Turkey Pumpkin Chili

It's pumpkin (and apple!) season!

But first, let me explain my absence over the past week. As I've said before, I moved last weekend. The apartment was quite a mess when we got here and we had to do a lot of cleaning, etc. to make it ready. All of my furniture was moved in last weekend, but I planned on moving the smaller items over in several trips over a few days. 

Well, on Tuesday, my car decided it didn't want to run anymore. The transmission, alternator and gas tank all needed to be replaced, and the cost to replace them FAR exceeded the value of the car.This presented a problem since I was half moved into my apartment and half moved out of my dad's house. I didn't really have enough in either place to be comfortable. Add that to the fact that i start clinical this week 40 minutes away from my apartment and have to get there too early for even the commuter rail. 

So on Thursday, I bought a new car. However, the title had not gotten to the dealership yet, so I could not actually use my new car. So that meant a weekend of not moving, not grocery shopping, not seeing friends, and generally sulking around my dad's house. 

But! I get the car tomorrow and just in time to start clinicals on Wednesday. I also started classes again today with a nice 13 hour-long day. Ugh. 

Anyway, this chili was the first meal made in my new apartment. My cooking stuff and normal photography stuff is still at my dad's but I decided to post anyway. But now that I will have transportation again, I can move that stuff over. 

Also, pumpkin!

Recipe Redo: Lemon Caper Tilapia

This recipe was originally posted in December of 2011. From time to time, I am going to go back and redo some of the recipes that I made back when I didn't really know what I was doing. I still am not the best photographer, but I can at least make it look like something you might want to put in your mouth.

Originally, I thickened this recipe with cornstarch, but I remade it using butter, and the results were a lot better. So while this has more fat than the original posted recipe, I think it is worth it.

This dish is so light and flavorful and is definitely one of my favorites. It is satisfying enough to keep you full for a while, but does not weigh you down. I like to serve it with rice and spinach and spoon some of the lemon juice over both of them.

Chicken Breasts with Dried Cherries

Earlier this month, I celebrated my (25th!!?? how did that happen) birthday. As part of my present, my dad took me to a knife skills class at Williams Sonoma. It was a ton of fun and I really enjoyed spending time with him. This class is definitely not something he would have done on his own.

This is one of the recipes that we made that night. It was totally delicious, and I had been thinking about it ever since I took the class. I made a few modifications to the recipe that they handed out to us in the end, but the same great flavor was there.

The recipe calls for dried cherries, but when we got to the end of class, we realized that we had used cherry flavored dried cranberries. Oops. That's what I used in this recipe, even though I'm keeping the name.

Buffalo Chicken Chili

Happy 2013! I'm really looking forward to sharing new recipes with you this year. For me, 2012 was a great year, despite the major surgery that kept me from blogging for several months. I am having part 2 of the surgery this spring, but hopefully I will be a little more prepared and have some recipes scheduled to post while I am away. Also, since I know what to expect, hopefully this surgery will go a lot smoother!

Also this year I got into and started nursing school! I absolutely love it, but it keeps me on the go all the time. The new semester starts in a couple weeks, but hopefully I won't completely disappear like I did last semester!

This recipe incorporates one of my favorite foods: buffalo chicken! I love it, but I don't eat it all that often. For the hot sauce in this recipe, I uses sriracha, because I love it. It is loaded with sodium, though. Feel free to use your favorite hot sauce in this recipe!

Herbed Chicken and Dumplings

What screams comfort food more than chicken and dumplings? This recipe if perfect for a cold wintery night. Unfortunately we haven't had any of these days yet in MA. Now that I am on break until mid-January, I could go for a nice big snowstorm because I don't have anywhere to go! Knowing my luck, we will probably get one as soon as I go back to school and they won't cancel!

I got this recipe from Cooking Light and had some trouble with figuring out the points. On the Weight Watcher's site, they have chicken thighs as being way higher in Points+ than the nutritional information states. I know there is no way boneless skinless thighs have almost 19 grams of fat and decided to ignore the nutritional information in the tracker and use the information everywhere else. I normally figure out the nutritional information independent of the points and then enter it in the tracker to see if they match up. I skipped that part because clearly something is going on in the tracker!

Couscous with Pan Seared Chicken

Hello!

Well, my blogging break lasted a lot longer than I expected. Here is what I have been up to over the past few months. In June, I had surgery on my leg that involved the breaking and realignment of some of my bones. I was non-weight bearing for six weeks after that and then I was put into an air cast boot. Today I got permission to start weaning off my boot, but the past few months have been really difficult for me mobility wise. I was not able to get into the kitchen with my crutches, and even the past couple weeks that I haven't needed crutches, I still needed to be off my feet when it was not necessary.

To complicate things, I moved into an apartment a couple weeks ago and started nursing school. All of this resulted in an "overuse injury" of my leg, so standing up to cook was out of the question. Nursing school is also a lot of work, so trying to figure out my schedule with that has been a little difficult.

With all that aside, I hope to get back into the blogging groove now! This first recipe reminds me a lot of my Brown Rice with Chicken and Broccoli  and my Turkey Picadillo. The mix of flavors may seem a bit strange, but trust me, they work.

Chicken Shawarma

Shawarma is a Middle Eastern dish of meat slowly grilled over a spit all day and then shavings are cut off and eaten. Rumor has it that this dish is mentioned in the movie The Avengers, so this post is timed very well on my part. I already knew I was posting this today before the movie even came out, so it is a happy coincidence. I have yet to see The Avengers, but that will be fixed tonight!

Unfortunately, I don't own a spit and fire pit, and I don't have the time to sit and watch my meat grill all day. So regular grilling will just have to do. I actually grilled these on my George Foreman grill to cut back even more on time and because the weather has been way less than optimal for grilling. I also used my favorite Joseph's Whole Wheat, Flax and Oat Bran pitas to assemble these on. They are only 2 Points+ for one pita and they are delicious.

Bistro Chicken and Pasta Salad

I've always seen the title "bistro" on menus and such, but I'm not quite sure what qualifies something as such. A quick Google search of "what is bistro" offers up many different interpretations, so this still remains a mystery to me. But, when I saw this recipe on Kraft I knew I had to try it. All the flavors blend really well into each other and I found it to be plenty filling. I'm normally not one to eat raw tomatoes but I decided to try them in this recipe and I am glad I did. I thought about making it without them, but then I think the recipe would not have turned out as well.

I ate this salad at room temperature and it was delicious. For leftovers, I would not reheat it, but just eat it out of the fridge. Or if you have time to let it sit out for a bit, get the chill taken off. It makes a fabulous lunch or dinner.

This recipe calls for grilled chicken. I used my George Foreman Grill to grill up some chicken tenders that I seasoned with salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and onion powder. Using pre-cooked grilled chicken will work or cooking the chicken any other way will as well. I just like the slightly charred taste that grilling gives it.

Greek-Style Stuffed Peppers

Beef, spinach feta and tomatoes combined into a delicious, light meal. I found these peppers to be quite filling. With a side salad, this makes a complete dinner. Next time I make them, I might add a few red pepper flakes to spice them up a bit, but they were fine just how they are. I got the inspiration for this dish from the Weight Watchers PointsPlus Cookbook. I made only a few modifications and look forward to trying out more recipes.

Bow Ties with Broccoli Pesto

I got the inspiration for this recipe from one of my Weight Watcher's cookbooks, Fresh, Fabulous, Fast. I recently got a food processor and I was looking for a good recipe to try out on it. I love pesto, and thought the idea to make it with broccoli was really interesting. I made a few changes to the original recipe, but it still turned out pretty good. It came together fast and was perfect for a weeknight meal.