Turkey Chili

Turkey Chili is such a quick, healthy, easy to prep meal that can rock the taste buds of both yours and your family’s mouths.  Yum, I say, especially when you get your hands on fabulous tomato sauce as I did for this dish.  You may even make your own sauce, but come on, who we foolin?  You always tell me that you have no time to cook, let alone pull a Chef Gordon Ramsey in your kitchen?  Be realistic on those oh so busy days and just follow this lead:

Turkey Chili rocks cause it includes every food group;  Carbs/Fat/Protein.  All in one shot.  And as you will always read in every single nutrition post that I include, you must include balance in all three macronutrients.  Let’s review why balance is key:

Carbs fuel your brain.  Carbs are the energy for every cell in the body, so when you think a no carb diet will work, you are foolin’ yourself.  Eating no carbs is one of the most idiotic statements I have ever heard in my life.  Why rape the body of what it NEEDS?  Your body will win, hence why those diets last for 5 minutes…Now, low GI carbs are the way to go.  Your body never ever NEEDS bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, sweets, cereal, oatmeal, UNLESS you train for more than an hour at high intensities a day.  Not you?  Then ya don’t need it!  Yes, that simple!

Fat builds your hormones and helps your brain out too.  Go look at a power cord.  You see it?  You see the plastic around the cord?  Well, picture that as fat around your nervous system.  Fat helps transport electric impulses through the body just like that cord keeps electricity from seeping out into the room.  So, you need fat in the diet to help the body grow and sustain the fatty molecules that constitutes these systems for normal neurological functionality.  When you go on a low fat diet, I cringe.   Stay away from trans-fats (former fast food joints put this stuff in yo french fries-gross! OR the bag of chips you eat might have this OR the brownie mix that you buy for your kids birthday party brownies might have it!-Yeah kill your kids why dontcha?)  Stay away from foods elevated in saturated fat.  If the label reads more than 10% saturated fat, run for your life.  Otherwise fat is GREAT for you!  Fish, nuts, seeds, avocado, anchovies (my friend Jerry loves these!), are good forms of healthy fats for your body.

Protein builds your muscles and also helps shuttle your hormones throughout the body.  Protein repairs every cell in the body and is used for every system in the body.  So, most people will eat protein all day long, however, protein in excess can be bad for you.  Too little protein can also be bad for you.  Why?  First, too much makes you fat-plain and simple.  What is too much?  Get my book, and stop guessing will ya?…Second, too much protein can cause acidity in the gut, especially if you are not eating those veggies in large volumes with it.  So, make sure you balance it all out every single meal veggies.  You eat a protein, eat a veggie with it.  Just make it habit.  You eat too little protein, you will never build muscle and bone.  You need protein to balance out your nutrition, otherwise, you will end up carbo-loading or fat loading or starving your body of the necessary calories it needs.  So, without counting calories, just balance out the macros.  Got it?

Ok, so here is the recipe you’ve all been waiting for:

JZ’s Turkey Chili (print this page out and go shopping!)

Ingredients:

  1. Kosher Valley Lean turkey meat (you don’t have to be Jewish to eat this.  It is just so dang tasty and healthy.  But, make sure you get the LEAN version for 8 grams of fat vs. 16 grams)
  2. Napa Valley Made Mazetta Tomato Sauce with garlic and basil
  3. Minced tomatoes seasoned with garlic (organic low sodium)
  4. Fresh crushed garlic
  5. Italian seasoning
  6. Organic broccoli (frozen is ok)
  7. Organic kale (it melts in the pot so no fret for those of you who don’t like the texture)
  8. Organic low sodium black beans
  9. Organic low sodium kidney beans
  10. Extra love (this you can’t buy in the store..It comes from inside of you)

Directions:

I always cook the turkey meat first.  I spray the pan generously and use the juice from the crushed garlic jar to create more moisture for the turkey to cook in. Once the meat is 80% cooked through, add in the sauce, and then eventually toss everything else in.  I am not fancy with how I do this, so if you wanna be, let me know how that goes.

Make it a fit day followed by some healthy Low GI nutrition.  Break your chains, one meal at a time! Rock it! JZ

 
 
NutritionJennifer ZerlingRecipeComment