White Turkey Chili & Favorite Roast Chicken

If I can make 2 or 3 home cooked dinners in a week, I’m happy.  I’ve actually felt pretty good about this lately.  Usually one of these meals takes a while, so I save those for Sundays or another night during the week where I know I’ll be home at a good time and have nothing else planned.

About a month ago I picked up a whole chicken at Whole Foods when they were on sale.  At the time I was in no mood for roast chicken with all the turkey we’d been eating during the holiday season but I knew it would be good to have in the freezer.

Well I was finally in the mood for roast chicken!

I’ve tried a few different recipes, but I have to say the most simple and MOST delicious is Thomas Keller’s method!  I’ve always put butter or olive oil on my chicken’s skin but Keller just adds salt and pepper to a dried off chicken and that’s it!

But seriously the skin gets SO crisp and the meat is so moist and flavorful!  I highly recommend you try this out sometime!  So easy!  Plus it roasts at a higher temp which takes less time…win win!

Note: I tie up the bird to truss the legs, but I don’t remove the wish bone beforehand…if you know how, go for it. 

For our chicken dinner, I also threw 2 sweet potatoes right in the oven with the chicken to bake. 

Meanwhile I sautéed some Brussels sprouts with olive oil, salt, pepper, and stirred in a little Dijon mustard at the end.

Nice rounded meal and tasted delicious too. 

Ok enough about the chicken (I just wanted to tell you guys about that recipe!), what I really wanted to share was the chili recipe!!

My best friend, Jocy, came up with a white turkey chili one day and it became a favorite of her family and friends :)  Since, you know, I got married and moved in with Brian, it’s been a while since I’ve had the chili!

She emailed me the basic recipe, and I tweaked it ever so slightly :)

J’s White Turkey & Bean Chili
4-6 servings

• 1 T olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 jalapeños, diced
• 1 lb lean ground turkey
• 2 cups chicken or turkey broth
• 2 cans cannellini beans
• 1 can garbanzo beans
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp cumin
• 10-12 shakes tobasco sauce
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2T half & half
• 1/4 cup shredded cheddar or other Mexican cheese, plus more for toppings
• sour cream
• cilantro
• tortilla chips
• avocado

In a large heavy bottom pot or Dutch oven, heat oil over med heat.  Add onion, garlic, and jalapeños.  Sauté for 4-5 minutes until onions start to soften.  Add turkey and continue cooking until mostly cooked through.  Add broth, beans, and spices.  Stir, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 10 min partially covered. 

Now take a potato masher and mash the chili until the beans are partially mashed.  Don’t worry you’re not making everything mushy, but breaking down the beans a little bit will add creaminess without adding cream!

But I still added a couple Tablespoons of half & half for some extra creaminess, along with the cheese.  Add the cream and cheese and stir until the cheese is all melted. 

Time to dig in!!

Top with sour cream, chopped cilantro, more cheese, and tortilla chips for dipping!

Add more tobasco sauce if you’d like as well. 

This was warm, creamy, and filling!  It was also still chunky enough to scoop up with some blue corn tortilla chips!  At this point I remembered the avocado..delicious on top as well. 

This chili also came together pretty fast!  Brian helped chop the onion, garlic, and jalapeños while I was at Crossfit then I cooked it up when I got home!  Only took about 25 min to get dinner on the table :)

So glad this week is half over!!  What’s been your favorite meal this week??

Dancing, Dough, and Doggies

It wasn’t until this afternoon that I really sat down at the computer for any length of time since Thursday night!  It was actually pretty nice.  My weekend was a mix of super busy + down time. 

For one, it was my dance show!  I know I’ve mentioned it before but since February I’ve been rehearsing with a contemporary dance company in NH, directed by a friend of mine.

We had our shows Friday and Sat night… 

 
A little backstage action.  One of the girls was an expert hair teaser so she did all of ours for the final piece.

some of the girls stretching before the show!

