Turkey Chili with Buttermilk Cornbread

The cold weather has arrived for us lucky ones and what's better than a nice crockpot full of warm chili on a cold day?  I made this chili last year for our housewarming party.  It was delicious, but 2 days later, I found out I was pregnant and the morning sickness hit hard... I didn't have chili for a year... until now! This was so good it's hard to believe I spent all winter last year chililess... We will definitely make this again soon! So easy to freeze and stick in the crockpot in the morning too.  This recipe is adapted from one of the best chili's on allrecipes.com (click here for original recipe).  I made it with turkey instead of beef for all you non-red meat eaters.  It just makes you feel better when you have two bowls.  I served it with Buttermilk Cornbread... delicious! I had never made cornbread before, it turned out spectacular the first shot! woo hoo! Enjoy!

Turkey Chili

Serves 8

Ingredients:

1.25 lb ground turkey

1 lb spicy turkey sausages (in the meat section by the uncooked brats)

5 strips of turkey bacon, cooked and crumbled

2 cans chili beans, drained

1 can spicy chili beans

2 cans diced tomatoes with juice (I used about 10-15 tomatoes from the garden, peelings removed)

1 can tomato paste

1 large yellow onion, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

2 green peppers, chopped

2 jalapeno peppers, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 bottle of beer (I used Octoberfest)

1/4 cup chili powder

1 tablespoon Worchestershire sauce

1 tablespoon dried oregano

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (more or less depending on how spicy you like it)

1/4 cup brown sugar

salt and pepper as desired (about a tsp)

Shredded Cheese for topping

Other desired toppings like onions, corn chips, sour cream, cilantro etc...

Directions:

In a large soup pot, cook the ground turkey & spicy turkey sausage (remove meat from casing) until done and add onions, celery, green pepper, jalapeno peppers, and garlic.  Cook until onions are translucent and add tomatoes.  If using fresh or frozen, Cook until they are combined.  Otherwise add the rest of ingredients except for the toppings and simmer on the stove for at least 2 hours.  I like to make this the night before and put it in the crockpot the next day for all the flavors to combine.

Buttermilk Cornbread

Serves 8

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, melted

2/3 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 and lightly butter a cast iron skillet.

In a large mixing bowl, combine melted butter and sugar until blended.  Quickly add the eggs. Combine the buttermilk and baking soda and add those to butter/sugar mixture.  Add the cornmeal, flour and salt and mix to combine, but still lumpy.  Transfer to cast iron skillet and put in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until firm in the center. 

Easy Gluten Free Frozen Cake!

I remember being a little girl and everyone wanted a little mermaid cake.  My mom, being the cake decorator that she is, made a ton of little mermaid cakes.  All unique and beautiful.

Frozen is the "in thing" now (even though Ariel can kick Elsa's frozen behind anytime) and as much as I can't stand all of the Frozen hype, I understand what it's like being a little girl and wanting your favorite princess on your birthday cake.  I do have to say that if you are to make this cake, plan ahead because you'll find that these little Frozen characters are impossible to find.  Not exaggerating, I went to 15 different stores to find these perfect little characters.  They were at Walmart... the 6th Walmart to be exact.  

I love love love decorating cakes, and they usually take me a few days to complete to perfection.  I didn't have a few days though, since I was traveling and have an infant (a giant infant) and was pressed for time so I needed something easy.  I have confidence that any mom out there can make this cake... You don't even need the fancy cake stand (though it's awesome and we use it for every party... Michael's and don't forget to use your coupon!)  You can Pinterest how to make a cake stand or just lay table cloth over raised shoe boxes to make it elevated.  Be creative!  The sugar candies are from Party City and are super easy to stick in as the castle.  I actually ran out of frosting so I piled on some marshmallows last minute to act as snow.  

On to the cake now... All Gluten Free!  I prefer the gluten free cake mixes, they always get rave reviews and taste more like you're using real ingredients and not a mix.  I use Pamela's Classic Vanilla Cake Mix.  I have tried other gluten free cake mixes and this one is the tastiest.  It's about $5 a package and makes 15 cupcakes or 1 double layer round cake.  I always add ingredients to these cake mixes because I can never leave anything alone.  Here is what I did for this cake.

