I have to admit, one of the things that I love to do most when I get back from a trip is housework. I have done countless loads of laundry in the past couple of days as well as a lot of cooking. In a effort to save both time and money I’ve taken to cooking large batches of goodies then freezing whatever I don’t think we’ll eat within a week.

This winter I’ve been in chili mode. Mainly turkey chili that I make in the huge crockpot my mom gave me a few years ago. (I never thought I’d have such a need for so large a pot but it has certainly come in handy.) The day we got back we went to the store in the evening to get groceries including turkey chili stuff.

I just spied Alicia’s dad’s chili (yum) which I’ll have to try the next round of chili-making (and once I locate liquid smoke, something I haven’t been able to find at the market yet).

I have yet to make the same recipe twice. I wanted something a little spicier this time and yes, in my opinion, I would say this was a medium spicy which can be hot if you plan on eating a big bowl of it! This version is also low sodium and low fat as well as onion and gluten-free. That being said, I thought it was pretty good with some sea salt and cheddar cheese!

“Jen’s Healthy Turkey Chili”

Ingredients:

2.5 lb lean ground turkey

.25-.5 lb pork roast, trimmed of fat and de-boned and cut up

1-28 oz can whole or diced tomatoes (with juice)

1 small can tomato paste

1 can whole corn (with juice)

2 chipotle peppers in adobo, de-seeded and chopped

1/4 c white cooking wine

2 T maple syrup

4 large cloves garlic, crushed

1 T chili powder

2 t oregano

1 T ground coriander

2 t ground cumin

1/4 t cinnamon

1 t bacon salt or regular salt (optional)

1 bay leaf

1 T (heaping) ground unsweetened cocoa

1/4 c cornmeal

Optional garnish: sea salt, shredded cheese, chopped red onions, sour cream…

Directions:  Brown pork in a skillet and add to crock pot. Brown turkey in the skillet, drain (optional if you are using lean meat – I personally don’t drain this, only skim off any foam if it comes up) and add to crock pot. Add the rest of the ingredients to the crock pot and stir. Cook for 4 hours. Serve and garnish. (Wasn’t that easy?)

And for dessert, some gluten-free dark chocolate chip and hazelnut cookies:

This was also an experiment. (Ok, so most of my cooking could be categorized as such.) I bought some gluten-free Trader Joe’s brownie mix, halved the oil and mixed in dark chocolate pieces and chopped hazelnuts. I turned the brownies into drop cookies, used parchment paper on the cookie sheet and baked them for 14 minutes. They are pretty good and very rich (chocolate-wise) .

If anyone tries my turkey chili recipe I’d love to hear your thoughts.

And roast beef. I thought that the title for this post would be too long with “& Roast Beef” and maybe too weird because I’m not sure if I’ve heard of paring figs with beef, but it is good! (And of course, optional.) Great for leftovers or you can do what I did — thanks for the idea Real Simple! — and buy roast beef at the deli counter, sliced 1/2″ thick. Anyway, with the beef added, this salad is definitely a meal.

Fig & Goat Cheese Salad with Couscous (& Roast Beef!)

1/3 c dry couscous

1/2 c water

…

Vinaigrette:

2 T balsamic vinegar

1 T extra virgin olive oil

1 t honey

1 lrg or 2 sml cloves garlic, crushed

4-8 Provence-style or Moroccan black olives (those wrinkly ones), rinsed and sliced thin

1/4 t dried basil

1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper

1/4 t kosher or sea salt (optional)

…

6 fresh black Mission figs, sliced length-wise

1/3 c sugar plum grape tomatoes (or similar), sliced if you like

1/4″ thick slice of red onion, cut cross-wise (like for hamburgers), quartered

1 c cubed roast beef

2 oz goat cheese, crumbled

baby greens

Heat water (doesn’t have to boil, just very hot) and add couscous. Stir and set aside.  Mix the vinaigrette together in a medium-sized bowl. Carefully add in figs. Set aside.  Fluff couscous with fork. If you want to maintain the shape of the figs (so delicate!), remove them from the vinaigrette and set aside. Stir in couscous. Add tomatoes, onions and beef. Then carefully fold in goat cheese and figs.  Serve salad in large serving/salad bowl or individually on a bed of baby greens.  Note: The couscous and dressing can be made in advance. Also, you may want to toss in the onions in the vinaigrette to make them more “pickly” but sometimes I just like them fresh.  Serves 2-4, depending on serving size.

Edited to add: This is pretty garlic so 1 small clove of garlic will do for some people.  You can also use feta instead of goat cheese.