Organic Black Bean, Turkey, 'Shroom Chili with Dean and Deluca spices

Chili for someone else because it has no GARLIC in it and 

I L O V E Garlic!!  

But, I have a good friend who just had back surgery, and she and her husband like my chili that I make just for them. The first time I made it, their request was no garlic, no onions, no mushrooms and not spicy & made with ground turkey and black beans.  SAY WHAT?!? That isn't chili!!  But over the years, they have decided that everything but the garlic is ok, so this is how I make it now, just for them. Since it's a pretty good dish, I decided to blog it.  At the end I'll tell you what I would add to it for me!  

First, I bring out the big crock pot so they can have some to eat and some to freeze.

I used over a pound of Shelton's ground turkey from happy pastured turkeys with a little S & P and I sautéed that in a little bit of olive oil just to brown it, then put it in the crock pot with the tomatoes and tomatoe paste.

Then I sautéed the shallots and mushrooms in a little olive oil and added that in. If you wanted to make this vegetarian, the mushrooms are meaty and hearty and make a great meat substitute or just a great addition to chili with meat or turkey.

Then I dumped in the rest of the ingredients and spices and turned it on low in the crockpot where it will stay for the next 8 hours or so.

Ingredients

1 or more pounds of ground turkey or beef

2 cans of organic black beans, drained and rinsed (if you remove these, it becomes #PALEO
2 cans of organic petite diced tomatoes
1 10 oz package Trade Joes crimini mushrooms, chopped up fine
2 medium shallots chopped up fine
1 jar yellow and red roasted peppers from Trader Joes chopped up
Equivalent of 1 can of tomatoe paste, though I squirted it out of a tube

2 small turkish bay leaves  

Dean and Deluca Chili Powder Blend which is what sets my chili apart from other chili because it is a rich dark perfect blend of spices!
Dean and Deluca Hungarian paprika, greek oregano, basil, thyme and cumin to taste. they don't like things 'spicy' so i never use more than a teaspoon of anything and mostly just a pinch.  Last time I made it they said it was kind of boring, because I barely used any spices, so i upped the chili powder blend in this one!  They just don't like 'hot' spicy things I think . . . or garlic!

If I was making it for me, I would add a ton of fresh grated garlic, greek black olives chopped up, red chili pepper flakes, Louisiana hot sauce & more fresh peppers chopped up. 

I would serve it with greek yogurt and colby/jack cheese shredded on top of it and maybe some more olives chopped up on top.  I USED to serve it with crushed up fritos and sour cream and cheese on top.  It was yum, but I don't eat fritos anymore :( 

Baked Tilapia with Olive Tapenade & Cauliflower Mash

Another (sort of) Paleo friendly meal

As I might have mentioned, I am eating dairy on my new lifestyle change of eating, way of life, so not pure Paleo. Though I still say that none of us were there at the time of the cavemen, so who really knows!?  

This was the easiest meal to make because I used some pre-prepared foods.

Trader Joe's has a new Mediterranean Olive tapenade that has a lot of good stuff in it.

I took a piece of tilapia and covered it with the tapenade, baked it in the oven for about 30 minutes at 350.

Then I made a variation of my favourite cauliflower mash with cheese and garlic in it.  I used a bag of microwave cauliflower and placed whole garlic cloves in with it, to soften the garlic & some butter with S&P to taste.

added the garlic and some shredded cheese then used my immersion blender to get it smooth.  Yum!!

Healthy Vegetable Soup #Paleo #Diabetes #vegetarian #South Beach

Big batch of healthy vegetable soup!

One thing I have always loved is soups.  I have started making them in the crockpot and pretty much throwing in all the veggies I have and letting it be different every time. I eat it before dinner so that I get vegetables and it fills me up so I don't eat as much for dinner.  

I made a big batch of this the other day and then froze individual portions to have at a later time. I also sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top before I eat it.

I always put two things in for the base. One large can organic diced tomatoes,and one box Trader Joe's Organic Hearty Vegetable broth.

