Kid-friendly turkey chili... Kind of.



I took a pound of ground beef out to thaw on Saturday. Given our refrigerator's imitation of an arctic winter I knew it would be mostly thawed by the time I needed to cook it Monday evening. Sunday night while prepping for the next day I went through my pins to see if there were any crock pot ideas involving ground beef. I came across this pin and after going through my mental cabinet inventory list thought, "I've got all of these ingredients. This looks like it will work." I didn't have the ground turkey (I used it last week) but ground beef would work.



The original masterpiece

 



My crayon attempt. Mine never turn out as nice as the originals...

Monday was a rough day. While prepping everything for the meal I pumped (as is usual when I first wake up) which ended in a fiasco that made me quit pumping at 45 minutes versus my usual 1.25hr. As I was prepping I realized I didn't have everything I thought I had (curse you Beef Taco Pasta using all of my Rotel tomatoes!) Then as we were getting ready, Atticus decided to try his hand at gymnastics without warning us and flipped out of Justin's arms onto the floor. He cried. Justin cried. I consoled both for 30 minutes. I decided to stay home from work. Mondays suck. But hey, the food was in the crock pot so when Justin went to classes Atticus and I stayed home to take a three hour nap. It helped.



Handling it like a champ!
 

In the end my recipe was pretty different. I think I will have to attempt this one again. The problem was partly that I didn't have the right stuff, but it was also that the seasoning was pretty bland. Justin has been giving me input on recipes I try and he liked this (he even commented on how he liked getting "the bursts of corn"), but I think I'd need to up the seasoning. Here's how I did it.

1.3 lbs 99% lean ground turkey 1lb 93% lean ground beef

1 teaspoon oil

1 medium onion, minced

1 red bell pepper, diced fine

1 garlic clove, minced

1 1/2 cups frozen corn kernels

10 oz can Rotel Mild Tomatoes   14oz crushed tomatoes and 4oz diced green chilies

8 oz small can plain tomato sauce

1/4 cup low sodium chicken broth I used beef broth; using chicken broth with beef tastes odd

1 teaspoon cumin  2t of my homemade taco seasoning

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat, add the turkey beef, season with salt and cook, breaking up with a spoon until turkey beef browns and is no longer pink; place into the slow cooker. Add the oil to the skillet and sauté the onion, garlic and bell pepper over medium heat for about 4 to 5 minutes. Spoon over turkey beef into the slow cooker and stir in corn and tomatoes, tomato sauce, cumin, chili powder, paprika chilies, taco seasoning, and salt, mix until well blended. Pour chicken beef broth into the crock pot and add the bay leaf. Cover and cook on HIGH 4 hours or LOW 6 hours. Serve with desired toppings.- After realizing it wasn't as flavorful as I'd hoped I added some diced olives and a spoonful of plain greek yogurt (I use it instead of sour cream these days). It helped, but still lacked. Will I make it again? Probably, but I'll definitely amp up the seasoning a bit. I was disappointed.

Cinnamon Breakfast Bites

I agreed to bring treats to celebrate a co-worker's birthday. Normally I wouldn't think twice and bring the standard sopapilla cheesecake, but since I'm on the Wellness Committee and we had a health screening coming up, I couldn't justify the copious amounts of butter and sugar. (Well there's that and the fact that I didn't have crescent rolls in the fridge...but we're going with the "I actually wanted to be healthy" for the purposes of this post.)

So, I went searching on Pinterest for a pin that I could modify to include beans instead of butter/shortening. I remembered this gem:

http://pinterest.com/pin/203365739393831118/

...and got going. The recipe is below for your betterment. Yeah, I was thinking of you when I did this. :)

Ingredients
1-1/4 cups flour (I used a mixture of whole wheat and bean flour)
1 cup crisp rice cereal, coarsely crushed
2 tablespoons plus 1/2 cup sugar, divided
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Butter Buds (this is the “secret” ingredient that makes them so delicious)
1/4 cup mashed great northern beans

I used a food processor to get them completely smooth.

1/2 cup skim milk
1-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2-3 tablespoons of butter, melted

Directions

1. Mix flour, crushed cereal, 2 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, salt and Butter Buds in large bowl.

2. Cut in beans with pastry blender or fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

3. Add milk and stir just until moistened. (More mixing making them gummy and dense. Less mixing is light and fluffy!)

4. Roll dough into approximately 2-1/2 dozen 1 inch balls.

5. Mix cinnamon and remaining sugar in a small bowl. Drop balls into melted butter and roll in cinnamon sugar mixture.

6. Place balls into a greased or nonstick mini muffin pan.

7. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-18 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes in pan on wire rack before removing.

Makes approx. 2-1/2 dozen bites and gives you protein and whole grains in a tasty breakfast snack!

Penguin Appetizer

This is precious. I don't care who you are or how tough you think you are, when you see food shaped like a precious little penguin you won't be able to help but get a smile on your face.  This was my inspiration.

My boss is one almost like the Mad Men kind of bosses. Short of the sexual harassment and making me get his family's Christmas present (I wouldn't put it past him though), he has me do a lot of stuff for him. I don't mind though. Well, for the office Christmas party he told me to bring something for him so he wouldn't have to think about what to bring or make his wife do it. So I started searching. Since he's a macho retired Navy captain I thought, "What better contribution on his part that food that looks like penguins?" So away I started.

I made 27 in less than 45 minutes. Here's how:

1 can of jumbo black olives
1 can of small black olives
1 bag of presliced carrots (I'm lazy- so sue me)
1 lb monterrey jack cheese
1 bunch green onions
27 skewers cut to around 3 inches.

I'm sorry I don't have pictures of my "during" process, but the instructions are so simple you, intelligent reader with opposable thumbs, will be able to get it. Also, I didn't use cream cheese. While I love cream cheese, I also believe it has it's own time and place and it just didn't sound appetixing with the olive/carrot/green onion mixture.

1) Cut skewers to 3 inches (or even better, if you find longer toothpicks, those would work as well).
2) Drain olives. Cut small wedges out of carrots- the wedge will make the beak and the rest of the carrot will make the feet.
3) Slit one side of the large olive. Cut cheese into a rectangular shape large enough to push crack of olive open, but not break olive- I won't give precise measurements since olives vary, but mine were about an inch tall and about a 1/4" thick. Like I said- it varies. Put cheese in olive, put on top of carrot.
4) Take small olive and turn so that the larger hole faces the front. Take your skewer and put it right through the small olive, the cheese, and down through the carrot. Don't worry about going through the jumbo olive. Because it's clinging for dear life to the cheese. I know this looks cruel to the poor penguins, but they don't stay together otherwise.
5) Take your small wedge and put it in the small olive's exposed hole.  You can stop here or you can give your penguin a scarf. Disgustingly cute.
6) If you're adding a scarf take a stem of your green onion and cut it into 4 thin slices. You want them thin but not too thin. While you need them to be pliable enough to go around the neck of the penguin and tie, you don't want them to break. Because the penguin does not have a regular neck (no offense, penguin, but you don't), you'll just tie it tightly enough that it fits between the two olives and the pressure from the olives keeps it in place.

This is my finished product:

I would HIGHLY recommend this. It's fun, adorable, and everyone gets to compliment you on your awesome skills of cuteness. Here is the pin. 

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