my husband. That is why I haven't posted anything new in a while. Also, if you haven't noticed already, my older posts have lost their pictures and now just have large black squares in their place. Well, that is completely my fault. We got new phones over the holidays and I had no idea my blog was synched up to my email, and therefore was synched with my phone. To save space on my phone I deleted the 200+ pictures from my phone, because I had no idea why they were there in the first place. Well, as you can see those picture were from here and were removed. I can't believe I did that and I feel lame! It will take me a while to repost the pictures, but I am determined to get them all back up. Now that my husband is stationed overseas I have a lot of time on my hands, and need to keep busy. I will try to catch up as much as possible with my recipes.

This one I did a few weeks ago, but never got around to posting. Looking back at the pictures I will have to make biscotti again, because it was so nice to have a little something with my coffee in the morning.

I made mine a little too think near the middle so it took a bit longer for them in the oven. They were still crazy delicious, but to save time I would flatten them out a little.

At this point you can leave them like this, or you can dip them in chocolate as I did! I had some dark chocolate bakers squares in my cupboard so I just had to do it. I think it makes a big difference, but it's not necessary.

Gingerbread Biscotti
allrecipes.com


Ingredients:
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1/4 cup molasses
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoon ground ginger
3/4 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375º. Grease a cookie sheet.
2. In a large bowl, mix together oil, sugar, eggs and molasses. In another bowl, combine flours, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg; mix into egg mixture to form a stiff dough.
3. Divide dough in half, and shape each half into a roll the length of the cookie. Place rolls onto cookie sheet, and pat down to flatten the dough to 1/2 inch thickness. Taper the sides to create the sloping "biscotti" shape.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, and set aside to cool.
5. When cool enough to touch, cut into 1/2 inch thick diagonal slices. Place sliced biscotti on cookie sheet, and bake an additional 5-7 minutes on each side, or until toasted and crispy.

Makes approximately 48 cookies. 

Nutrition: (per cookie without chocolate) Calories 70; Fat 2g; Carbs 12.1g; Protein 1.4g; Cholesterol 13mg