Crock pot Sweet Potato, Turkey and Quinoa Chili

Quinoa....this stuff is....different. I wanted to start cooking healthier and I started researching different grains that are better for you than others. I came across quinoa. I wasn't sure how it tasted and it was fairly new to hit popularity so not many people knew much about it. I originally tried it plain, without any seasonings or sauces because I wanted to see how it tasted. I didn't like it. But I didn't want to rule it out quite yet so I searched on Pinterest for recipes that looked good and could ease me into eating it and I came across this one for a chili where it was mixed with sweet potatoes and ground turkey and I actually really liked it. Most people may not like the initial taste of quinoa, but when you season it right and mix it with other things, it does taste pretty good. I decided to give this chili a try and tho I don't like beans I was able to omit them and still have a tasty meal. If you want the original with the beans in it like typical chili has, click on the link  http://iowagirleats.com/2014/01/13/crock-pot-sweet-potato-and-quinoa-turkey-chili/ and follow their recipe. I'm sure either version is just as good as the other.

*Note: You can buy quinoa rinsed or not, so make sure you check if it's been pre-rinsed before cooking it. The rinsed kind are a lot easier to cook with because when you have to rinse it yourself, it can make a bit of a mess because they're such small little balls, that they stick to everything. You can find bags of it at Costco or Sam's Club.

You'll need:
1 pound ground turkey
1 small onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper
4 cups chicken broth
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped into small chunks
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp red chili pepper flakes In a large skillet, put a little bit of olive oil to coat the pan and saute the chopped onions 5-7 minutes. Add the ground turkey and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook until no longer pink. Make sure to break up the turkey so it's in smaller crumbles as it's cooking. Add garlic and let it cook 30 seconds more. Scrape out pan into your crock pot. Add remaining ingredients and cook on high for 3 hours or low for 6 hours. Check sweet potatoes to make sure they are tender, by sticking a knife through one. Pour into bowl and top with toppings of your choice.

*I topped mine with tortilla strips, shredded cheese and avocado. Fresh cilantro would've been good too.


*Save 1 cup of chicken broth to mix in when refrigerating it so it won't be dry when you reheat it.

Healthy Blueberry French Toast Bake

I love fruit and any chance I get to add fruit to a healthy recipe, I'm trying it. I stumbled across this recipe on Pinterest and thought it was worth a shot. I don't like milk and I've tried soy milk and didn't care for that, but then one day the store had almond milk on sale so I thought I'd give it a try and it actually tasted pretty good. At least the vanilla flavored almond milk does and it doesn't make you feel guilty with all those extra calories that regular 2% milk has that I grew up on. I was able to make this ahead of time and cut it up and have an easy meal for breakfast for the week, that just had to be warmed up.




I got the recipe from http://www.thegraciouspantry.com/clean-eating-blueberry-french-toast-casserole/. I made a few slight changes. You can easily substitute the blueberries for a different kind of berry if you prefer. I'd like to try it next time with raspberries. I also added extra blueberries as you can tell because one, I had them and two, I love berries. I also made a double batch, so if you want to make as much as I did in the picture, double the recipe below.

You'll need:
6 cups cubed, wheat bread
8 egg whites
1 1/2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk (I'd add an extra 1/4-1/2 cup)
1/4 cup honey
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
2 tsp ground cinnamon
3 cups blueberries

Preheat oven to 350. Whisk together the egg whites, almond milk, honey, extracts and cinnamon in a large bowl until everything is combined. For the double batch, I used a 9x13 baking dish. You could use a smaller one if you're just making the normal recipe. Fill the dish with the cubed bread.
Pour the liquid mixture over the bread and allow it to sit for at least 30 minutes until most of the liquid has been absorbed by the bread. Mix in the blueberries. Bake for about 45 minutes or until there is no longer any liquid between the bread. It should look similar to the picture on the right. If you doubled the batch, it will need to stay in for a little bit longer. When it's cool, you can cut it up and serve or put it in containers if you're doing a meal prep and it will be good for the week. Depending on how much you eat, it will last for 4-6 meals.

*It was a little dry, so I'd add a bit more milk next time, but it was still delicious.

Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

I'm not a huge fan of potatoes, but sweet potatoes, are awesome! I always like adding flavor to simple things, to make them extraordinary. I never liked feta or maybe I was scared to try it, but decided to give it a shot one day and turns out, it takes great.

You'll need:
Sweet potato
Feta cheese, crumbled
Chopped spinach, cooked
Chopped Garlic
Salt
Pepper

I like to cook my sweet potato in the oven, but if you're in a hurry, the microwave does just as good to cook it. In the oven, I put the potato on an aluminum foil lined pan and put it in a 400 degree oven for 30-40 minutes depending on how big it is. You can stick a knife in the largest part and if it easily goes through, it's done. In the microwave, I start with 5 minutes and flip it occasionally until a knife slides easily through it. When it's cooked, let it cool slightly so you can handle it. Slice it in half and gently scoop out the potato into a bowl, being careful not to break the skin so you can put it back. Or if you don't care about presentation, just leave it in the bowl. Mash the potato with a potato masher if you have one or just a fork, if you don't. Mix in the feta cheese, spinach and garlic and season it with salt and pepper. Carefully scoop it back into the skin before serving or  eat it straight out of the bowl.

