Slow Cooker Turkey Chili

September 28, 2012 6 Comments

If I’m the queen of the kitchen in our relationship, then Tommy is the king of the slow cooker. Even though I’ve given it a few shots, I can’t seem to get into using the slow cooker, but luckily for me, Tommy is amazing at making slow cooker meals.

Case in point: Turkey chili.

Slow Cooker Turkey Chili
 
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Total time

 

Ingredients
  • 2 lbs ground turkey
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 2 carrots, chopped
  • 2 celery stalks, chopped
  • 2 jalapeno peppers, chopped
  • 2 cans red kidney beans, drained
  • 1 can black beans, drained
  • 2 cans diced tomatoes, not drained
  • 2 tablespoons chili powder
  • 1 tablespoon cumin
  • 2 tablespoons white vinegar

Instructions
  1. In a large skillet, sautee onions, carrots, celery and jalapeno peppers. Add in ground turkey and cook until browned.
  2. Transfer the onions and veggies to the slow cooker.
  3. Add in beans, diced tomatoes and spices.
  4. Cook on medium for 8 hours.
  5. Top with shredded cheese and sour cream and dig in!

 

I actually got a sneak taste of the chili when it just started cooking, and I could not get it off my mind for the rest of the day. I could not wait for dinnertime! Luckily, I powered through my day and arrived with an empty belly, ready to dig in. This chili is so.so.so.so.so good! Tommy even said it was the best thing he ever made! I agree!

What’s your favorite slow cooker meal?

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Yet Another Birthday Dinner

January 20, 2012 6 Comments

If you are reading this on Friday morning, then Tommy and I are already on our way to Vermont! We will be staying at Mount Snow for the weekend and I cannot wait to get my ski on! I also wanted to report that after this weekend, you won’t have to hear about birthdays on the blog for a whiile. (My wallet is also happy!) I feel like everyday this week was inundated with birthday shtuff, but my two men where born in the same week, and celebrate I must!

Let’s backtrack to dinner last night. In yesterday’s post, I mentioned that I was making Tommy a special birthday dinner, and let me tell you, it was a big hit!

At first glance, it may seem like any plain old meat and potatoes dinner, but you are mistaken, my friend. This dinner consists of slow cooker BBQ beef brisket, cauliflower ‘mashed potatoes’ and some semi home made garlic bread. Not too shabby. Since everyone loved it, I’ll share the wealth.

Brisket is one thing that I’ve been scared to make for a while. I don’t know why but meat freaks me out. (TWSS) I don’t mind working with chicken or ground meat, but other types of meat are not my forte. Not to mention, it’s so easy to undercook and overcook beef. No one wants to eat a brisket that tastes like a shoe. The recipe I found seemed easy enough and I figured the crockpot is almost foolproof, so I went for it.

Crockpot BBQ Beef Brisket (adapted from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon paprika
  • 1 tablespoon Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute
  • 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 3 pounds beef brisket, trimmed of fat
  • 1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke flavoring
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 1/2 cups barbeque sauce

Directions

Combine spices in a small bowl; set aside. Rub brisket all over with liquid smoke, then rub with spice mixture. Refrigerate 4-6 hours or overnight. Pour Worcestershire and barbeque sauces into a slow cooker; place beef on top. Cover, and cook on LOW 8 to 10 hours, until fork tender.

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I know you’ve probably heard it a million times, especially in healthy living blogs, but the cauliflower mashed potatoes were so good that you can’t tell the difference. When I told Tommy that there were no potatoes in them, he was surpised. This is definitely something to use to trick your kiddos (or hubbies) into eating their veggies.

Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

  • 1 medium head cauliflower
  • 1 tablespoon cream cheese, softened
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
  • 1 clove minced garlic
  • 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Directions

Clean and cut cauliflower into small pieces. Steam the florets until fork tender. Pat dry, do not allow the cauliflower to cool. In a bowl with an immersion blender, a food processor or blender, puree the hot cauliflower with the cream cheese, Parmesan, garlic, butter and pepper until almost smooth.