This is what I put in the soup this time.  Trader Joes sliced crimini mushrooms, a whole bag, two organic golden beets peeled and sliced, one organic sweet potato sliced, one sweet mayan onion sliced, one large organic broccoli crown broken up,  three organic carrots peeled and chopped, & three stalks celery chopped, some organic green beans cut in half, a couple of yellow summer squash and at the very end, a half a bag of organic spinach.  I like big chunks of vegetables in my soup so I do a rough large chop. I try to buy everything organic.  I season with S&P, lots of grated fresh garlic, Louisiana Hot sauce and  SPIKE .

This was the finished product in the crockpot! It's really good! Use your imagination. Cook on low in the crockpot 8 hours or 4 hours on high, depending on how crunchy you like your vegetables.

What's for Paleo breakfast, Part Two!

These are another variation on eggs in muffin tins.

This time I used one of my new favourite things, chicken apple breakfast sausages by Aidell, sliced them up and put a couple slices in the bottom of each of the sprayed muffin tins. For the 6 muffins, I cut up 3 green scallions, and divided those between the 6 muffins.  I then took 3 eggs and about 3/4 cup of egg whites, beat those with some S&P, put in a handful of shredded cheese and poured in some Louisiana Hot Sauce, to taste.

You can also make these by dicing up a bunch of veggies like peppers, green onion, broccoli,mushrooms, artichokes diced up & use canadian bacon or ham all diced and added into the sprayed muffin tin, then just beat the eggs that you have added the shredded cheese & S&P, i also add hot sauce, pour OVER the veggies & meat, and bake at 375 for about 20-25 minutes.   

What IS for breakfast? Paleo conundrum!

Breakfast - it can get boring, but you can make a lot of variations of this dish.  This is what I had this morning.

Baked eggs & turkey bacon in a muffin cup 

Pre-heat oven to 375

I sprayed the muffin cups with non-stick spray and lined them with one piece of turkey bacon.  You could also use real bacon or canadian bacon or even some ham. I wanted to use up my turkey bacon, because I do eat real bacon.

I took 2 eggs, 1/2 cup egg whites, a handful of shredded cheese, Mt. Olive sliced jalapeno peppers, S & P.  Whipped that all together and divided amongst the four muffin cups. 

Sorry this is a bad photo, the muffin tin is one of those flexible ones, and it's red! you can take the extra ones out and put in a plastic bag to eat the next day or freeze them if you make a big recipe. Let hem cool for 20 minutes before you put them in the fridge (they will keep for a week) or freezer.

**You can also make these by dicing up a bunch of veggies like peppers, green onion, broccoli,mushrooms, & use canadian bacon or ham all diced and added into the sprayed muffin tin, then just beat the eggs that you have added the shredded cheese & S&P, i also add hot sauce, pour OVER the veggies & meat, and bake at 375 for about 20-25 minutes.   

What to have for lunch ... Paleo + diabetes

My biggest conundrum is what to eat for breakfast, lunch and snacks in order to keep my blood sugar from not dropping too low during the day with my meds. 

Once I make a big dinner, I have that left over for other meals, but I need to have more things prepared that I can grab and throw together when I'm starving. Which I am a lot of the time.

Today, I was in a lot of knee pain and not moving too quickly after running some errands, it was later in the day, so I had to find something quick . . .  with protein and veggies. 

I still had some of my veggie soup left that I made.  I hadn't blogged the making of the soup, since it was the first week of, during detox from grains, sugar, processed foods & bad crap.

This is what I did for the soup though, and you can use any vegetables you have in your house. . 

i put some olive oil in a big pot on the stove. 

Then I cut up veggies that i had in the house, all pretty chunky
fresh green beans
golden beets, peeled and sliced
Crimini mushrooms sliced
red onion sliced
yellow summer squash
broccoli flowerets
and sautéed them for maybe 5 minutes or so

i would have added a can of organic diced tomatoes, but all i had was a small can of tomatoe sauce and one box of Trader Joe's vegetable broth so I added that then let it simmer covered until it was done.

S&P, fresh grated garlic and a ton of SPIKE which is a seasoning.

For lunch, I had one leftover turkey meatball from the other day, so I chopped that up and put it into the soup and heated it up on the stove.  Voila!  Hearty, healthy, Paleo lunch.