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Posts tagged ‘bell pepper’

Oct 9

5 Comments

Ground Turkey and Butternut Squash Chili

Like many, I absolutely adore fall! Autumn in Virginia, is not quite comparable to the crisp cool days in Michigan, but I love it just the same. Eiether way, with October comes comfort food.

In terms of sticking to a healthy daily diet, fall is when I struggle most.  I certainly want to enjoy the treats that come with this time of year so moderation is key.  I like to make sure a treat is truly worth eating.  Can I go without the spur-of-the-moment halloween cookie in the break room at work? Absolutely.  Do I fully enjoy a glazed pumpkin donut with a steaming cup of spiced cider every October? You bet!

Comfort food comes in many forms and I’ve made it my personal mission this year to enjoy seasonal food in an enjoyable, tasteful, and healthful way.  This week, instead of slathering my winter squash in brown sugar and butter, I’m adding it to a spicy turkey chili.

I like to incorporate squash and chili in two ways: the first is serving chili in a halved acorn squash, roasted in the oven.  This is especially enjoyable when I find beautiful squash like this at the market…

The second method involves cooking butternut squash along with the chili.  This version is a tad easier, and better for lazy fall days.  The other great thing about chili? It freezes wonderfully! I like to make a big pot over the weekend, and freeze individually for weekday lunches or quick dinners.

The turkey I used came from the Fresh Market grocery store.  This week I asked when they appeared to be sold out, and they ground some just for me! Definitely ask for white meat only.

Ground Turkey and Butternut Squash Chili

Ingredients
1.5 lbs white meat ground turkey
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 small yellow onion, diced
1.5 cup chopped veggies (mix of butternut squash, bell peppers, hot peppers, carrots)
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 28oz can diced tomatoes, no added salt
1 14oz can tomato sauce*
1 14oz can red kidney beans, low sodium, rinsed
1 14oz can pinto beans, low sodium, rinsed
1 tsp dried basil
3 tsp chili powder
Salt and Pepper to taste

*I skipped this after realizing I didn’t have any, and substituted vegetable broth.  Adjust based on your preference.

1. Heat Olive oil in large pot over medium-high heat.  Once pan is hot, cook onion, veggies, garlic for about 1-2 minutes.  Add ground turkey to pot, and mix in.

2. Once meat is cook thoroughly, add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, beans and spices.  Simmer for at least 30 minutes.  Taste and adjust spices as needed.  I even added cumin before with yummy results.

That’s it! Easy right? And totally a comforting fall dish. Serve with crusty piece of bread.

Around The Web: That Looks Good! 
Butternut Squash and Feta Salad
Butternut Squash and Chickpea Stew with Israeli Couscous

Last Year: Kale Chips

Tip: Buy too many peppers to use this week?  Toss in freezer bag, label and date, throw in the freezer.  Use in recipes just like this later!

Question: What’s your favorite fall comfort food?

Aug 8

7 Comments

Chilled Corn Soup with Roasted Red Peppers

I’ve spent the last week recovering from traveling.  Yes, it takes me a full week.  Thursday July 28th I flew home to Michigan for 4 days to visit with friends and family and attend my cousins wedding reception.  It was a great trip.

On Friday I met up with a good college friend in Lansing.  For lunch we stopped at a yummy seafood restaurant followed by dessert at the Michigan State University dairy store.  Seriously, best ice cream ever.  Mine had chocolate covered graham cracker pieces and marshmallows! Megan’s had swirls of blue frosting! So worth the long line.

On Saturday, I still managed to still get in my routine.  I got up early for a run, then stopped at Husted’s Market with my dad for some peaches and blueberries.

Later that evening, I caught up with extended family at the reception.  It was a great time with great food! Congrats Scott and Felicia!

The happy couple!

With Mom - eating our vegetables!

