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.

Healthy Asian cooking

Tonight's dinner.

 This is what my family ate. Pork tenderloin with veggies and noodles. All cooked in Asian 5 spice, soy sauce (or Bragg's) and ginger. Topped with sesame seeds and chopped green onions.

This is what I ate. Same as above without the noodles. I bought pre-chopped broccoli and carrots and cooked those with more carrots and peppers. The sliced broccoli made it feel like I was eating noodles, but without the carbs.

Yummy.

Healthy healthy

These are not very exciting posts but seriously, my dinner tonight was delicious, simple and healthy. Love it.

Tonight was frittata (I promise it's there, under all the yummy goodness). I made a bell pepper and mennonite sausage frittata. I used three full eggs and two egg whites, sausage ( I prefer mennonite sausage - it's lower in fat and so delicious when it's fried up), 3 colour bell pepper and a tiny bit of shredded cheese. It took all of 10 minutes to make. I served it with diced avocados and cilantro on top. YUM.

And of course, I served it with a salad because we can never have enough vegetables.

Eating well

For June, Kelsey and I have pledged to lose weight and get healthy (we have some specific goals). I've been doing this since January but have hit a plateau so I need to step it up. As a result, our dinners are not terribly fascinating, but there are still delicious so I thought I would share tonight's healthy dinner:

-Grilled veggies (done on the barbecue)
-salad (always and delicious)
-barbecued chicken with an avocado and tomato salsa on top (avocado, tomato, lemon juice and cilantro)
-my boys also had homemade tzatzki and whole wheat pita (I am abstaining from carbs at dinner)

Delicious, healthy, low calorie and low carb. Perfect.

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.

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.