Fat Free Three Bean Turkey Chili

You'll need at least a 5 qt GOOD pot for this chili

Ingredients:
1 lb extra lean ground turkey
1 1/2 cups chopped onions, or frozen pearl onions
1 cup dry pinto beans
1 cup dry black beans
1 cup dry red beans
14.5 oz can of petite diced tomatoes
6 oz can tomato paste
10 cups water
10 beef bouillon cubes
(OR 10 cups beef stock in place of the water and bouillon)
1 TB spoon Salt (Taste throughout to check for salt content.  Bouillon or stock can be on the salty side, so salt to taste.)
1/2 TB spoon ground pepper
2 TB spoons chili-lime-rub (I used The Pampered Chef blend.
2 teaspoons Southwest Seasoning Mix (I used The Pampered Chef blend.)
1 TB spoon Worcestershire Sauce
1 Large dry bay leaf
10 shakes Liquid Smoke

In your large (at least 5 Qt) heavy pot, brown the ground turkey over medium heat.  Now ... ground turkey doesn't really brown like beef does.  It really just turns a murky gray, so don't try to cook this until it looks like beef.  It just won't happen.  Once the meat is cooked, turn up the pan a little and add the onions to the meat in the pan.  Use the moisture given off from the onions to "deglaze" the base of the pan to scrape up any toasted bits of turkey left on the pan.  They are the good parts, so you want to be sure you include them.  Add all the dried beans.  Be sure you pick through them to sort out any foreign matter!  Dried beans are notorious for having rocks, dirt, and bad beans.  Be sure you're putting only clean, good quality dried beans into your foods.  Add the can of tomatoes and the can of tomato paste.  Add your 10 cups of water and 10 bullion cubes ... OR ... the 10 cups of beef stock.  Add the salt, pepper, chili-lime-rub, southwest seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaf, and liquid smoke.  Stir everything to mix in the spices and to blend the tomato paste into the liquids.  Turn it up to about a medium high and let it come to a simmer.  Then turn it WAY down to medium low, put the lid on it, and let it cook for about 4 to 6 hours.  It's done when the beans are tender.  It will only get better as it sits, so you can make this on a weekend when you have the time to let it bubble on the stove, then freeze it in portions for either lunches at work, or suppers when you get home.  Or pour it on your omelet in the morning for a pretend visit to Mexico to start your day.

You may also put all of this into a crock pot and let it cook all day on low while you're at work.  Be sure to cook the meat before hand, and make sure your crock pot will hold at least 5 quarts.

Notice there's no oil in the recipe.  Depending on the fat content in the ground turkey you buy, that's the ONLY fat in this dish. 

Buffalo Chicken Dip

I had this first when a friend brought it over for a party we were having.  It was FANTASTIC, and I still think about it every single day.  I would eat this morning noon and night if I could get away with it.

What you'll need:
1 Pie plate
1 block plain cream cheese (any kind you like)
1 to 2 Cups cooked diced chicken (depending on how meaty you'd like it.  The picture above was 2 cups!)
1/4 to 1 Cup store-bought buffalo sauce
Hot sauce of your choice (optional)
Blue Cheese Crumbles (optional)
Chopped Chives or green onions (optional)
Crackers, chips, celery

Spread the cream cheese in the bottom of the pie plate.  You can use regular cream cheese, low fat, fat free, whipped ... what ever you want.  The whipped will make a lighter dip in texture, and the fat free cream cheese will make it less calories/fat, so choose your poison.

For the chicken, use either leftover cooked chicken, make extra the night before for supper, then use that extra for the dip, use canned chicken, or use the precooked stuff in the deli section of the super market.  It's simply a matter of choice and ease.  You'll want to dice it up into pieces about the size of corn kernels.  These will be big enough to get great flavor, yet still small enough to not load down your chip to the point of breaking.

Find a buffalo sauce that you love.  You can also make your own with butter and hot-sauce, but there's really no need to because there are awesome ones in the store.  Save yourself the pressure of making a sauce to go with this, and just use the yummy ones available to you.  If you don't think it's hot enough, add hot sauce of your choice.

Mix the sauce with the chicken.  Pour a little bit on, see what the texture looks like, see what the flavor is, and add more if you need / want to.  Keep adding until you have a consistency almost like a thick chili.  You want it to be "dip-like", but not soupy, and not dry. 

Pour the sauce covered chicken onto the cream cheese base in the pie pan.  If you think it looks a little dry once you've got the chicken on the cream cheese, drizzle some more sauce on it.  It's your dip, so make it the way you'd like to eat it.

After the chicken and sauce is on the cream cheese, you'll add the blue cheese to how ever much of the dip you'd like.  My husband is not a fan of blue cheese, I think it's one of the greatest things EVER, so I load my half up, and leave his half free of blue cheese.  You can also sprinkle with diced chives or green onions.  If someone in the group wants it more spicy, have the hot sauce of your choice available for them, or make them suck it up and eat it the way you make it. 

At this point, you're ready to go!  Grab the dipping implement of your choice ... cracker, chip, celery stick, spoon, and dig in.  It's really amazing! 

Enjoy!