Stuffed Cabbage

I know a lot of people like stuffed peppers, but I'm not a fan of peppers so I go the cabbage route. I love cabbage and by using brown rice and ground turkey, it makes this recipe a pretty healthy one.

Get the head of cabbage a do your best to take it apart without ripping the leaves. Boil a pot of hot water and quickly blanch the leaves. If you don't know what that means, you put them in the hot water until they appear to be wilted so they'll be able to fold up easily after they get stuffed with the meat.

1 large cabbage
2 cans stewed tomatoes

For the meat filling:
  1 1/2 pounds ground beef or ground turkey (I prefer turkey, but they taste the same)
  1 cup cooked rice (white or brown)
  1 1/2 tbsp onion powder
  1 tsp garlic powder

Lay out the pieces and put a log of meat mixture in the center (kind of like a mini meatloaf). Depending on the size of the leave, the meat is usually about 3 in x 1.5 in. Fold over the top and bottom parts of the leaf, followed by the left and right sides so it's rolled up and no filling is showing. Layer them in the pot with a little bit of tomatoes on the bottom and cover them with the remaining stewed tomatoes. If you have extra cabbage, I like to to add it in the pot and eat it on the side. Cover and let simmer for 30-40 minutes. I always cut one open to make sure all the meat inside is cooked. I like to serve with a side of extra rice.

Moroccan Chicken with Green Olives

I've never tried Moroccan chicken before, but I was looking for a new way to cook some boneless skinless chicken breasts. I found this recipe from google and I'm sure glad I did. I LOVE olives and will put them in any recipe that I think they would work in.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/moroccan-chicken-with-green-olives-and-lemon-352532 is the original source that I based my recipe on.

Now, I thought I had lemons, but they turned out to be like a lemon/orange mix that tasted horrible so I didn't put the lemon in. Instead I added a lot more green olives and I halved the amount of cumin because some people aren't huge fans of spicy.


1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
2 cups chicken broth
4 bonless skinless chicken breasts, cut in halves
1 jar green olives. cut in half, pimentos removed


 Heat oil in large skillet over med-high heat. Add onion and sprinkle with salt and pepper; sauté until golden brown, about 6-8 minutes. Add garlic, paprika, cumin, cinnamon and ginger; stir 1 minute. Add chicken broth; bring to boil. Add chicken to skillet. Cover, reduce heat to med-low, and simmer until chicken is cooked through, turning occasionally, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer chicken to platter. Add olives to skillet. Increase heat to high; boil uncovered to thicken slightly, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Put chicken back in skillet, spoon sauce over chicken and serve.

*I served mine with brown rice.

Herb and Citrus Oven Roasted Chicken

  

I stumbled across this recipe on Pinterest one day and it looked pretty good, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

 http://www.thecomfortofcooking.com/2013/04/herb-and-citrus-oven-roasted-chicken.html#comment-23885 is where I got the original recipe from. Feel free to take a look at it.

Before      After

I changed a few things from the original recipe, so I will put what used on here.

1/4 cup olive oil
4 cloves of garlic,chopped
2 tbsp sugar
1 whole lemon, half juiced and half sliced
3 whole oranges, one and a half juiced and one and a half sliced
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
10-12 pieces (about 4 1/2 lbs.) boneless skinless chicken thighs or chicken breasts cut in half
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp dried rosemary


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix together olive oil, garlic, sugar, lemon juice, orange juice, Italian seasoning, paprika, onion powder, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper. If you plan on marinating the chicken, now is the time to put the mixture and chicken in a ziploc bag and put into the refrigerator. I marinated the chicken overnight to make sure it was as flavorful as possible. If not marinating, then move to the next step. Place chicken in a single layer in a 13x9 baking dish. Pour olive oil mixture all over chicken, turning pieces to coat all sides. Arrange slices of lemon, orange and onion around and under the chicken. Sprinkle all over generously with rosemary, salt and pepper.
Cook for 30-35 minutes until the juices run clear.

*I tried eating the oranges after and didn't think they tasted good at all, but the chicken was delicious.

Cilantro Lime Rice

I love wild rice, but it's not the easiest to find and it sure isn't the cheapest either. I came across a mix from Bob's Red Mill at a place called Big Lots, that has both wild and brown rice in it and it's perfect for any kind of rice pilaf. I like to use this mix and throw it in my rice cooker. This recipe, you can use white or brown or a mix if you have it and you can put it in a rice cooker or cook it on the stove according to the instructions on the package. It's a fairly simple recipe.

All you need is:

Rice - whatever kind you want
Fresh cilantro - chopped
Salt
Limes or lime juice ( I keep a bottle of lime juice in the fridge)
Oil - whichever kind you use: olive, canola, vegetable

Cook the rice like you normally do, but add a teaspoon or so of oil. While rice is cooking, chop up the cilantro and squeeze the juice from the limes, if you're using fresh and set aside. The amount you need is all based on how much rice you're cooking and if you prefer your rice with extra cilantro or more sour or more salty. On average for two cups uncooked rice, I use 1 bunch of cilantro 1-2 limes and maybe a half to a teaspoon of salt. When cooking, it's always best to try your food as you go, tasting for the right amount of each ingredient. When the rice is done, add cilantro, salt and lime juice, little at a time, mixing and tasting in between because you can always add more on something, but you can't take it out. Taste it. If it looks or tastes too dry, you can always add a tad more oil, just enough to coat all the rice. And there ya go, cilantro lime rice.