Baked Turkey Tacos

When I'm on track with my diet, I prefer to eat raw in the mornings and evenings and eat a healthy, cooked meal for lunch. When I'm craving something a bit more naughty, I make these guiltless, turkey tacos.

Slow-Cooker Turkey Chili

More than two posts ago, I promised you all that I would write about a healthy recipe I made for my dieting mother when she came to visit me. Years ago, when I was on my diet, I made a turkey chili for her in my slow cooker that was so good that I didn't miss the fatty food! Somehow, I'd lost that recipe and tried many times to recreate the recipe but to no avail.

So, before my mother came to visit this time around, I asked her what she wanted me to cook for her. She immediately replied, "I want that turkey chili you made for me a long time ago." (Yes, it was that good.) I told her for the umpteenth time that I had lost that recipe, and she told me that I needed to try to find it again before she came to visit. She is demanding! haha
So, I turned to one of my favorite sites for recipes, allrecipes.com. I found a recipe called "Laura's Quick Slow Cooker Turkey Chili". It is considered to be quick because of the use of canned beans as opposed to soaking dry beans and slow because of the use of the slow cooker (duh). I added a few extra spices to ensure success because I didn't want my mother to complain. I now think the chili was the real reason she came to visit me hmmm.

Since I knew she was leaving Sunday afternoon, I started preparing the chili Saturday night so that she could have something to eat at home (my mom doesn't like to and doesn't know how to cook very well. Sorry, mom!) Anyway, I asked her to chop the veggies for the chili. Then, I put together everything else while I made her flour tortillas and the cheesecake for my Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake. I was busy in the kitchen, and this was all happening late at night! I set the slow cooker to low for 8 hours, and at 10am the next morning, the chili was ready.
I prepared a bowl of chili for my mom and sat across the table opposite her all while waiting intently for her response. She loved it! She absolutely loved it! I asked her if it was comparable to the other chili I'd made for her many years ago, and she said that it was very close. She also said that I was missing her favorite cornbread (because I didn't make enough for her already haha).

This chili is very good; it really is. Also, if you add enough cheese to it, it could be a good dip for nacho chips. You can make this dish extremely healthy and flavorful or very unhealthy and flavorful. What a win-win situation that is! Don't forget to make the cornbread!

Laura's Quick Slow-Cooker Turkey Chili
very loosely adapted from allrecipes

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2-3 stalks of celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/2 tablespoon garlic powder

1/2 tablespoon ground cumin

1 pinch ground black pepper

1 pinch ground allspice

salt to taste

1 pound ground turkey
cumin to taste
Lawry's Seasoning Salt to taste
pepper to taste

2 (10.75 ounce) cans low-sodium tomato soup (I used one can low-sodium tomato soup and one box of Pomì chopped tomatoes)

2 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans, drained

2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, drained

Worcestershire Sauce (optional)
Hot sauce (optional)
Small block of favorite type of cheese, grated (optional) (I used cheddar and monterey jack)

Heat the oil in a skillet or dutch oven over medium heat. Season ground turkey with cumin, Lawry's Seasoning Salt and pepper (all to taste). Place the veggies in the skillet, and add all the seasonings (from the chili powder to the salt to taste). Next, place the seasoned, ground turkey in the skillet over the veggies, and cook until evenly brown; drain.

Coat the inside of a slow cooker with cooking spray, and mix in turkey, cooked veggies, tomato soup, kidney beans, and black beans. Season with additional chili powder, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, cumin, black pepper, allspice and salt ONLY if you feel something's missing. You could also add Worcestershire or hot sauce for an added boost of flavor and heat.

Cover, and cook 8 hours on Low or 4 hours on High.

Thanksgiving Meal/Recipe List

I want to apologize now because this post will be devoid of yummy photos; however, I hope to be successful in creating yummy visions of Thanksgiving dishes in your head.

I’m getting excited (which is a rare emotion for me) about Thanksgiving just because I get to cook and bake as much as I want for a bunch of people I love – my family.

As a single, graduate student, cooking for one can be a lonely, bittersweet activity. While I enjoy baking and cooking, I don’t enjoy having all of that food in my kitchen just for me. I would love to have others around with whom I can share my goodies!

So, since I’m so excited, I thought I’d share my list of dishes I plan to prepare for my loved ones this year. I made almost all of these dishes at least once last Thanksgiving and/or Christmas, and everyone loved everything. They were also shocked since almost all of our family members are quite inept in the kitchen, excluding one of my aunts who brings the veggie dishes (which explains why I have to make so much in order for us to have something to eat on holidays. LOL). So, without further ado, here is my tentative list for this Thanksgiving:

• Wolfgang Puck’s Turkey with Turkey Stock and Cream Gravy (involves brining the turkey the night before, which yields a shorter cooking time and a moister turkey without basting!)
• Southern Plate’s Dixie Cornbread and Crockpot cornbread dressing (OMG! You have to make this if you love good, southern dressing. Also, you can free up space on the stovetop and in the oven and leave the dressing in the Crockpot to warm until dinner is ready. You can even place the Crockpot in the living room or a clean garage as it cooks for more space. My mother adds that the intoxicating, comforting smell of this dressing will waft all through your house!)
• Pioneer Woman’s Mashed Potatoes (I add shredded, sharp cheddar cheese on top on special occasions. This dish could also be made in a Crockpot. In fact, that is how I prepared it the first time I made it. Just boil the potatoes in a pot, then transfer the mashed taters (hehe) to the Crockpot and add the other ingredients.)
• Croissants (I haven’t picked out a recipe yet (maybe Pierre Hermé’s?), but I’m going to make a laminated dough well ahead of time, shape the croissants, and place them in the freezer. Then a few days before I leave for Thanksgiving, I'll just need to bake them at my grandmother's house.)
• Sweet Potato Pie from Allrecipes (This dessert is not for me; I don’t like sweet potatoes, but my mom loves the stuff. So, because I love her so much, I’m going to make this for her instead of another variety of carrot cake. Anyway, I’m going to make the same revisions the second commenter ("SL") made on Allrecipes.)
• Hershey’s Chocolate Cake (my go-to chocolate cake. I haven’t decided which type of frosting I’m going to put on it. Chocolate, vanilla, or my leftover coffee buttercream?)
• Paula Deen’s (White) Hot Chocolate (I’ll be blogging about this later. It is a rich, rich, fattening, hot chocolate especially made for special occasions. It’s so quick to make, too. I will be making it with Guittard milk chocolate chips instead of white chocolate or a mixture of the two.)

Now, I'll open the floor, because I’m curious and excited. For those who will be celebrating Turkey Day soon, what is on your list? What dishes are you going to make? If you already celebrated Thanksgiving this year, what did you make? Add links to the recipes or your blog entries, if there are any.

I’ll be back with another food post very, very soon.