Turkey Chili

Athena made this for me awhile back and I've been wanting it again since then. I really liked that it was a saucy chili but didn't have a strong tomato flavor. I like that it's healthy and super quick and easy to make.

Turkey Chili

1lb Ground Turkey
1 Green Pepper
1 small red onion (I used white cause it was all I had)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 can diced tomoatoes (28oz) undrained
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 can black beans, drained
1 can Veggie broth (14.5 oz)
1 3/4 cups frozen corn
1 can (6oz) tomato paste
1 T chili powder
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. garlic powder

In a large skillet brown the turkey, garlic and onion, when it's nearly done, throw in the chopped bell pepper.

I cooked this in a pot on the stovetop, but it is originally a slow-cooker recipe. At this point if you are putting it into a crockpot transfer it now or leave it to cook on the stove.

I pretty much just dumped everything into the pot from here and cooked it to a boil for about 20 minutes stirring pretty much constantly.

Costco hasn't been selling the Marie Callendar's cornbread mix in a long time so I just made some biscuits to go with it.

I made two batches of this chili and it served four families with leftovers.

MMMMMMMMMM...Strawberry pie! So ONO! Not even Hawaiian, but that just seems to fit how it tastes to me. It was a recipe handed down to me from my mom who got it from my Grandma Williams. I grew up with it pretty much always having frozen strawberries in them and then when my mom told me that my grandma only ever made it with fresh, it just clicked and I tried it and just can't go back to using frozen. But, you can do whatever you want, just know that using fresh is 100 times better. I'll still eat the frozen berry pies, I'm not that snobby. :)

Strawberry Pie

• 1 large box Strawberry Jello (6 oz.) -I have used another berry flavor before when I was all out and it still tasted great.
• 8 T. cornstarch
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• Whisk together in a small saucepot on the stovetop.
• Add 3 cups of water while stirring well.
• Turn on the heat to med-hi
• Cook approx 6 minutes or until it's thick and bubbly with a clear appearance

* Line a PRE-BAKED pie crust with hulled and halved strawberries one level high. No stacking.

**Pour warm mixture into the crust and place more strawberries on top to make it look pretty and be sure that you have strawberries evenly distributed. Sometimes when you pour the berries move.

Let cool for several hours in the fridge before serving.

So Easy!!!

Texas Caviar

I'm pretty sure I found this recipe on the triplet's blog, but I can't remember.
Wherever I found it, it's delicious and it made a ton! I had to give half of it away because I knew we wouldn't finish it all. It was super easy to make and I actually plan on making it again as part of tonight's dinner.
I didn't make it exactly as it was written because I didn't want to use all the different beans it suggested or the quantity.
I'll write the recipe as it was shown and then add in what I did differently.

Texas Caviar

• 1 can shoepeg corn (I used about a cup or so of frozen that I defrosted in a bowl of water)
• 1 can blackeye peas (Not a huge fan of these so I used black beans, much better!)
• 1 can kidney beans
• Rinse the beans well and put in a good sized bowl

• 3 avocados-diced (I only had one and it worked! P.S: I would add this at the very last because it ended up squishing when I tossed it all together)
• 3 tomatos diced ( I only used 2)
• 1 green pepper diced (I used a half of a red one, would have used more but didn't have any)
• 1 bunch cliantro
• 1 red onion (I don't like hunks of uncooked onion, so I choppen this super fine and it was really good)
• 1 lime - squeeze it over the mixture. I have a bottle of lime concentrate in the fridge and used some of that too because I felt it just needed a little more than one lime.
• 1 tsp. vinegar. I used white distilled and it was good.
• Pinch of salt. When all was done, I thought it needed a little salt to kick it up a bit. But not too much because you eat it with salty tortilla chips.

Let it chill for a couple hours before you eat it. So good!

Taquitos

Thanks Jenn for taking pics of the food! My camera is broken and I haven't been able to take pictures of what I've been making lately. I found this recipe at Camille's Casa... ok, really I just followed her instructions on the assembly and I used the filling of the Honey-Lime recipe I posted. I like that recipe, but I'm not a huge sweet eater when it comes to dinner foods. I prefer savory, but paired with the Texas Caviar (I'll post next) it was really good. Jenn ate some, what do you think??



