Low Carb Camping Chili

Every year my family goes camping for Father's day and every year I make chili in advance for us to have for dinner. It's delicious. But this year I had to make some changes to make it suit my new low carb, healthy eating. It's delicious, so I thought I would share. I made up this recipe, adapted from years of making chili.

 I brown some ground turkey with a little olive oil, chili powder, cumin and chipotle chili spice (my kids won't eat the chili so I can make it spicy).  Then I add peppers, carrots, one can of kidney beans and let it all cook together.

At the same time I caramelize some onions in olive oil with sugar and a little nutmeg. Trust me, it's worth using the sugar. I use one onion and 1 Tbsp of sugar.

 My tomatoes and beans of choice. Normally I use 3 different types of beans but to cut down on the carbs, I only used one can of kidney beans. Eden Organic brand has no added salt so super low in sodium.

 After the onions are done, I add them to the turkey mixture and I add a little more olive oil to the pan and cook up the mushroom. Mushrooms are always better when cooked before adding to the chili.

Look how colourful it is.

Then I add my tomatoes and one can of tomato paste and viola, chili. I continually check the flavour and add more cumin and chili powder, if it needs it. If you like lots of spice, you could add hot sauce too. It's super thick but thins out after I have to cool and reheat it while camping. It's always so much better on the second day.

Cauliflower Pile Up

This one's a gooder. Tonight we had a pile up, which normally I would make with potatoes but tonight I made it with cauliflower (you know, the no/low carb thing). So yum.

I sauteed mennonite sausage, onions, yellow and red peppers, corn (just a little), mushrooms and tomatoes (added at the end). I added cumin and a little chili powder for extra flavour.

I also boiled up some cauliflower till it was soft, mashed it with a teaspoon of sour cream and some onion dip mix (Epicure of course).

I threw the mashed cauliflower into a bowl, topped with the sausage/veggie mix, and then threw on some cheese (just a little for me - the picture is Leigh's dinner). I also added some avocado on top. You could top it with fresh cilantro or sour cream or salsa as well.

So yummy and my serving was less than 500 calories.

Dinner - Copy & Paste Sara's dinner - Done

Sara: "What are you going to make for dinner tonight?"
Kelsey: "I have no idea, you?
Sara: "I'm doing pork."
Kelsey: "That's a good idea."
~End of conversation~
Result? Basically the same dinner.
<--- Asian Pork with salad!
Everyone else had noodles, I had spaghetti squash for my "noodles".
Yum yum yum!

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup lite soy sauce
• 1/4 cup sesame oil
• 2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
• 2 tbsp light brown sugar
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pepper
• 1 (2 lb)  fat-trimmed pork tenderloin

Mix 1st 6 ingr, marinate pork for 8 hours (Ya right...didn't marinate at all...) Brown pork in hot pan on all sides. Bake at 400F for 20 mins (ish!) - Bake till internal temp reaches 160 F. Slice it up and enjoy!! Again Yum yum yum!!

Barbecue and Corn

 Another dinner worthy of sharing.

I marinated prawns in lime juice, cilantro and peanuts then barbecued them.

I also roasted veggies again (apparently I'm in love with roasted veggies).

Warning: fried food ahead.

I made corn fritters. So yummy. 3 cups frozen corn, 2 eggs, about 1/3 cup of flour, 1/4 cup of cornmeal, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar and salt and pepper. Dropped into some hot oil and perfection.

I always follow directions the first time I make something but next time I'm going to try to cook these without the oil (either bake them or just in a non-stick).

I served it all together with some homemade chipotle mayo for some added spice.

Spring Dinner

 Tonight's dinner was roasted veggies - done in a basket on the barbecue. Just lightly tossed in olive oil before roasting them.

Delicious.

 Fresh from the oven foccacia bread. I used this recipe but substituted half the flour with whole wheat flour.

Again, delicious.

I served it all together with some chicken and salad (the chicken was left over, reheated and tossed in barbecue sauce then served on top of the salad).

Perfection and everyone loved it.

Taco Tuesdays

Every Tuesday we have tacos. My boys love them and they're easy and it's one less meal I have to plan or think about. What our tacos look like varies from week to week.

This week was homemade tortillas. I just bought a tortilla press (see the first picture) and so we made corn tortillas and then we stuffed them with chicken, corn and black beans, tomatoes, lettuce, guacamole and salsa. My family is off dairy for the moment so we without cheese. But we didn't miss it. It was a perfect meal and the kids ate everything. So delicious.

