Thursday, November 20, 2008

Recipe review, Turkey "Dinner", and the Rockettes


Today has been a busy day. Well, first I will review the turkey chili I made yesterday. It was good. I made a few changes though. I made mine with lean beef. I used a can of tomato sauce instead of chopped tomatoes ( Amara has a thing about chunks of tomatoes) and I used black beans in addition to the kidney beans the recipe called for-we love beans and 1 can just seemed like it was not going to be enough. This chili was a bit "soupier" than we normally make. Amara even made the comment, " This is not chili, it's soup." It just had more liquid then we are used to. It's not very spicy at all, but you can doctor up your individual bowl if you want to.

This recipes "hidden" veggies were red pepper and carrots..both are on the bottoms of the list of Amara's favorite things. She had no clue either. She also made a comment of " Yum, dinner smells sooo good!" Little did she know I was sauteing onions ( " I don't like onions momma") She ate it right up!

Today Amara had her turkey dinner at school. It was at 11:30am so it was really lunch, but she got upset if I said it was lunch. Matt and I were able to attend. It was really nice. They had everything. Turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls and nasty cranberry sauce. I can't stand that stuff. We were able to stay for about 45 minutes. Amara only went to school for part of the day because she and I and a friend and her daughter went to see the Rockettes perform!

The Rockettes' Christmas Spectacular Tour made a stop in Grand Rapids this year. I was not sure Amara was old enough to enjoy the show since she is not big on loud noises and big productions. But I gave her the benefit of the doubt and was pleased that she sat through the entire 1.5 hour show ( in her own seat and not on my lap) without complaint! I was also not sure if this was my kind of thing. I changed my mind after seeing how much Amara enjoyed it. She is big into all things that sparkle and the outfits had plenty of bling too. We had a great photo opportunity while we were headed to the car- 3 of the rocekettes were coming out of the building, but Amara got suddenly shy, so no picture! She did fall asleep on the 10 minute drive home though!




Turkey chili
1 tbsp olive oil

½ cup red onion, chopped

1 pound turkey,

ground 2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp chili powder, or to taste

1 tsp salt

½ tsp sweet paprika

⅛ tsp pepper

15 ounce chopped tomatoes

26 ounce chicken broth, (low sodium, reduced fat)

1 large red pepper, pureed (about ½ cup puree)

1 cup carrot, pureed (about ½ cup puree)

¼ cup cornmeal

2 tbsp flaxseed meal

15 ounce kidney beans, drained and rinsed
Coat the bottom of a large pot with cooking spray and set it over medium heat. When the pot it hot, add the oil. Add the onion and cook until it begins to soften, about 2 minutes. Meanwhile, sprinkle the turkey with the garlic, chili powder, salt, paprika and pepper. Add the turkey to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until the turkey is no longer pink, 5 to 6 minutes. Stir in tomatoes. Add the broth, red pepper puree, carrot puree, cornmeal and flaxseed meal, and stir well. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer, covered, 15 to 20 minutes, or until the flavors have blended. Stir in the beans and cook a little longer, just to heat them through.

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