Cousins catching up - talking corn soup, nutrition, and med-school

Knowing my love for food, my cousin Jeff (above, who also worked out at Husted’s Market) shared with me a recipe for cold corn soup he’d recently made.  It’s a cold, creamy, and refreshing version with yogurt, mint, and cucumber.  I’ve craved soup lately (weird) so I knew I’d be making this.

After taking my week to recover, this Saturday I made sure to pick up all the ingredients.  Only thing is,  I was really craving roasted red peppers.  I don’t know why.  I’ve never even made them before.  Turn’s out,  they are really easy and really good in chilled corn soup.

Step One: Roasted Red Peppers

Ingredients: 2 medium red bell peppers

1. Pre-heat oven to 450* F
2. Wash and dry peppers, place on baking sheet lined with tin foil
3. Roast on middle rack in oven for about 30 minutes, turning every 10 minutes or so.  The peppers will start to char.
4.  When done, immediately place in a closed brown paper bag, to help loosen the skin, for about 5 minutes.
5. Remove skin and seeds.  I just used my hands.  Don’t rinse, we want to keep that flavor!

Step Two: Blanched Corn

Ingredients: 5 ears of corn, husked; salt

1. While the peppers roast, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
2. While waiting, husk the corn, leaving a handle at the end.  I like to also cut off the tip so that it stand nicely (see picture above).
3.  Once the water is boiling, cook the corn for 5-7 minutes.
4. Optional: While cooking, prepare an ice bath (water + ice) in a large bowl.  Cool the cooked cobs here for easier handling. This also stops the cooking process.
5. Cut the corn off the cob, set aside.
6. Set aside 3 cups of the corn water

Step Three: Make Soup

Ingredients:
6 small shallots roughly chopped
1 Tbs. butter
Corn
Roasted red peppers roughly chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
3 cups Corn Water
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup milk
Cilantro, chopped

1. Rinse and dry large pot used to cook corn.  Heat butter over medium heat.
2. Sauté shallots until translucent.
3.  Add corn, roasted red pepper, and spices to pot. Cook for about 3 minutes.
4.  Add 2 cups corn water, chicken broth and milk.  Simmer gently for about 15 minutes.
5. Transfer to food processor, or blender and puree.  Add corn water as needed to reach desired texture.
6. Chill in refrigerator for several hours.
7. When ready to serve, stir in chopped cilantro. Enjoy!

QUESTION: Are you doing any traveling this summer?  How do you eat healthy while away from home?

Feb 7

Quiche on Sunday

I’ve made an important decision.

Now that I have weekends, I’m going to cook something special on Sundays.  Breakfast, lunch, or dinner, I just want to make a habit of taking time to cook enjoyable meals.  It is a relaxing way to try new recipes , it will be my “me time”.

This weekend I made vegetable quiche, more on that in a minute.

Have you noticed anything different about the blog?  I’ve spent the last month or so playing around with different themes and tossing around ideas.  The site is still a work in progress, but you will find more organization and a larger focus on nutrition, rather than cooking.  No worries though, I’ll still be sharing plenty of recipes!

At the top of the page, you can navigate through the links to learn more about the blog, access interesting food and nutrition blogs, and see what my favorite healthy food of the moment is.  Please let me know your thoughts on the updates, I want this site to be as useful to YOU as possible!

Now on to tastier things…

So I had my mind set on quiche this weekend for some reason.  Not the “quick-throw-together crustless-quiche thats more like baked scrambled eggs for dinner” that we normally have.  I wanted real quiche, with lots and lots of vegetables, melted cheese, and crust – whole wheat crust!  I followed this recipe.

I wish I was better at making pie crust, but I just haven’t mastered it yet.  Luckily, it’s not something I make very often and I found this at the grocery store:

I have to say, it was pretty good! Don’t worry, I’m not kidding myself.  Just because it is whole wheat doesn’t make it so called health-food, it is a pie crust after-all.  I started out by pre-baking the crust for about 15 minutes in a 400* F oven. Then I chopped all my veggies and sauteed them with some dried thyme. (Tip: add the garlic last so it won’t burn!).  The recipe I followed called for sweet onion, bell peppers, zucchini, and garlic.  It really reminds me of spring.  Maybe thats why I was craving it….

