It's Chili Time!

One of my favorite things to do on a lazy winter day, like New Year's Day, is to make a big batch of crock pot chili. Is there anything better on a cold night that a steaming hot bowl of spicy chili goodness?

Everyone has their own variety of chili, and over the years mine has evolved to be both pretty easy and pretty healthy -- low in sodium and very high in fiber. It also used to be one of the cheapest meals I could make, especially cuz it lasts over several meals, but now that I tend to buy organic, low-fat, low-sodium, antibiotic-free stuff it's a little pricier. But worth it!

Here are my ingredients. (I ended up only using the one big can of diced tomatoes, though, cuz my crock pot is pretty small.) That's ground turkey in there, and I season it with black pepper and chili powder before browning it with chopped onions.


From the ingredients above, I used: both cans of beans, drained; the full big can of diced tomatoes with their juice; about 1/3 of the bag of corn; the whole pound of turkey drained of the fat. This batch featured two new changes -- I followed T's advice for upping the nutritional value by adding some carrots and I supplemented the packaged spice mix with some fresh cilantro. These both get the thumbs-up and will probably become a permanent part of my chili recipe.

Mmmm smells good. I cooked it for 3 hours on low, then turned it up to high about an hour before I knew I would be ready to eat.

Here's the first bowl, naked. This batch made 3 huge bowls total and I ate them over the course of 2 1/2 days. Remember, there's a LOT of fiber in any bean chili, so just -- ahem -- keep that in mind when you're planning out when you're going to eat it.

And here's the bowl, dressed. Reduced fat Mexican blend cheese, and a dallop of fat free sour cream to cool it off. Perfection!