Chili

As I said in my last post, fall is here and I'm excited to start cooking up some great fall recipes!  The first on my agenda is chili.  This is another recipe that I've stolen from my mom because it's a delicious warm dinner for those cool fall nights.

Chili

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground turkey
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup green pepper, chopped
• 1/2 cup celery, chopped
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon crumbled dried oregano
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 can petite diced tomatoes
• 1 small can tomato paste
• 1/2 cup turkey broth
• 1/2 cup water
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
• 2 cups drained beans (any kind will do)
• sour cream or plain Greek yogurt (optional)

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large pot and add meat
2. Cook meat, chopping down and stirring meat to break it apart
3. Add onions, peppers, celery, oregano, bay leaves, chili powder, and cumin; stir to blend
4. Add tomatoes, paste, broth, water, and red pepper flakes; stir to blend
5. Bring chili to a boil then reduce heat to medium and cook for about 20 minutes; stir often
6. Add beans and cook for about 10 minutes longer
7. Garnish with sour cream and serve with corn bread

I cut this recipe in half from the original recipe and I used ground turkey instead of 1 pound ground pork and 1 pound ground beef.  I adjusted the spices as well, but kept the amount of beans the same.  Play around with the recipe and make it your own.

Michael helped with the corn bread and we had a great dinner!  The first words out of his mouth after his first bite were, "wow that's spicy, but man is it good!"  I'll take that as a compliment and add this to the list of recipes to repeat!

Now that we have tons of left overs for the week, I'll have some time to start planning for my next fall meal!  For now enjoy this recipe and the beautiful fall weather that we're having here in New England!