Cincinnati Turkey Chili

Winter time = slow cooker time!! Nothin' like a homemade chili in the slow cooker to get you through that work day.  This recipe calls for spaghetti but we don't use it. I'm pretty sure this is tasty enough without adding a filler like spaghetti.  If I am going to eat pasta, you better believe I'm having alfredo or something that will make it worth eating those carbs!  This recipe is fantastic enough with out the spaghetti, so in my opinion, you should skip it.

The thing I love most about chili is beans!  We had double the ingredients for everything but the beans. Luckily, since I love beans, I had a can of cannelini beans in the pantry.  It got the job done.   We also made the cornbread with the original recipe, which is included below.

As of today's post, 32 people gave this an average rating of 4 out of 5.

Recipe by Cooking Light, September 2009

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 34 minutes
Yield: 4 servings (serving size: about 1/2 cup spaghetti, 1 1/2 cups chili, 2 tablespoons onion, and 3 tablespoons cheese)

Ingredients

• 4  ounces  uncooked spaghetti
• Cooking spray
• 8  ounces  lean ground turkey
• 1 1/2  cups  prechopped onion, divided
• 1  cup  chopped green bell pepper
• 1  tablespoon  bottled minced garlic
• 1  tablespoon  chili powder
• 2  tablespoons  tomato paste
• 1  teaspoon  ground cumin
• 1  teaspoon  dried oregano
• 1/4  teaspoon  ground cinnamon
• 1/8  teaspoon  ground allspice
• 1/2  cup  fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 1  (15-ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1  (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 2 1/2  tablespoons  chopped semisweet chocolate
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• 3/4  cup  (3 ounces) shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Preparation

1. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain; set aside.
2. Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add turkey; cook 3 minutes, stirring to crumble. Add 1 cup onion, bell pepper, and garlic; sauté 3 minutes. Stir in chili powder and next 5 ingredients (through allspice); cook 1 minute. Add broth, beans, and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in chocolate and salt. Serve chili over spaghetti; top with remaining 1/2 cup onion and cheese.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 408

Fat: 13.8g (sat 6.6g,mono 4.3g,poly 1.7g)

Protein: 24.5g

Carbohydrate: 47.4g

Fiber: 7.9g

Cholesterol: 67mg

Iron: 3.7mg

Sodium: 765mg

Calcium: 237mg

Jack Quesadillas with Cranberry Salsa

After 3 days of turkey sandwiches and Thanksgiving dinner x3, it's time for something a little different.  This is such a great recipe for that leftover turkey, you just have to try it.  The flavors are completely different with jalapenos and cilantro and lime juice.  This recipe takes care of your turkey and cranberry sauce. 

So as you can tell from the picture, our cranberry salsa is a little less pink than it should be. This is because we devoured the cranberry sauce and didn't have as much as the recipe called for.  I think we may have had about 1/4 cup left and you need about 1 cup.  Anyway, if you have enough pear and lime juice to cut the spice, then it's all good. 

Otherwise we didn't make any changes to the recipe except to include the seeds from the jalapeno. 

As of today's post, 17 people gave this an average rating of 5 out of 5! GOOOOOOOOOOOOO Leftovers!

Recipe by Elizabeth Taliaferro, Cooking Light, November 2004

Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 3 wedges, about 1/4 cup salsa, and 1 tablespoon sour cream)

Ingredients

• Salsa:
• 1  cup  whole-berry cranberry sauce
• 1/4  cup  chopped fresh cilantro
• 2  tablespoons  chopped green onions
• 1  tablespoon  fresh lime juice
• 1/2  teaspoon  ground cumin
• 1  Anjou pear, cored and finely diced
• 1  jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
• Quesadillas:
• Cooking spray
• 1/4  cup  (2-inch-thick) slices green onions
• 1  cup  (4 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese with jalapeño peppers
• 8  (8-inch) flour tortillas
• 2  cups  chopped cooked turkey
• 1/2  cup  fat-free sour cream

Preparation

To prepare salsa, combine first 7 ingredients. Cover and chill.
To prepare quesadillas, heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add 1/4 cup sliced onions to pan; sauté 3 minutes or until tender. Remove onions from pan; reduce heat to medium. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons cheese over each of 4 tortillas. Top each cheese-covered tortilla with one-fourth of onions, 1/2 cup turkey, 2 tablespoons cheese, and 1 tortilla.
Recoat pan with cooking spray. Add 1 quesadilla to pan; cook 2 minutes on each side or until lightly browned and cheese melts. Repeat with remaining quesadillas. Cut each quesadilla into 6 wedges. Serve with cranberry salsa and sour cream.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 356 (25% from fat)

Fat: 9.7g (sat 4.2g,mono 3.5g,poly 1.2g)

Protein: 19.4g

Carbohydrate:47.8g

Fiber:3g

Cholesterol:42mg

Iron: 2.7mg

Sodium: 372mg

Calcium: 218mg

Steamed Pork Buns

The recipe says that these are a type of Chinese street food. I verified this with one of my coworkers (who happens to be Chinese) who said that it is true but said "you have to make your own dough, this is too much work!"  I don't mind making my own dough so it's not a problem. I had to buy Chinese 5-spice which was kind of pricey but these were worth it.  I would say the recipe took a total of 2 hours to make if you are trying to budget your time.  The great thing about this recipe is that if you're only making it for 2 people, you have a ton of leftover buns that you can freeze.  So this means you could probably put the work in on a Sunday (or late on a weeknight like we do because we eat late) and then on other nights pull them out of the freezer and cook them in 20 minutes.

We made 3 changes to this recipe. The first was to sub 1 cup of whole wheat flour and the second was to use red onion instead of green (we didn't have green onion).  The most obvious change was to use ground turkey instead of pork tenderloin--pork tenderloin is expensive so I didn't want to eat cut up pork tenderloin stuffed in bread when I can enjoy it like this instead: Peppercorn-crusted pork tenderloin with Soy-Caramel Sauce

As of today's post 23 people gave this an average rating of 5 out of 5!

I hope you enjoy this trip to the Orient in your home as much as we did in ours!