Turkey Chili Verde

It was such a cold day today, overcast and windy. It made me want to cuddle up and eat something super hearty, so I made a chili verde with ground turkey. The main flavorful ingredient is salsa verde. It gives it a distinctive green hue that doesn't properly show up in the photo below. I love the brand Herdez, which is available in most grocery stores, but you can use whatever you prefer.


INGREDIENTS:

1 lb ground turkey
1 lb navy/ white, or any bean will work, rinsed and soaked over night
2 c salsa verde (I used 2 eight oz cans, but you can make it yourself or use a jar of whatever you have, it's not an exact science recipe, so a 14 oz can or 20 oz can would probably work fine)
4 c low sodium chicken or vegetable broth
3 cloves garlic chopped
1 small brown onion chopped
1/2 t cumin
1/2 t paprika
1 t oregano
1/2 t black pepper
1/4 t cayenne
1/2 T olive oil

DIRECTIONS:

Cook beans, broth, salsa, onions, garlic and 1/2 , or so, of the spices in large pot over medium heat for 30 minutes (reserve a bit of the spices to brown the turkey)
Reduce heat to low and simmer for 3-4 hours or until beans are very tender and base becomes cloudy and reduced
Brown Turkey in olive oil with remaining spices over medium high heat for 5 minutes
Add Turkey to pot and raise heat to medium and cook for another 30 minutes
Voila! Easy as that

I like mine with just a tiny bit of a flavorful cheese, such as parmesan. A little sour cream would be nice too. And definitely a little cilantro. I think the Herdez salsa has a good amount of spice but if you want things more spicy, add some jalapeno.
Enjoy

Places You Should Spend Your Money

Below is a list of some cool "green" stores. I use their products and stand behind them. I'm not doing it because it's trendy (well maybe a little but I've always recycled.) The last 2 stores have cool kitchen products, but all the stores have great items.
Regeneration for handmade, recycled and eco products if you're near eagle Rock or Pasadena.
I like the Magazine Box in the gift section and I got a super cool little planter for my birthday, but it must be a one off because I can't find it on the site
The Road Less Traveled store has similar types of products if you're in the Orange County area. They carry recycled, disposable, biodegradable plates made from leftover sugar cane pulp. Sooooo Cooool! We all know we have to use disposable plates sometimes and this is the kind to use.
The Green Life is in Santa Monica and they, again, have the eco products, but I especially like the pet section.

Healthiest Fast Food

from wbbm780 via fark.com is a list of the 10 healthiest fast food restaurants

Taco Town

You should definitely not eat THIS!

Potato Gratin

Potato gratin can be a pretty unhealthy dish when you factor in butter, cream, and cheese. There's also the fact that people still seem to be scared of eating all that starch, even though potatoes are packed with nutrients. I love it. I think it's a fab side dish and it makes a nice presentation. It looks way more complicated than it actually is and it's guaranteed to taste great.






INGREDIENTS:
4 white rose or other starchy potatoes, sliced thin
2 garlic cloves chopped
2 T flour
1/2 c skim milk
1/2 c shredded Parmesan
2 T seasoned bread crumbs
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1/8 t nutmeg
cooking spray

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 375
Slice potatoes thinly about 1/8"
Spray a non stick pan with cooking spray and warm over medium heat
Add garlic to pan and cook until slightly colored, DO NOT BURN
Add milk and nutmeg to pan and cook for about 5 minutes, turn heat down if it starts to burn
In a zipper bag put flour, about 1/3 c of the cheese, salt and pepper
Turn off stove and let milk cool
Toss potatoes into the pan to coat with milk (there will be milk left over)
Then toss the milk coated potatoes in the bag to coat with flour and cheese
Arrange the potatoes in a glass dish about 8x4x3" or a loaf pan (you can use 8x8 too, but the gratin will be flat) so that the potatoes overlap in layers
If there is any cheesy stuff at the bottom of the bag just toss that in the dish
Cover potatoes with remaining milk
Cover dish with foil and cook for 40 minutes
Remove cover and add remaining ,sprinkle top with breadcrumbs and cook an additional 10 minutes

I served mine with baked pork chops, white wine and onion reduction, and asparagus. It's a versatile side dish so it can be served with pretty much anything.

Starter Garden

So you may ask why I read AARP, same reason you read Playboy, the articles! Sorry if I called you out...But actually, my friend gave me an article from AARP on gardening to save money. I think it's a great article for all ages, so read it and start planting.