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And since no birthday is complete without a cake and candles to blow out, I stopped at Cupcakeland Bakery to pick up a few cuppies. The place was small, but very cute. Added bonus – they sell individual candles at 15 cents a pop, which saved me a trip elsewhere to get a candle.

Strawberry shortcake for the Birthday Boy! I hope your wishes come true!

Have a great weekend!

What’s your favorite not-so-good-for-you food substitute? What are your plans for el weekendo?

P.S. My giveaway ends on Monday. It involves cupcakes, so you’ll probably love it!

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The Best Thing I Ever Made

October 23, 2011 9 Comments

When I cook, I don’t take things lightly.  I’m a perfectionist by nature and this follows me into the kitchen. I put my heart into the things that I cook for my loved ones and go out of my way to make sure they will like it.  On Friday, I was beaming during dinner. Tommy told me that Friday’s dinner of Buffalo Chicken grilled cheese, was the best thing that I had ever made.

I’m a firm believer that the best dinners are the simple ones and this was definitely easy to make. After breakfast on Friday, I threw three chicken breasts into the crock pot with a whole bottle of Frank’s Red Hot Buffalo Sauce (I put that sh*t on everything). Four hours later I opened the bad boy up, shredded the chicken with two forks and left it on warm for a few more hours until dinner time.

When dinnertime rolled around, I cut into the Sourdough loaf I bought at Stop and Shop that afternoon.  This bread was calling my name from across the bakery, I swear.

I sliced it up into thick slices, buttered both sides of the bread and put it in a hot pan, two slices at a time. I topped each slice of bread with two slices of cheese and when it got melty, gooey and, bubbly, I added the shredded chicken on top. I poured a little bit of ranch in the middle of each sandwich to counteract the spice and sliced it in half to expose the deliciousness that was waiting to enter into our bellies.

If you’re not drooling right now, then you need to have your eyes and/or taste buds checked. Just sayin’.

What’s the best thing you ever ate/made?

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Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken

May 7, 2011 1 Comment
Today was supposed to be a productive day.  Too bad that didn’t happen.

I pretty much sat around all day in my pjs watching really bad tv shows and intermittently napping on the couch.  My defense is that I’m sick.  I don’t know if its allergies or a cold but I really woke up feeling like yuck.

The one productive thing I did do today was try out my new crockpot.  I looked through the recipes in the new book that I bought, but everything required ingredients I didn’t have and didn’t feel like getting dressed to go to the supermarket.  I finally decided on doing something super easy but super delish.  I took my inspiration from Julie of PB Fingers and just threw in two chicken breasts and covered them with salsa that I had leftover from my Cinco de Mayo lunch.

Once my chicken was ready I shredded it up and threw it on a wrap with avocado and shredded Mexican Blend cheese.  I served it up along side some red and orange peppers for a little crunch.

 My belly was very pleased.  Or it might’ve been the 100 pounds of Hershey’s kisses I also devoured today.

I really want to go out for a run since the weather is so nice, but I’m genuinely scared that my allergies are going to act up again.  I heard on the news yesterday that this year’s pollen is so bad that even allergy medicines aren’t working to alleviate people’s symptoms.  Since I’m actually feeling halfway decent now, I don’t know if I should risk it.  Or maybe I’m just making up excuses to not get off the couch. Who knows?

Question of the evening: Do you suffer from allergies? What are your solutions to get allergies under control?

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Well-rested Wednesday Recap

May 5, 2011 Leave a Comment
I had planned on blogging last night after we came home from our dinner/dessert/mother’s day shopping adventure.  Too bad I fell asleep. At 9PM. Fully clothed. And slept like that until 4AM.  I was only slightly angry when I woke up, but that just might be because I was cold and really uncomfortable in my jeans. 

We enjoyed matching smoothies for lunch. They might not look too great, but they were really good.  Munchkin even came back for seconds.  I combined two frozen bananas, a handful of spinach, blueberries, blackberries and grapes.  Next time I’d skip the grapes because the skins didn’t blend too well making it a little chunky for my taste.

