Turkey Chili Verde

We had this for dinner on Friday night, and just realized that because I didn't take a picture I forgot to blog it!

This is the second time making this recipe, it's amazing.  Even more amazing that my tomato-allergic daughter can have tomatillos no problem, and she loves chili!

The recipe makes 6 one cup servings at 6 points plus value per serving

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp canola oil
• 1 medium uncooked onion, finely chopped
• 1 medium green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pound lean ground turkey breast
• 3 TB chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 pound chopped tomatillos, husks removed
• 4 1/2 oz canned diced green chiles
• 1/2 cup cilantro leaves
• 2 cups reduced sodium, organic free range chicken broth
• 30 oz canned cannellini beans or other bean, rinsed and drained (I use 1/2 cannellini and 1/2 pinto beans)
• 1 tsp sugar

Instructions:

Heat the oil in a large nonstick pan, then add the onion, bell pepper and garlic.  Saute until softened, about 8 minutes.  Add the turkey, chili powder and cumin.  Cook, over medium-high heat, breaking up the turkey, until the liquid evaporates and the turkey begins to brown, about 6 minutes.

Meanwhile puree the tomatillos, chiles and cilantro in a food processor, add to the turkey mixture.  Stir in the broth, beans and sugar and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until the mixture is thickened and flavors are blended.  About 45 minutes to 1 hour.

We love this chili! This is some of the best chili I've ever had.  So good! Enjoy

Beef stew for the crockpot

2 pounds of lean beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce *note this is what the original recipe called for.  I left it out because it has soy in it
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups beef broth (I used Meijer Organic fat free beef broth)
4 medium red potatoes, peeled and diced
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 stalk of celery, chopped

Instructions:
Place meat in crockpot.  In a small bowl whisk together the flour, salt and pepper and pour over meat, stir to coat meat with flour mixture.  Stir in garlic, bay leaves, paprika, Worcestershire, onion, beef broth and vegetables.

Cover and cook on low for 10 to 12 hours or high for 4 to 6 hours.  Mine was done on high after about 5 hours.

Makes 6 servings - 1.5 cups each - 13 points plus per serving

My Dinner Tonight
Stew - 13 points plus
Sliced tomato with salt and pepper - 0 points plus
Corn muffin made with applesauce instead of oil - 4 points plus (these are posted earlier in the blog if you want to make them)

Total 17 points plus

Oven Baked Tilapia!

Tonight we had Tilapia, white rice, corn on the cob and napa cabbage cooked with caraway seed and fresh garlic.

8 point plus value dinner

4 ounces of Tilapia (before cooking weight) - 2 point plus value
1/4 cup of white Minute Rice - 3 point plus value
1 medium corn on the cob, boiled - 2 point plus value
I can't believe it's not butter spray with olive oil - 0 point plus value
1 cup of cooked napa cabbage, sauteed in 1 tsp of extra virgin olive oil and fresh garlic with caraway seed - 1 point plus value

I almost always make tilapia the same way.  I have a spicy salmon and seafood seasoning I use, sprinkled liberally on the fish, top with 2 fresh lemon slices, wrap tightly in a foil packet and bake on a baking sheet at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.  I made the minute rice according to direction and added granulated garlic and salt and pepper.

I bought the napa cabbage earlier this week to make egg rolls but I never got around to getting more egg roll wrappers.  So I cut it into shreds, some olive oil and 4 cloves of fresh garlic, 1/2 teaspoon of caraway seed and sauteed until tender, about 20 minutes.

Makayla loves "white fish" as she calls it.  She also had a leftover 4 point plus value cornbread muffin with her dinner!

I'm finally back in a cooking mood!

Whatever virus took hold of our house last week is finally on it's way out.  Makayla's back to 100% and I'm close behind at about 80%.

I managed to stay within my points, even though I wasn't feeling the best and was taking care of a sick 5 year old.  We made it!

Dinner last night was an adaption of a recipe from VickisFoodies.com.

9 point plus value

2 chicken thighs - 4 point plus value
Medium sweet potato, quartered - 4 point plus value
1 small onion cut in half - 0 point plus value
2 tablespoons of French onion soup mix - 0 point plus value

Wrap all of the above ingredients in foil, sprinkle with French onion soup mix, and make a tightly sealed pouch.  Bake in the oven on a cookie sheet at 375 degrees for about an hour, until chicken is cooked through and potatoes are tender.

Then I sauteed fresh green beans (shout out to my little helper for snapping the ends off of a pound of green beans!) in 2 TB of extra virgin olive oil and 4 freshly minced garlic cloves.  After about 10 minutes of stirring occasionally, I added 1 cup of fat free, low sodium chicken stock and covered, letting them steam for another 15 minutes until tender.  They turned out great! No need for butter or salt on these green beans.  They had a ton of flavor.

