Turkey Chili

Today I made turkey chili in the slow cooker. I started with this recipe from Skinnytaste Kid-friendly Turkey Chili but made some changes based on the comments and the ingredients on hand. I used:

• 1.5 lbs ground turkey
• 2 12 oz cans of crushed tomatoes instead of Rotel and sauce. I blended one can to smooth it out. I also wanted to use organic and avoid added salt.
• Doubled the spices except the salt 
• A cup of frozen tri-color peppers instead of one fresh. The fresh organic ones at the store looked a bit wrinkly and now I have more left for the next batch. 
• Added a can of black beans, rinsed
• Served with pepper jack cheese I shredded myself and low fat sour cream. No avocado because I had some in my smoothie for breakfast. 

This was good - nice and spicy.

Delicious Chickpea and Sausage Minestrone

Last night I tried another new soup recipe. I love homemade soup and it was definitely the weather for it.... the snow was coming down!

This is the next morning.

I was catching up on my magazines and came across this interesting recipe (chickpea and sausage minestrone) in the most recent Cooking Light magazine. I made the soup without the pasta in the afternoon and let it simmer for a bit (it doesn't say you have to do this). I used the turkey sausage crumbles that I had in the freezer and it made it so simple. When we were ready to have dinner I cooked the pasta and added the last few ingredients. I also added a little of the pasta water to give it a little more broth.

I have to admit that I was a little nervous about how this would turn out. It was delicious! Rick and I both enjoyed it! We had it with some oyster crackers, but I'm sure you could have bread or biscuits too. Give it a try on one of these cold winter days! It makes a great lunch the next day too.

Question: I used ground red pepper that I had in the cabinet. I'm not sure whether this is the same as the crushed red pepper they suggest in the recipe or not, so if anyone has any thoughts let me know.