Brown Dump Chili

I love to cook, but sometimes all I want is to dump a bunch of ingredients in a pot and come back an hour later to a piping hot bowl of flavorful comfort.  I need my unproductive internet perusing and phantom shopping time, which means I can’t spend every ounce of my free time in the kitchen.  That’s what I love about this chili.  You simply brown the turkey then dump everything in the pot.

Dump Turkey Black Bean Chili (4 of 9)

Perhaps, at first glance, the name Brown Dump Chili is unappealing to some.  Given the two-step process behind the chili, I’m sure you wholeheartedly agree the name is appropriate (or, at the very least, foretelling).

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Healthified Gyros & Tzatziki Saucziki

Tonight, I had a craving for gyros.  Mmmmmm…. Can’t remember the last time I had one of those.

The task at hand:  satisfy this craving as healthfully as possible.

I decided to go with ground turkey for the meat to stuff my gyro.  I combined the following ingredients and formed a meat “log” which I cooked on the george foreman grill for about 7 minutes.

  • 5 ounces 99% lean ground turkey
  • sprinkling of dried oregano, S&P, garlic powder, onion powder, dried parsley, red pepper flakes

Then I sliced the meat into long strips and placed atop a Joseph’s Low Carb Pita:

And topped it off with the KEY component of any gyro:  Tzatziki Sauce!  I mixed up the tzatziki sauce about an hour before grilling the meat.  It consisted of:

  • 2 tbsp Oikos plain greek yogurt
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp grated cucumber
  • S&P, Dill weed
  • 1 clove garlic, minced

Tzatziki ingredients in the bowl:

All together now!

I used some of the leftover cucumber to make a small cucumber salad (sliced cucumber, dill weed, white vinegar):

YUM!!!  This really hit the spot!  I do want to note that the meat was a little on the dry side.  I personally didn’t really mind because I doused it in the yummy Tzatziki sauce.  Next time, I’ll either add some of the shredded cucumber to the meat or try shredded zucchini and/or onion.

Stats on the gyro:  278 calories, 24g carbs, 4g fat, 39g protein, 7g fiber

 

Despite this delicious dinner, the night did not end on such a happy note:

What’s that, you ask?  Ohhhh… that….  Whelp, that’s my iPhone, chilling in some rice, because I apparently dropped it on my way in the door and let it sit outside in the rain for three hours.  🙁

Hopefully this rice trick I found on google with do the trick and suck all the water out!

 

QUESTION OF THE EVENING:  What was the dumbest thing you did today?

P.S. to respond to this question click the little blue button that says “Leave a comment” … look right below this line… just a little further… You can do it! 😉

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Confession

So, I have a confession to make.
  
  

Before we get into that matter, let’s recap lunch and dinner:      

As posted earlier, I was ill-fated this morning so I decided some pizza for lunch would help me come around.      

Lean cuisine cheese pizza with leftover gionino’s hot sauce… Pretty darn close to the real thing:      

      

If you haven’t tried hot sauce on your pizza, I am begging you to give it a try!!!  Soooo good!      

On to dinner.  Things just keep getting better!  I don’t mean to brag, but hot damn my dinner was good!  (said with midwest hillbilly accent while simultaneously throwing in an arm jab)      

I had a leftover turkey burger from the weekend I wanted to use up, but I wasn’t feeling the typical ketchup and mustard fixins.  So I decided to make a quesadilla burger — and let me tell you it was glorious!      

Here’s what went into the quesadilla burger:      

quesadilla burg fixin's

 

The sauces I used were 1 tbsp fat free breakstone’s sour cream, 1 tsp (AKA all I could scrape from the container) of Trader Joe’s Jalapeno Cilantro Hummus, and some Frank’s red hot.  I threw it all in between a Mama Lupe’s Low Carb tortilla I had ordered from Netrition.      

I also decided to take a second stab at turnip fries.  This time, I cut them into larger wedges and cooked them at 450 degrees for 35 minutes.      

      

I threw the quesadilla burger on the waffle iron (that’s right, waffle iron) to crisp up the tortilla and heat everything through.  Why dirty the george foreman when the waffle iron was just sittin there begging to be used?      

      

All together on the plate:      

      

Not the most appealing photo, but trust me this quesadilla burger was awe-inspiring.   

The turnip fries still didn’t have the fry texture I was shooting for.  Crunchy? No.  Tasty? Yes.  I actually preferred the smaller skinny fries we made last time over these.  Could be because the larger fries reminded me of the rooty texture of you know what.      

Dinner Stats:  298 calories, 23g carbs, 9g fat, 36g protein, 9g fiber      

On to what you are all really here for:  the confession.      

About a week ago, I discovered what may be the most amazing cereal on planet earth.  I have secretly been enjoying sporadic handfuls of this glorious cereal since then, yet I have not posted anything about my discovery on my blog!      

Well here it is.       

Barbara’s Peanut Butter Puffins.      

      

Lets take a few moments and discuss why this cereal is utterly amazing.      

First the limited list of ingredients (which is pretty darn good for a cereal).       

      

Second, one serving is only 110 calories, 23 carbs, 2g fiber, 6g of sugar, 3g of protein!      

Third, the taste is pure peanut butter amazingness.      

Fourth, the puffins are shockingly large.  For comparison purposes:      

Shredded mini wheat, PB Puffin, Kashi Heart, Kashi Sunshine, Cheerio

 

Go. Buy. Now.

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