 (the press is from Epicure, the recipe is masa harina - corn flour - with water. so super easy.)

Spanish Rice

So...while on the phone with Sara this afternoon, I said, "What should I make for dinner?" As per usual, whatever she says next, provides me with the inspiration I need. She told me about the chicken enchiladas she was making and I decided to do the same! (shocker...)

I don't know about you, but often, I start cooking one thing and it ends up different than planned. Tonight's dinner wasn't too much different, but I did change my mind part way through cooking. I went with Spanish Rice. I do this a lot. It's easy, fast, yummy, filling, healthy, cheap and BIG!

Spanish Rice
(Huge - for the many eaters in my home and/or leftovers)

-2 cups uncooked brown rice (I have a rice cooker and couldn't live without it)
-2-3 large chicken breasts
-1 large onion, chopped small
-1 green pepper, chopped small
-2 stalks celery, chopped small
-1.5 cups mushrooms, halved then sliced
-1 large tomato, chopped small (or canned diced tomatoes)
-1 cup canned crushed tomatoes (or tomato sauce)
-1 cup corn
-1.5 cups grated cheddar cheese
-olive oil for frying
-taco seasoning (Epicure's my fav - have you looked at the sodium content in grocery store seasoning? ew)

1. Put your rice on - in rice cooker or stove

2. Cook chicken in a bit of hot olive oil in fry pan - I put breasts in pan still partially frozen, fry for a bit, remove, chop into bite size pieces, return to pan, fry till done. - I like to kinda mush up (that sounds gross) break up the bite sized pieces into more of a "ground" chicken, for my Spanish rice.

3. fry onion, mush, green pep and celery (separate from chicken) in hot olive oil till soft

4. add corn, all tomato and taco seasoning

5. when rice and chicken are cooked, add them to the veggies

6. add cheese, mix it all up - Serve!

Enchiladas - Cinqo de mayo

So in celebration of cinqo de mayo in a couple of days and because my family loves Mexican food, we had enchiladas tonight. I was making dinner for another family as well so it was a great dinner to make a double batch of to deliver to our friends.

Mexican is often our favourite meal around here because you can pretty much throw anything in and tonight was no exception.

 I put a ton of veggies in so there is corn, red and orange peppers, onions, black beans. I also sometimes add mushrooms, tomatoes, really anything that I've got.

I cooked up some diced chicken first. Then added all the veggies and sauteed them until just soft. I added taco seasoning (Epicure is my favourite).

 I also cooked up some brown rice using salsa and water to cook it in for some extra flavour. (I usually use about half a cup of salsa, 1 1/2 cups of water to 1 cup of brown rice).

 I added the rice to the meat and veggies in the pan and cooked for another minute till all the flavours were all yummy together.

I used whole wheat tortilla shells and put some of the chicken, veggie, rice mixture in a tortilla with some fresh chopped cilantro and cheese and then rolled them and laid them in a baking pan.

After all the enchiladas were rolled I put some diced tomatoes with a little taco seasoning added on top with some more cheese and then baked, uncovered, at 350 for about 25 minutes or till just browning up.

 I served them with sour cream, peach salsa and homemade guacamole.

For some extra veggies I served the enchiladas with a simple salad.

Such a delicious dinner. My kids even ate it with minimal complaining. They like it best when the tortillas are crispy on the edges, then it feels like they're eating chips. I made it earlier in the day and then reheated it in the oven for 10 minutes before serving.

Easter Baking

I love to bake. I love to eat baking. It's a nasty combination. I baked cupcakes and sugar cookies for Easter events.

My boys and I made simple sugar cookies with an easter egg cookie cutter and then the boys decorated them with icing and sprinkles. They weren't too pretty but they were delicious.

I made lemon cupcakes - recipe from this blog. So delicious. Iced with a buttercream icing dyed yellow and blue with jelly bean eggs.

Parmesan Chicken

Dinner tonight: Parmesan Chicken, Linguine Alfredo and Caesar Salad.

Chicken:
Panko, Parmesan cheese and pesto seasoning mixed together. Dip the chicken pieces or breast in a beaten egg and then into panko mixture, put in a shallow dish (with some olive oil) and bake at 375 until chicken is cooked (20-45 minutes depending on the size of the chicken pieces)

Pasta:
Just a simple alfredo sauce tossed over whole wheat linguine. I served the chicken on top of the pasta.