Apple Tartish Thing

I have a huge blog crush on Orangette. I think the recipes are well thought, the photos are beautiful and the writing is impeccable, I gush. I just happened upon this site a few weeks ago and the blog's been around since 2004... I need to catch up.
While perusing the recipes and past blog posts I found an apple tart-cake recipe that sounded divine and I knew I needed to try it. I emailed the recipe to my boss and she made it yesterday. It was everything you would expect it to be; rich, buttery, sweet, and all around amazing with a slight crunch to the crust. Because I'm trying to make things a bit healthier this month I tried to change things up just a bit. I wanted to keep the integrity of the dish but make it just a bit less buttery.
I pretty much copied the recipe, I hope I'm not crossing the line here. Copyright infringement? Hope Not... But if you clicked the link you saw her recipe, and this is mine:

3/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c Splenda
1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 t baking powder
5 T margarine ( i used smart beat- it was fine)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 /4 c egg substitute
3 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced very thinly

For topping:
2 T brown sugar
1 T Splenda
2 T margarine, melted and cooled slightly
1 t ground cinnamon
1 /4 c egg substitute




I can't believe how well it turned out. I'm not sure of the actual calories, but I know it's about 400 fewer calories in the butter alone. And it tastes great, I put such a negligible amount of the substitute sweetener, you can't taste it.
So if you're like me and care about calories, this may help a little, and you still get the awesome tart. It's worth a try.

Healthier Chicken Marsala

I think Chicken Marsala is a fairly healthy dish, it has a good amount of protein and mushrooms are great for you. I used Emiril Lagasse's Chicken Marsala recipe but made a few changes. I added onions (also high in nutrients) before the mushrooms and sauteed them until they were translucent. I only used 1T of olive oil, 1/4 c flour, low sodium chicken broth, and I used 1/2 c of a white wine I had on hand (I guess this should be called Chicken 2 Buck Chuck) in lieu of the marsala.





I also made a whole wheat french bread that was fabulous. I used a baguette recipe and just substituted half the white flour for whole wheat. I also added 1/2 a T of brown sugar. It turned out perfectly. Also, this recipe just suggests "throwing water on the oven floor." I used a souffle dish that I use for this purpose all the time, which I think is better. Enjoy it warm out of the oven with butter and maybe a little honey. Yummy!

Recipe Make Overs

As I've stated in 2 previous posts, I made a pasta with browned butter and sage for a party I had this weekend. It was a wonderfully tasty concoction, but healthy it was not. One of my guests actually said to me "You know how I know this is good? I just watched you poor a bowl of melted butter into the pasta."
It's true, butter makes everything better. Some recipes just need butter, that's all there is to it. But some recipes can be recreated fabulously with a fraction of the fat and calories. So this is my focus for the coming month, healthy recreations of fabulously fatty foods, and healthy recipes all around. I'm salivating just thinking about it.

Happy to Tell You

My birthday was a success. We had a great little party on Saturday that I catered myself. I estimate about 25 people showed up, which is quite a few people to cook for. I had an easy menu of browned butter sage pasta, beet and goat cheese salad and cold blanched asparagus with coarse salt. There were a few missteps, but no epic failures.

I prepared everything ahead of time, good news in the sense that all I had to do when the guests got here was boil water; bad news because I forgot a few key elements.
#1. I forgot to salt and pepper everything to taste, so it was a little bland. Luckily, I keep these super cute doggy salt and pepper shakers where the s & p comes out of their butts, on the table out in the dining room. Hopefully everyone was able to fend for themselves
#2. I forgot to put the asparagus out all together. This was a total bummer because I bought 4 pounds of it at the store. It was perfect asparagus, slim stalks and super green, and on sale. So now my husband and I will be eating asparagus for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I also made a mistake with the cake, but it turned out totally fine. I made a 2 layer cake with a whipped cream frosting and blackberries. The whipped cream frosting is super easy

1 1/2 c sifted powder sugar
3 cups whipping cream

beat the whipped cream until thick then slowly add the sifted sugar

Easy enough, but I forgot to sift the powdered sugar and just poured everything in together. It worked out fine, but the frosting had a few lumps in it that worried me, but I was like "oh well." After the cake was in the refrigerator for a few hours, the lumps melted and the cake turned out perfectly. Next time I will make the frosting according to directions, but I was very lucky this time that everything turned out ok.