Chili on a Hot Summer Night

I made chili tonight since I forgot to grab meat out of the freezer this morning before I left for work. Since ground meat (turkey in this case) is one of the easier meat to defrost by microwave, it was decided that it's turkey chili night! My husband loves it when I make chili because I always add a bit of a kick. I like that too. :) This meal is also a good one if you're on a lesser carb diet. It's just full of turkey meat, beans (yay for more fulfilling proteins), and veggies!

I use Rachel Ray's Beef and Black Bean Chili but completely change things around to "make it my own". I figure it's chili, so anything I dump in there should taste good!

Turkey Chili with The Veggies You Love

Ingredients
- 3/4 lbs ground turkey
- 1 green pepper
- 1/4 red onion
- 2-3 cloves of garlic
- 1 can of diced tomatoes
- 3/4 can of kidney beans (I think any beans is fine, but I like kidney. Save the rest of 1/4 beans for a salad or something!)
- 8 oz tomato sauce
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tsp worcestershire sauce
- 1 TBSP chili powder
- ~1/2 tsp hot sauce (add at your discretion!)
- 1 broccoli bunch (for garnish, another added healthiness to the meal)

Dice the green pepper and red onion into bite sizes. Cut the broccoli into pieces.

Not pictured here is the diced garlic.









These are other characters for the chili-goodness. Diced tomatoes, kidney beans, tomato sauce, worcestershire sauce, chili powder, and hot sauce (purchased in Texas!)

(Note: you see a can of corn in this picture but at the last minute, looking at the amount of chili made, I decided not to add corn.)

Another tip for making a fulfilling and healthy chili, add any kind of veggie you want. I've added mushroom, zucchini, and corn. Anything that can withstand boiling, go for it!!

So as I mentioned before, I used ground turkey for the chili... I chose turkey because it's pretty healthy. I used 3/4 lbs ground turkey (which is half of the 1.5 lbs turkey they sell at supermarkets).

To start making this meal, heat a deep pan with 1 TBSP olive oil. Add the turkey, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, and the worcestershire sauce. Break up the meat with your cooking utensil and brown the meat. When browned, turn the heat down to med-high and add the garlic, onion, and green pepper. Then add the chili powder. Saute this pretty colorful bunch! It smells fairly good by now!

When the veggies look like it's getting some cooking going, add 1/4 cup of water. By now it should seem pretty dry, since we're using turkey, so the water really helps.

Now it's time to add all the canned stuff - diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and kidney beans. It's also time to add the hot sauce - don't go too crazy because as you let the chili boil, the spiciness comes out. Also taste the chili so that it's just right for you.

Once the mix comes to a boil, turn the heat down to medium. Cover the pot and let it boil for a good 4-5 minutes. Check on it... you don't want your veggies to become too mushy.

At the same time as the chili is boiling, cook the broccoli. Boil it in hot water in a separate pot and put it on top of the chili. To make it prettier for this blog, I added two dried snow peas as garnish also - a simple dipping fun.

Our dinner - turkey chili with pomegranate mint drink (POM Wonderful pomegranate mango juice, sparkling water, and chopped mint). The iced cold drink is a nice complement to this hot chili on a hot evening!