Caesar Salad:
This is a family favourite. I don't use a recipe so my measurements are not exact and it turns out a little different everytime:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp whole grain mustard
1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
dash of hot sauce
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 Tbsp parmesan cheese

Blend the ingredients together (I use a mini food processor), cover romaine lettuce or baby greens with dressing. I like to add a little more cheese to the salad and I make my own croutons by using stale bread and just sauteing them in olive oil and garlic.

This is a very garlicy dinner, so dessert is a must. And a glass of wine.

Easy Strawberry Pie

This is so easy to make and so delicious when it's done. It's a great way to use up strawberries.

 You need:
1 9" pie shell (make your own or cheat and use a store bought)
4 cups fresh strawberries
1 cup white sugar
3 Tbsp corn starch
3/4 cup water

Bake the pie shell.

Cut up half the strawberries.

Arrange the cut strawberries in the cooked pie shell.

 mash the other 2 cups of strawberries and put them in a saucepan with 1 cup of sugar. Heat over medium heat, stirring, until boiling.

Whisk the water and corn starch together and add slowly to the boiling berry mix.

Lower the heat and simmer until thickened. Takes about 5-10 minutes. Keep stirring.

Pour the thickened strawberry sauce over the cut strawberries in the pie shell.

Put in the fridge and chill until set (a few hours).

You can serve this with whipped cream or ice cream.

Yum.

(ps. This is not a low calorie dessert, sorry)

1st Ever Blog Entry? - PORK

So we've got two 16 year old boys from Japan with us for 2 weeks. I'm doubling my family's meals right now. Man these guys eat a lot. I little glimpse into my future? (Aahhhh the grocery bills to come!) Last night I did super easy: Chinese 5 Spice Pork Tenderloin Pork Tenderloin (Cheapest at Costco) 1/2 cup soy sauce (I prefer Japanese over Chinese) 1/2 cup water 2 tsp Chinese 5 Spice (Epicure's my fav) - you're going to see that a lot....

• Put everything in a big ziplock bag and marinate for a few hours or all day


• Fry pork on all sides till browned


• Bake at 375F till internal temp reaches 160F, 20-30 mins (buy yourself a digital meat thermometer, just do it!)

Done! Yum!

Now it's today....and I ask....What should I make for dinner?

At the start

Dinner.

I'm always looking for new ideas for dinner. I have to cook low calorie (more on that another time), balanced and interesting meals that my whole family will eat. It's a challenge with my 2 picky eaters. I read a lot of cookbooks and spend lots of time online trying to be inspired. So tonight I made soup. Delicious butternut tomato soup with onion biscuits on the side. Three of the four of us ate it, which are good odds in my house.

We try to have at least 2 meatless dinners per week. One is almost always soup. The more I read about health, food and the food industry the more I want to eat more vegetarian meals.

Butternut Tomato Soup (adapted from Double Delicious):
1 small onion
2 stalks of celery
olive oil
one peeled and diced butternut
4 cups low or no sodium vegetable broth (I love Epicure's broths, low sodium and delicious)
1 can diced tomatoes (low sodium if you can find it - Eden brand is good, homemade is better)
1/2t sea salt
1/2t pepper

I started by roasting my squash in the oven for about 1/2 hour till soft. Then I softened the onions and celery in the oil in a stock pot. I added the squash to the stock pot, as well as the broth, tomatoes, salt and pepper. I cooked it at a medium heat for about 10 minutes. Then I put the soup into the food processor and blended till smooth-ish. I garnished with a little Parmesan cheese. Makes about 6 servings at under 100 calories per serving. Delicious.

Onion biscuits (these are an Epicure recipe and I love them):
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 cup cold butter, cubed
1 1/2 cups cold milk
2 Tbsp onion seasoning (Epicure's 3 onion dip mix is great)
2Tbsp melted butter (optional)

Mix the dry ingredients. Crumble the butter in by hand until mixture is course crumbs. Mix milk and onion seasoning together. Add to the dry ingredients and mix until clumpy. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until dough holds together. Shape into an 8"square and cut into 16 squares. Put onto a parchment lined baking sheet (brush with melted butter if you want to). Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown at 425 degrees.

**full disclosure - I forgot to take a picture of dinner so the soup in the picture is not mine, but it's pretty don't you think?