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...