The opening…

Yes, I am wearing bubble wrap.  There was a whole big theme to the show, called White Earth, and the first piece (“Resource Depletion”) involved the “plastic” dancers eating away at the “earth”.  I guess you can tell I was a “plastic”

It would make way more sense with the video, the dance was awesome and probably the hardest choreography I’ve ever done.  There was video taken, and as soon as I can get that from someone I’d love to share it!!  Just not sure when that will be :)  It will be a surprise one day haha. 

I took the day off Friday as I had to be at the theater by 12:45pm for a last run through before the show that night.  So I used Friday morning to bake something to bring for the cast.

I wanted something fairly simple yet delicious.  Then I remembered.

Dough balls!!  Those blog-famous little cookie dough-like cookies, that became so popular after the Foodbuzz Festival last year.  I still have never tasted the original, but I did get to try Diana’s at the HLS this year, and they were delicious.

I used Diana’s recipe as my base and made some tweaks.  They came out awesome, but I can’t wait to make them again to finalize “my” version :)

Screw raw eggs…I’m never NOT going to eat the dough…

I also need to get a scooper, not that I needed it but I was anally weighing each ball so they were uniform…and ended up with 1.25oz balls pre-baked. 

These were a freaking HIT!!

Almost everyone wanted the recipe! 

Saturday morning Brian and I were cleaning machines and tackled the house before some of his friends arrived.

They were off to the Belgian Beer Fest.  Beer + Dance = Bad, so I didn’t get to go :(  It’s usually in November so I was extra bummed that this fest AND the Sam Adams Oktoberfest were both the same weekend on a weekend that I couldn’t go!! 

But I did have a relaxing afternoon in a clean house, until it was time to get ready for show #2

Today was a time to unwind.  We ended up spending most of the morning watching the 9-11 tributes on TV…I was definitely getting choked up multiple times.  Feels like just yesterday…

But it was a gorgeous day out so we made the most of it :)

Family trip to the dog park!

We tried to get him to step into the water but no such luck…

He did, however, find a pug named Maggie and a bulldog named MJ to play with!

   
That bulldog was hilarious!  He was like a little meatball :)

Ok so what really happened was Maggie, the pug, was running around with Bromley for a while before MJ came over.  Then Brom decided to relax and just watch them go at it haha!

Later on the walk back Brom thought he could chase a vizsla that was running by…right.  He’s cute and fluffy but not exactly the fastest dog in the pack.  It was pretty funny, the vizsla would just run circles around him, then he gave up and needed a water break

   so.thirsty.

and so tired on the way home…

Our nice little Sunday ended with a big pot of chili, foot ball, and now I’m thinking it’s almost bed time.

The chili was my go-to recipe with ground turkey…oh and I added some shredded zucchini too.  STILL working through the zucchini!

Weekends like this remind me why I love September so much!!  Yet, my Fall isn’t real until we go apple picking…oh yes.

What’s you’re favorite part of fall??

Fall: Zucchini Muffins + Chili

Crisp Fall Sunday with not much to do = all I want to do is cook and bake!! I know I’m not the only one who gets this feeling as soon as the temps start to dip

To start, I had a zucchini from our garden chilling on the counter for about a week and new I needed to use it!

I took inspiration from a few different recipes and just decided to wing it. I also didn’t have any eggs so I made my first flax egg!

Zucchini Muffins with Streusel Topping

Pre-heat oven to 375

Mix dry ingredients in large bowl:

• 1 1/3 cup White Whole Wheat Flour
• 2/3 cup quick oats
• 1/2 All Purpose Flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• few shakes ground ginger
• 1/4 cup organic sugar

In a separate bowl combine:

• 1 medium zucchini – grated
• 1 flax egg (1T ground flax + 2.5 T water…let sit for 5 min)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 T Maple Syrup
• 3 T canola oil

Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until combined, then add chopped walnuts if you want :)

Topping:

• 1.5 T butter
• 1.5 T brown sugar
• 3 T flour
• shakes of cinnamon

Combine streusel ingredients with a pastry cutter til crumbly.

