Turkey and White Bean Chili with Chocolate

This delicious chili recipe uses lean ground turkey, white (or pinto) beans, ancho chile powder, and cocoa powder.

(Updated with better photos and step-by-step instructions, December 2013. This recipe was first posted in 2007 when I was excited about an article in the Deseret News that spotlighted my blog and mentioned some other food blogs too.  Utah is having an unusually cold winter this year, so it seemed like the perfect time to make this chili again and update the photos!)

I wasn't the biggest fan of ground turkey when I first tried this recipe, but it's low in fat and healthy and it's really grown on me through the years.  I'm glad that back in 2007 when I saw a recipe in The Bon Appetit Cookbook for chili that used white beans, ground turkey, and just a taste of unsweetened cocoa powder, I was game to give it a try. This recipe is a bit spicy with very generous amount of ground Ancho chile powder, some regular chili powder, a little ground Chipotle chile, plus dried oregano, ground cumin, and cocoa powder for that hint of chocolate that makes it so good.   (You can certainly use a bit less of the spicy chili powders, which I would recommend if you're making it for kids.)  Here in Utah we're hoping for some warmer weather, but I have some of this in the freezer for those remaining cold days I know are still coming.

Click to continue reading

Recipe for Low-Sugar Gluten-Free Cranberry Apple Crisp

This festive Cranberry Apple Crisp is made with low-calorie natural sweeteners and it's gluten-free!

Today's my birthday (and if you check that post you can tell it's kind of a significant one), so I'm skipping Meatless Monday this week and going straight to dessert with this delicious recipe for  Low-Sugar and Gluten-Free Cranberry Apple Crisp!   The inspiration for the recipe was a huge bag of cranberries I bought to make my favorite Fresh Cranberry Salsa for Thanksgiving, and I was frankly surprised at how much I loved the combination of fresh cranberries and apples.  I had to make this a couple of times to get it just right, and I might have even loved it a little too much (apple crisp for lunch, mmmm.)  I've never been that much of a fresh cranberry fan, so even if you might think cranberries are not really your thing, be open minded about this one!

Click to continue reading

Recipe for Spicy Sausage, Lentil, and Tomato Soup

This Spicy Sausage, Lentil, and Tomato Soup may be my favorite lentil soup ever!

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and this delicious Spicy Sausage, Lentil, and Tomato Soup has hot turkey Italian sausage, one of my favorite ingredients to use in soup.  I first made this when there was snow on the ground and it's another snowy day in Salt Lake, so I think it's time to make this again!)

Today I woke up to snow on the ground, which makes me especially happy that I have some of this Spicy Sausage, Lentil, and Tomato Soup in the freezer.  I made this a couple of times to get the recipe just right, upping the the amount of spices, sausage, and tomatoes and decreasing the lentils in the final version, and this might be the best lentil soup I've ever made.  Of course, I love, love, love lentil soup, which isn't a bad thing at all since they're one of The World's Healthiest Foods.  If you're someone who's still undecided about lentils, I challenge you to try this soup and I'm betting you'll become a lentil fan!

Click to continue reading

Slow Cooker Southwestern Beef Stew Recipe with Tomatoes, Olives, and Chiles

This Slow Cooker Southwestern Beef Stew with Tomatoes, Olives, and Chiles can be perfect for anyone who's eating Paleo.

I have a couple of friends who have embraced the Paleo Diet, so I've been learning more about it.  Happily, there's a lot of overlap between my South Beach Diet way of eating and Paleo, so it's not that much of a stretch for me to try to feature recipes occasionally that will work for my Paleo friends.  What *can* be challenging is that everyone who does Paleo seems to have their own rules about what they can or can't eat!  That's why when I redesigned my blog and added the new row of tabs to categorize the recipes by more diet types, I made a tab that says Can be Paleo.  Under that tab you'll find recipes that most Paleo eaters will be able to enjoy, like this Slow Cooker Southwestern Beef Stew with Tomatoes, Olives, and Chiles.  And even if you're not eating Paleo, I bet you'll still like this a lot if you like Southwestern flavors!

Click to continue reading

Things I'm Thinking About on Tuesday (12-3-2013)

This Chopped Brussels Sprouts Salad with Creamy Shallot Dressing from Pinch of Yum has my mind spinning!  (Photo from Pinch of Yum.)

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you might remember back when I used to do Five Fun Things on Friday.  Every Friday I wrote those posts about things I'd spotted on the web and sometimes a little about what was happening in my life.  I enjoyed sharing things that way, but eventually it got to be a burden to do it every Friday and I switched to Phase One Fridays, which I'm really committed to now because of how it perfectly fits the overall purpose of the site.

But lately I've been missing the opportunity to share things just for the fun of it.  After thinking about it for a few weeks, I've decided to do Things I'm Thinking About posts occasionally, probably not every week, and not always on the same day of the week, but when I find enough worthwhile things for a post I'll share them.  Of course, I'm always thinking about food, so let's start this first one out with the amazing-looking Chopped Brussels Sprouts Salad with Creamy Shallot Dressing shown above from Pinch of Yum.  The salad has a few ingredients that aren't especially SBD friendly. (Like bacon!  Did I mention there's bacon?) There's also a lot of juice in the dressing that would make it high in sugar, but I think it would be fun to try coming up with a diet-friendly version of this salad.

Click to continue reading

Slow Cooker Frittata Recipe with Broccoli, Swiss, Cottage Cheese, and Parmesan

A healthy frittata made in the slow cooker featuring broccoli, Swiss, Cottage Cheese, and Parmesan.

This is the third time I've experimenting with cooking eggs in the slow cooker and this Slow Cooker Frittata with Broccoli, Swiss, Cottage Cheese, and Parmesan was creamy and delicious, although it did take me three tries to get a combination with broccoli that I thought was enough of a *wow* recipe to share it on the blog.  I did like one version with broccoli and mushrooms that tasted quite good, but the mushrooms turned the eggs kind of gray after the long cooking time, and in the end I decided it wasn't a keeper.  What made this particular recipe appeal to me was how the strong flavor of the Swiss cheese balanced out the broccoli, and the low-fat cottage cheese added a nice creaminess.  Have you tried a slow cooker egg dish yet?  I recommend it for an easy breakfast option, and there are more ideas below after the main recipe.

Click to continue reading

South Beach Diet Phase One Recipes Round-Up for November 2013 (Low-Glycemic Recipes)

Kalyn's favorite Phase One Recipes for November 2013 were Green Beans with Tahini-Lemon Sauce, Easy Brussels Sprouts Gratin, Rich Salad with Hearts of Palm, and Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Avocado and Pecans.

Back in 2008 when I had the brainstorm to post a monthly round-up of all the South Beach Diet Phase One Low-Glycemic Recipes I spotted around the web or featured on Kalyn's Kitchen during that month, I was definitely not thinking about months like November!  When nearly every food blog is posting recipes for Thanksgiving foods, you're just not going to find as many Phase One Recipes as usual.  But even if this months round-up is a bit smaller than some, with a definite emphasis on side dishes, I promise there are some deliciously-healthy recipes here for anyone who's doing Phase One or looking for lower-carb eating options.  And it's December 1, so Thanksgiving weekend is officially over and it's time to get back on track!

Click to continue reading