Vanilla Cake with Cookie Dough Filling

(The top tier, I left as vanilla and made a gluten free cookie dough filling)

Cake:

1 Pamela's Classic Vanilla Cake Mix

3 Eggs

1/2 cup oil (I use coconut)

2/3 cup vanilla almond milk (the package says water, but I always use milk)

1 tsp. pure vanilla (for added vanilla flavor)

Cookie Dough Filling:

1 tub marshmallow cream

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 stick butter, softened

1/2 cup chocolate chips

For the cake, mix ingredients and cook according to package instructions.  For the filling, beat all ingredients, except for chocolate chips, together until smooth.  Add the chips and stir to combine.  When cakes are cooled (I like to freeze them the night before), layer them and spread the filling in the middle.  Now they are ready to be frosted!

Marshmallow Buttercream Frosting:

1 tub marshmallow cream

2 sticks butter, softened

3 cups powdered sugar

Cream all ingredients together until a nice thick frosting forms, adding powdered sugar as needed.  I used a Wilton's Teal coloring for the blue, spread it on the whole cake and piped out white snow "icecles" on the top.  I did run out, but I was being very generous.  Top cake with sugar rock candy sticks in the form of a castle and add your characters!

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes:

1 Pamela's Classic Vanilla Cake Mix

3 Eggs

1/2 cup oil (I use coconut)

2/3 cup vanilla almond milk (the package says water, but I always use milk)

1 package of gluten free chocolate sandwich cookies

Crush up one row of the cookies (about 5) into larger crumbles.  Mix cake ingredients together and add crushed up cookies.  Line a cupcake pan with liners and add one whole cookie to the bottom.  Pour batter 2/3 the way up and bake according to package instructions.  Top with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 8 oz package cream cheese

1 stick butter

3-4 cups powdered sugar

Cream all ingredients together, adding powdered sugar until you get desired sweetness and consistency. 

Caramel Apple Cupcakes:

1 Pamela's Classic Vanilla Cake Mix

3 Eggs

1/2 cup caramel apple sauce (I made my own by peeling 1 apple, cooking it with a couple tablespoons of water until soft, mash with potato masher and add a spoonful of brown sugar)

1/2 cup vanilla almond milk (the package says water, but I always use milk)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 apple, peeled and chopped

Mix all ingredients until they come together to form a batter.  Line cupcake pan with liners and pour in batter 2/3 the way full.  Bake according to package instructions.  Top with cream cheese frosting, recipe above.  

You can pretty much add anything to these cake mixes to make them extra delicious.  Hope you enjoy!

Ratatouille Egg Bake

I absolutely love our CSA.  We got fresh eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash this week.  There is only one thing that comes to mind when hearing those ingredients... Ratatouille!! I love ratatouille!  It reminds me so much of Paris, even though we never had it while we were there.  Maybe it's from the movie.  I made ratatouille for the first time after watching the movie with the cute little mouse and it was so delicious! Nick didn't really care that much for it because he was still hungry afterwards.  So this time, I added an egg and served with homemade focaccia bread.  It was very filling and healthy and delicious.  I love the addition of the egg.  It really adds a lot.  Enjoy!

Ratatouille Egg Bake
Serves: 3

Ingredients:
1 eggplant, cubed
1 zuchini, cubed
1 yellow squash, cubed
1 red pepper, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
1 tbsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste
3 eggs

Directions:
Chop eggplant and toss with a tablespoon of salt.  Let drain for 30 minutes. Rinse well, squeezing out excess water.  Pat dry and set aside
Meanwhile, add oil to a large skillet and place over medium heat.  Add onions and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally.  Add eggplant, zucchini, squash, oregano and salt and pepper.  Cover skillet and cook to soften vegetables, about 10 minutes. Add tomatoes and 1/4 cup of basil.  Cover and simmer until tomatoes are softened and flavors are concentrated.  
Make nests in the ratatouille and crack an egg into each nest.  Cover pot and cook eggs to desired doneness, 2-5 minutes.  Enjoy!

Chicken Stuffed Avocado Salad

This a perfect meal on a hot summers day.  It's filling, fast, and healthy and you don't have to heat the house! It's a super easy meal and looks really fancy too. 