Grease muffin tin with canola oil spray, add batter, top with streusel and bake for 18 min!

Smells deeeeelicous!

These came out great! Brian loved them too…I think next time I’d even add more cinnamon and spices.

Later in the day I made one of my other favorite dishes…perfect for Fall, Football, and leftovers for lunch :)

Chili!

Chili is one of those things that you can just toss in whatever you want, spice it up however you want and it will always be good. I remember a while back seeing this recipe and I was really curious about the addition of red wine and wanted to try it in my batch of chili so I used her recipe as inspiration!

Bean and Beef Chili (based on this recipe from Eat Live Run)

To a large pot or Dutch oven add:

• 1-2T olive oil, then add:
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 bell peppers, any color (I used a red and orange)
• 1 jalapeño
• 6 cloves of garlic, chopped…or more if you like!

Sauté for 5 or so minutes until onions are softened up a bit, then add:

• 1 package lean ground beef…I used TJ’s 96% lean beef :)
• Brown it up!

Time to spice it up!

• 2T – 3T chili powder, I used 2T of regular chili powder and a couple tsp’s of chipotle chili powder
• 1.5T cumin
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 2 T brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt (more to taste)

Then add:

• approx. 1/2 can tomato paste (the little cans, you know what I’m talking about)
• stir it up, and then add about 1 cup red wine.
• 2 – 28oz cans crushed tomatoes
• 1 can black beans, rinsed
• 2 cans kidney beans, rinsed
• any other beans you’d like :)
• 2 bay leaves

I let mine simmer for about 1.5 hours, then another 1/2 hour uncovered.

This has to be one of my favorite chili’s to date!! I really enjoy the addition of the red wine, and love how it made the chili take on a darker color. Now if only I could figure out how to make it more tangier?? You know? Anyone have any ideas?

We devoured our chili with some Jiffy corn muffins (you guys know I love those things), and topped the chili with sharp cheddar cheese and a dollop of sour cream….mmm. It’s made some wonderful lunches the past couple days!

Chili Pot

Just got back from dance class a little while ago…and my foot didn’t hurt, YAY! I made a little roast beef sandwich on a sandwich thing with cuc’s and tomatoes…sorry went un-pictured.

The pictures are from last night when I made Turkey and Bean chili from Real Simple magazine!!

It was part of their special section on 400 calorie meals (or less!).

This one was less, right around 337 calories!

The recipe makes 4 servings, so I doubled it so we’d have lots of leftovers.

I was also SO excited to christen this baby:

Isn’t she beautiful :)

Using my new pot (well Dutch oven technically), made sautéing peppers, onions, and garlic so much more enjoyable.

All the ingredients.

Since I double the recipe and would need 4 cans of beans, I did half kidney beans and half black beans…cause I love me some black beans!

Simmered. I did end up adding some more chili powder, cumin, a little garlic powder, and a couple teaspoons of cocoa powder…but all in all a great recipe! Tasted even better today at lunch.

Served with just a tiny bit of cheese, low-fat sour cream, and lots of fresh cilantro.

Also baked up some cornbread…I heart cornbread.

This was a delicious and filling chili, and you get a lot for that 337 calorie serving.

P.S. Lately, my chocolate craving has been satisfied by pieces of this little orange ball of love. This was in my Christmas stocking :)

Workout Updates!

Saturday (1/23) Hot Yoga…one of the sweatiest in a long time!

Monday (1/25) Body Combat…again, one of the sweatiest. It think it was the combination of a warmer humid day + lots of new people in class

Tuesday (1/26) Jazz Class – 90min. Love it!

Wednesday (1/27) – off (class after work)

Thursday (1/28) – Hot Yoga – I have 1 more class left on my card that expires the 29th!

Friday (1/29) – Off

Weekend – Not sure yet, would really like to run depending on the weather. If not I’ll be hitting up Body Pump and some cardio at the gym on Sunday.