A serving was:
2 cups of green beans - 0 point plus value
1/4 cup of fat free reduced sodium chicken stock - 0 points plus value
1 tsp of olive oil - 1 point value

YES! That is a bottle of wine in the background.  For the last week I have been having trouble using all my points (I know, I know, you don't want to hear it!) so I've been having celery and peanut butter after dinner, or peanut butter banana smoothies or something similar to use up the rest of my points.  Anywhere from 10 to 30 points I've had to use up!  I need to start drinking some milk during the day or something.  Anyway, last night I had 30 ppv left over at the end of the day (I get 54 per day!) and I used all 30 points on 3 generous glasses of wine after the little bestie went to bed :)

Weighed in last night...

Lost another 4 pounds! That makes 10.8 pounds in two weeks! Woohoo!

Breakfast this morning was 9 ppv
1 bagel thin - 3 ppv
2 eggs - 4 ppv
1 slice of american cheese - 2 ppv
1/2 large grapefruit - 0 ppv

I think my daughter finally shared her cold with me.  So something quick and easy (with lots of vitamin c!) was what I needed for breakfast!

For dinner my boyfriend is making the Turkey Chili Verde recipe off Weight Watchers eTools.  It makes 6 servings and is 6 ppv per serving.  We haven't eaten yet, but it looks yummy!

I wanted to make cornbread to go with the chili, but the recipe on the back of the cornmeal called for 1/4 cup of butter, which in this house would have to be 1/4 cup of dairy/soy free shortening, and that's something in the range of 30 ppv! No way!  So I made some substitutions and was able to get it down to 4 ppv per muffin.

Cornbread Muffins

1 1/4 c corn meal

1/4 c unsweetened apple sauce

1 c cake flour

1 TB baking powder

1/4 c of sugar

1/2 tsp of salt

1 c of unsweetened rice milk

1 egg

2 TB canola oil

Bake at 400 deg for 16-20 minutes in paper lined muffin tin!

Tonight's Dinner was "Awesome" Roasted Turkey according to Miss Makayla...

I had a whole turkey breast in my freezer and decided today was the day to try and make it.  I googled instructions, made the rub of kosher salt, freshly cracked pepper, thyme and oregano, and popped in the oven.  For my first ever roasted turkey breast I would say it turned out AWESOME, just like Makayla said.

My 12 points plus value dinner for tonight was:

5 oz of Roasted Turkey Breast - Skin Removed after cooking (4ppv)
10 oz of Sweet Potato, Roasted (6ppv)
2 cups of Organic Green Beans with Sea Salt and Cracked Pepper (0 ppv)
1 Slice of homemade White Bread, Baked this afternoon (2ppv)

*I also learned that I just do not like the way bread looks when I bake it IN the bread machine.  Set it on Dough, Remove, Let Rise, Bake in Oven... It looks and tastes great.  Baking it in the bread machine, still tastes amazing, just doesn't look so pretty.  The top is always lumpy...  Try. Try and Try again!

A Sunday night quick dinner fix...

Tonight's dinner turned out well.  It was a new recipe that I got off the Weight Watcher's website and tweaked a little.  Makayla seemed a little worried, she doesn't like her food to touch (too funny!) and this is an all in the pot kind of recipe, but she loved it.

Lemon Chicken with Broccoli
Yields four 1 c. servings

2 TB of flour
1/2 tsp of table salt, divided
1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
12 oz uncooked boneless skinless chicken breasts, thinly sliced
2 tsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups organic reduced sodium chicken broth
2 tsp minced garlic
2 1/2 cups uncooked broccoli cut into small florets
3 tsp lemon zest
2 TB dried parsley
2 TB fresh lemon juice

Coat chicken with 1 1/2 TB of flour, 1/3 tsp of salt and pepper.

Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add chicken and cook, turning as needed until browned lightly and cooked through (this took about 8 minutes). Remove from pan.

Add 1 cup of broth and garlic to the same skillet, bring to a boil over high heat, scrapping up browned bits from bottom of pan with a wooden spoon.  Add broccoli, cover and cook 2 minutes

In a small cup, stir together remaining 1/2 cup of broth, 1/2 tablespoon of flour and 1/4 tsp of salt.  Add to skillet and bring to a simmer over low heat.

Cover and cook until broccoli is tender and sauce is slightly thickened, about 2 minutes.  Stir in chicken and lemon zest.  Heat through.

Remove skillet from heat and stir in parsley and lemon juice, toss to coat.

I served this over white rice and with mini pitas for a 14 ppv dinner
This includes 1 1/2 cups of chicken and broccoli, 1 cup of white rice and 2 mini pitas.

*In the future I will add a small amount of red pepper flakes to my plate for a little heat and possibly a little more lemon zest for extra flavor.  

The prep and cook time was about 25 minutes for this recipe.  Not bad!