Chicken Stuffed Avocado Salad

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

1 avocado, pealed, cored, and sliced in half

1 chicken breast, seasoned with salt and pepper and grilled

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt

2 tablespoons salsa (make your own fresh salsa here)

1 tsp. cumin

salt and pepper to taste

Salad fixings such as lettuce, red pepper, corn, tomato and red onions. 

Directions:

Shred the grilled chicken and mix with yogurt and salsa and add cumin and salt and pepper to taste. Mix until well blended.  Top each avocado half with the chicken and serve over the salad fixings of your choice.  Enjoy!! 

Fresh Salsa

Our garden literally has millions of tomatoes.  That is not even an exaggeration... maybe a little.  I love having great organic fresh tomatoes always on hand though.  And there is nothing better than fresh salsa to make with all those tomatoes.  This is the second big vat of salsa we've made in 2 weeks.  You can eat it on anything! Chicken, tortilla chips, salads... even ice cream... if you're daring.  When I'm making this, I really don't measure or pay attention, but here are estimates of what I put into the salsa.  Just taste and adjust according to your liking.  Enjoy!

Salsa
Makes: 2 cups? (I really don't know... it goes too fast.)

Ingredients:
5 medium sized tomatoes, diced small
1 small red onion, diced small
1 small jalapeno pepper, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 lime, zested and juiced
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp sea salt

Directions:
Once you finely chop all of your ingredients, add them to a large mixing bowl and stir.  You can seed some of the tomatoes for a less juicy salsa, but I like the seeds and extra liquid.  Serve with chips... or however you like your salsa! :)

Gluten Free Monster Cookies

This is by far my favorite cookie recipe.  My aunt makes these for our road trips back home and we have them devoured by hour 4.  We pretend they are healthy and eat them at breakfast because they have oats in them.  Beware, once you make these, you won't be able to stop eating them!  Since they are my favorite cookie, I decided to try and make them gluten free by subbing regular flour (original recipe calls for 2 cups of regular flour) for oat flour.  I just took a bunch of gluten free oats and blended them up in our awesome Ninja blender for 20 seconds.  Then measured out 2 1/2 cups.  They were really sticky with only 2 cups, so I added another half.  They turned out really delicious! You didn't even miss the flour.  By far the best gluten free cookie I've ever had.  They were still moist and delicious by day 2 as well.  They didn't turn into hard bricks like most gluten free cookies.  Not sure if they will make it to day 3 though... meaning they will be gone.  Highly recommend this recipe.  It's awesome and I'll make them this way from now on! :)

Gluten Free Monster Cookies
Makes: 48 cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter    

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups oat flour (I just grind up gluten free oats in a blender until powdery)

1 cup oats

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups chocolate chips

1/2 cup M&Ms

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, oats, baking soda and salt.  Set aside. 

In another large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugars, peanut butter, vanilla and eggs. Add in the dry ingredients and mix until blended. Add in the chocolate chips and mix until everything comes together. 

Blob by the tablespoonful onto a baking sheet and flatten.  Add M&M's to the top of the cookie and bake at 350 for 8-9 minutes.  Remove from baking sheet and place on cooling rack.  Enjoy!

Lucky Charms Treats

I contemplated what to make for work for St. Patrick's Day all weekend.  Was thinking about brownies with green frosting, then green cookies, then green m&m cookies... then I got lazy I just wanted something easy and fast... and then I turned to these.  Of course, they aren't healthy by any means, but they are also going to work so I won't sit and eat the whole pan.  They actually taste less sweet than regular rice krispy bars. But they are still delicious and an easy treat to make!  Enjoy!

Lucky Charms Treats

Makes: 60 small bars

Ingredients:

10 cups Lucky Charms

50 large marshmallows

5 tablespoons butter

Directions:

Melt the butter over low heat in a large saucepan.  Add the marshmallows and melt over low as well, stirring often.  Remove from heat and toss in Lucky Charms.  Gently stir to cover the cereal with the melted marshmallow.  Pour into 2 sprayed 9x9 cake pans and spread evenly.  I like to butter the bottom of a glass and use that to spread over the pan.  I also used a sheet cake pan instead of 2 square pans.  :)