Pepper Crusted Flank Steak

So, I gotta admit ... the pepper crusted flank wasn't my favorite.  It just didn't have enough flavor.  It needed a marinade to get into the meat fibers to bring out the juicy, savory aspect of that cut of meat.

I did a simple salt and pepper coating on the flank and cooked it on medium high like I do my regular flank steaks, but it was dry and tough.

Remember ... a KEY aspect of a flank steak is how you cook it, then how you cut it.  You M-U-S-T cut it thin as possible against the grain.  This means holding the knife at a 90 degree angel to the meat fibers.  When you look at the flank, you'll see that it looks like it's just a massive sheet of strings.  This is the grain.  You have to cur a flank steak across those fibers, or you'll be chewing until next Thursday.

Find a great marinade, one that's got a good acid to help break down that cut of meat, add a bit of sweetness to it, and some savory.  Add whatever dried herbs you fancy on your steaks, and let it sit for at least 4 hours.  The longer the better, so if you've got the time, put it in the marinade and let it sit in the fridge overnight.  Take meat out of the fridge at least 30 minutes before you're going to cook it so that the cooking time is even throughout.  And always let it rest for at least 5 minutes before cutting.  Unless you're starving, then cook it from frozen, and eat it over the pan.  I don't judge...

Baramundi

Last night we had a fantastic "new" fish to us.  Baramundi.  It's a lovely white fish, a lot like a talapia. 

In my large cast iron pan, I added a bag of still frozen chopped collard greens and two cups of cooked black beans.  I poured my Pampered Chef Southwest Seasoning on it and let it steam and simmer until just slightly warm.  I added a little water (the frozen greens have a lot, and they can almost cook in their own moisture when cooked like this) and them placed the fish fillets on top of the beans/greens mixture.  Once I had a soft bubble/simmer, I placed the whole pan into a 350 oven and let it cook until the fish was done.

It was AWESOME!!!  So yummy and moist, and simple, and earthy.  Really good!!

A twist on my Mama's Flank Steak

As a kid, the one dish I always chose for my birthday supper was my Mama's Flank Steak.  It was so special.  Marinated for EVER (it seemed at the time), grilled to perfection and then sliced into paper thin ribbons you could fold over on your tongue and just let them melt as you barely had to sink your teeth into them.  The most delectable savory dish I have still had to this very day.  It's a recipe I hold VERY dear, and no, you're not getting it here. 

Yes ... I'm THAT evil!

But tonight ... tonight I had a lovely thought.  What if I could take this ultimate perfection and add to it with the success I'd just had a few nights ago with the brisket?  So I sprinkled "table ground" black pepper all over the flank before dropping into my preheated cast iron pan.  It sizzled and smelled awesome ... but not the same.  Then I realized I'd left out the vinegar from the marinade!  What a stupid move!!  HELLO!!  A marinade is ONLY an acid and a base!  How can I forget one whole HALF of the equation?!?  So ... as a last minute effort, I drizzled balsamic on top of the seasoned flank as it was cooking. 

I was disrespecting the flank.  It's such a sacred dish to me, and here I was, creating a debauchery out of what should be scarf fed up and eaten so fast I might not really taste it anyway.  But ... here I was ... staring at the pan, the poor piece of meat in the pan who did not live it's life to it's fullest potential.

So I let it rest while I put my son to bed for the 10th time tonight, call my husband at work, get the DVR set for the shows I want to watch, and put the finishing touches on my brussel sprouts.  And then it was time to eat.

AND IT WAS GOOD!! 

Not awesome ... but GOOD.  It really needed the vinegar in the original marinade, that was a dumb rookie move, and it totally killed the whole dish, but the addition of the light pepper crust gave it a subtle heat that was really nice.  I ate half of the flank, and most of the sprouts, so it couldn't have been THAT bad.  

Dessert was what was left in the Jif Reduced Fat PB jar. 

So ... now the puppies have been out for pee's and poop's ... Homer is dreaming of chasing tennis balls and lame ducks ... Stella is ready for me to turn off the lights and go to bed ... GG and Boo are safe and snugly in their beds/cribs, and I'm 'bout ready to go hit the hay with a book or a sudoku puzzle.

Sweet dreams, y'all! 

Veggie Casserolasagna

This is a veggie casserole made in layers like a lasagna. The only thing that I precooked is the cauliflower because it's so flippin awesome with the toast brown bits! It's: 3 small/regular zucchini, cut lengthwise in 1/4" slices. 3 large tomatoes, cut into 1/4" slices. 1 pint sliced portobello mushrooms. 1 thick leek cut into 1/8" discs. 4 garlic gloves sliced. Lots of fresh whole leaf cilantro. 1 head of cauliflower roasted. 1 cup low fat mozzarella shredded 1 cup Italian 6 cheese shredded blend Kosher salt Balsalmic vinegar I layered zucchini, tomatoes, leek rings, mushrooms, drizzle of balsalmic, mozzarella, a sprinkle of salt, garlic, cilantro, zucchini, tomatoes, mushrooms, cilantro, roasted cauliflower, then topped it with the 6 cheese blend. I'm going to bake it at 325 until it's soft and the cheese is bubbly. This pic is a prebaked shot of just the assembly.