Ok, so here it is:

Taquitos

• 1 pkg corn tortilla's (Any amount you feel like getting, the more you have the more you can make to eat then or freeze later!)


• Cooked Shredded and Seasoned meat (Pretty much whatever you want. I did chicken)


• Hot frying pan with oil at about med-hi range
  


• On a large plate, line it with tortillas stacked and kinda fanned. Microwave for about 45 sec to a minute. (I didn't know exactly, so I just kept checking) They should be just steamy.
  


• Take a little shredded meat and place at the top of the tortilla; roll tightly. (If your tortilla keep breaking, it wasn't steamy enough. Put them back in the microwave for a few more seconds.)

• Hold the taquitos together with toothpicks. Fry until golden.
• Just a note: I also tried baking some in the oven at 425F for about 5-6 minutes, I sprayed mine first with a little cooking oil. They weren't as good as the fried, but definitely still tasty!

• Eat what you want and then freeze them in freezer bags for later!
  

Rhubarb Blueberry Muffins

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. I was looking for something to use up my rhubarb with that was a little healthier than rhubarb crisp or pie (although, I'm not altogether against that!). But since I had an abundance of both blueberries and rhubarb, I had to give this a try. In my opinion it was really good. I liked that there isn't a lot of fat and that it still was soft and had a good flavor. A lot of m y "test-ees" didn't care for rhubarb, but the ones who did thought it was pretty good, too.

So here it is:

• 1/4 cup butter softened


• 3/4 cup sugar (I might try and up it a smidge next time)


• 1 egg


• 1/4 cup sour cream


• 2 tsp baking powder


• 1 tsp salt


• 1/3 cup milk


• 1 cup fresh/frozen blueberries


• 1 cup chopped fresh/frozen rhubarb

Directions:

Cream butter and sugar; add egg & sour cream; mix well.

In a seperate bowl combine dry ingredients adding to the creamed mix alternating with the milk.

Fold in the fruit and scoop into a lined cupcake pan.

Bake @400 for 20-25 minutes

White Chili

White Chili

1/4 cup butter (I used olive oil. It's just to saute' the onions and garlic)

1 large onion chopped

1 clove garlic finely chopped

4 cups cooked chicken, chopped

3 cups chicken broth

2T chopped fresh cilantro

1 T dried basil

2 tsp. ground red chillis or chilli powder

1/4 tsp ground cloves (It gives it a really nice spice flavor to it, but Charlie didn't like it so I reduced it to an 1/8 and it tasted better.)

2 cans great northern beans, don't drain.

Topping: 1 medium tomato chopped, more fresh cilantro (I love that stuff!), shredded cheddar cheese, and tortilla chips.

Directions:

Saute' the onion and garlic in a medium-large pot until tender. Stir in remaining ingredients except topping. Bring it to a boil and your done!

It's so good!!

Mini Brownie Turtles

Once again, I found this in my nifty dessert book that nearly found it's way to the thriftstore. I made these for the family BBQ we had for when Scarlet's bone marrow donor, Ralf, was here.
Super easy and very yummy!

What you need to do:

1. Prepare a package of brownie mix; toss in a handful of chopped pecans/walnuts-fold in.
2. Fill mini muffin liners in a pan 2/3 to the top- Bake @350 for approx. 18 minutes (watch them)
3. Let them cool, spread with dark chocolate frosting. (make it or buy it, I bought it)
4. On the stovetop, melt 12 caramels and 1T of whipping cream on low heat until completely melted.
5. Drizzle a bit on the cupcakes and put a piece of pecan on top...or you can make it fancy and decorate them nicely.
6. Cool in the fridge to let the caramel set-up-I didn't do this and totally regret it, most of the caramel slid off the sides- thus, no pictures. They weren't pretty, but they were tasty!

You can store these for several days. The book even said you can freeze the muffins after you've baked them and before you've topped them for 3 months in the freezer!

Give these babies a try!