The other thing that really drew me to this recipe was that it called for 2 egg yolks, 2 egg whites and non-fat milk.  In my opinion, heavy whipping cream is only good for one thing, whipped cream!  I don’t need my quiche to be that heavy.  I actually ended up using 2% lactose-free milk, because they were out of skim at the store, and I’m okay with that.

I also used Mexican blend cheese because it’s what I had.  Use whatever you like best. And yes, I put the store bought crust in my pretty pie dish to make it look homemade.

We paired our Sunday quiche with a small side salad of romaine and cherry tomatoes and some grapes.  It was the perfect Sunday morning! I can’t wait until next weekend!

Question: Do you eat differently on the weekend than you do during the week?  Do you tend to indulge a little more, like we did?

Aug 18

5 Comments

Goodbye Michigan

Since I last wrote about my experiments with spinach in a smoothie I have been keeping very busy!  I’d like to update you on some of the things I’ve been up to.  I’ve even got a killer recipe for you!

When I wrote about that green smoothie I was trying to use up some frozen spinach before my big move from Mount Pleasant, Michigan to Williamsburg, Virginia.  In the following weeks I continued to try to use up my food supply which resulted in some interesting meals.

I also picked up a free squash and some cucumbers from the break room at work.  I was pretty excited about that.  But not quite as excited as I was when I picked this…

Thats right, my tomato plant produced a tomato! Actually, it produced two tomatoes.  A while back I posted an update on how I had 3 small green tomatoes on the plant.  Well, things weren’t going so great.  I kept watering and watering that darn plant but the little green tomatoes stayed that way, very little and very green.

After about 3 weeks of this I just gave up.  I figured, we were moving soon and I would just toss the plant.  I didn’t want to bring it with me and couldn’t wait for the tomatoes to grow any bigger.    But the boyfriend Jacob didn’t like this idea and decided the tomato plant was now his.  He continued to water it everyday.

And of course, it worked.  The little green tomatoes turned into little red tomatoes.

The whole time this was going on I was continuing to care for my bell pepper plants.  The plant wasn’t doing that great, but I did get two smaller sized green peppers from it.  This was my most successful container garden yet!

My last day of work in Mount Pleasant was August 4th, and I took advantage of the few days I had off before moving to visit some family in Kalamazoo, MI.  The food we had was incredible.  August is such a great time for fresh local food in Michigan!  There was fresh corn on the cob, peaches, blueberries, watermelon, fresh homemade salsa and peach pie.

Husted's Market Michigan Produce (HustedFarmMarket.com)

My favorite dish was something called Cowboy Caviar.  It has avocado in it.  I’ll eat anything with avocado in it.  (see recipe below).  Unfortunately, there wasn’t any left to take home, but I did snag some corn off the cob.

Once back in Mount Pleasant, I got a little creative with the corn.  I added some leftover salsa from the fridge, 1/2 a can of black beans, my chopped up homegrown green bell peppers, and my little red tomatoes.  Perfection!

The next few days were spent packing and preparing for the move.  Who knew I had so much stuff!  We left Michigan August 11th and arrived in Virginia late Thursday August 12.   It was a long, but beautiful drive.

I’ll be posting soon about what life is like in Williamsburg, including some pic’s of my sweet new kitchen!  For now though, enjoy some Cowboy Caviar…

Aunt Mary’s Cowboy Caviar

1 can black beans

1 can corn (or use fresh or frozen)

4 Avocados, pitted peeled and chunked

6 large Roma Tomatoes

1/2 bunch fresh cilantro

2 limes, juiced

3 tsp Tabasco

4 cloves garlic, minced

Salt and Pepper to taste (it is great without too!)

Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and gently toss.  Serve with unsalted tortilla chips for a delicious snack (or if your like me, meal)!

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