Yes, I am enjoying my new tumbler. Thanks for asking.

I got some exercise in while munchkin napped.  I also got some studying in while riding on my lovely exercise bike.  I never really liked it and preferred my elliptical over it any day, but it really came  in handy during these finals.  I can’t really read while on the elliptical, its a bit too bouncy.  

I know you love the laundry waiting to be washed in the left corner ;)

We kinda did everything backwards yesterday.  We started with dessert.  We used the Groupon that I bought for Oko frozen yogurt.  It was super good.  I am a huuge fan of soft-serve ice cream and this totally tasted just like ice cream.  It’s actually made out of Greek yogurt which makes it even better for you than regular frozen yogurt.  I got a vanilla with rainbow sprinkles, strawberries and granola while the boyfriend got a pomegranate milk shake.  We both shared with munchkin who enjoyed it as much as we did.  We will definitely we going back! I also like that everything there is eco-friendly.  From the containers in which they serve the yogurt to the whole decor of the place. 

Next we headed to Barnes and Noble.  I love bookstores and could spend hours in there walking around, looking at different books and spending more money than I should.  I bought a crockpot recipe book, Best-Loved Slow Cooker Recipes and I can’t wait to try some of them out.  I was super excited to see that you can bake cakes in the slow cooker!!

 

I also got my mom a Healthy-Living cookbook because she’s been on a health kick lately and is trying to lose weight.  She’s also a big fan of trying out new recipes and gets bored easily with eating the same stuff over and over, like I do.  I also got her a new phone book, because as the boyfriend put it, she’s still in 1995 and doesn’t use her cell phone like everyone else. ;)

After shopping, we finally got around to dinner which no surprise was sushi.  We started with edamame and miso soup, which munchkin spilled onto the floor. [Oh the joys of dining out with kids!] Then I had an eel avocado, spicy yellow tail jalapeno and Alaska rolls which where tasty like always.

Edamame, half eaten.

Forgot to take a pic before I started eating!

Now I’m going to run to the supermarket.  I really want to make something Mexican for lunch! Happy Cinco de Mayo!

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Surprise slow cooker!

May 3, 2011 1 Comment
I was quite the busy bee today.  I got in a good few solid hours of studying in while Munchkin hung out with his grandpa.  I even devoured my lunch with nose still in the books.

Yes I started with the sweets ;)

My salad was really good – spring mix with cherry tomatoes and red, yellow and green peppers. And the Kashi bar totally hit my sweet tooth.  I love the Kashi GoLean Crunchy bars! Best protein/fiber bar ever.

My studying continued until munchkin decided it was time to play!

Play with meeee!

So we headed outdoors, to play since the weather was gorgeous yet again today, but not until I grabbed a bowl of potato salad that I made earlier from the leftover red potatoes we grilled for dinner on Sunday.

 
Once outdoors, we ran around, dug in the dirt and rode in our spaceship.  Yes, even I rode in the spaceship and munchkin thought it was hilarious.  Munchkin loves being outdoors as much as I do.  When I tell him its time to go back inside, whining and yelling ensues.  
While we were playing outdoors, the boyfriend came by with with car filled with boxes and boxes of stuff from his school apartment, which is he almost officially moved out of.  Among all the junk stuff in his car he had a surprise for me – my very own, slightly used slow cooker.  Since the only time he really cooks is at my house anyway, it was the prefect addition to my already cluttered kitchen.  I had been thinking of buying one of these bad boys for a while though.  I’m super excited to use it.  
Now I’m relaxing in front of the TV watching Dancing With the Stars, my guilty pleasure and enjoying some water with Mio.  I’m a sucker for new products, especially when there put right in front of my face in the supermarket.  I picked it up for a try and its pretty good when you don’t want to drink plain water.  I added two squirt of the stuff to my Smart Water and while it doesn’t exactly taste like peach tea to me, its pretty darn good anyway. 
Question of the evening: What are your favorite slow cooker recipes? Please share! :)
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