Saturday, December 25, 2010

Crockpot Recipe: Easy Butternut Squash Turkey Chili


Can anyone believe I am even talking about food after the non-stop food fest between Thanksgiving and Christmas? I know, most of us are not done as New Year's Eve is around the corner but...a girl's gotta eat!

I'm sure we're all tired of thinking about food after all the menu planning and grocery shopping, and it will be nice just to "set it and forget it". Especially if you want to catch some of those post-Christmas sales and want to leave food behind for your family to eat. 

Ingredients:
1 butternut squash
3/4 lb ground turkey
1 package (10 or 12 oz) of chopped onion, celery and bell pepper or some variation of that
1 15 oz. can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz. can pinto or white beans (use what you have)
2 15.25 oz Mexican style stewed tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3/4 cup water or chicken broth
3/4 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. chili powder

Thrify mama variation: of course, using dried beans is always the most economical. In my case using cans was more economical because I already had them in my pantry. You can also be more thrifty by not buying the pre-chopped vegetables but honestly the difference in price is negligible if you look at how much time it saves to buy the pre-chopped mix. I'm always a proponent of using what you have, so if you've got onions and celery and bell pepper hanging about by all means use it before it perishes. On that note, if you are pressed for time and don't want to deal with peeling and cubing squash, you can also buy it peeled and cubed already.

Take your squash and pierce it with a sharp knife several times. Place it in the microwave and cook on high for approximately 2 minutes. Peel and cut into cubes. Set aside.

Cook your ground turkey and onion, celery and bell pepper in a large non-stick pan sprayed with Pam or similar spray on med-hi. Dash with salt and black pepper to your liking.

Plug in your crock pot and set to 6 hrs on high or whatever time frame works with when you plan to eat. Put the squash, turkey and vegetable mixture and tomatoes into the crock pot as well as the last 4 ingredients. Set it and forget it. You can eat this in a bowl as a main dish with corn bread and a dollop of sour cream on top, or as a side dish. Makes approximately 8 cups. Enjoy!!!



I Love My Crock pot!




2 comments:

  1. This looks so good! I'm looking forward to more of your recipes.
    I'm your newest follower from the Where in the World are You Wednesday blog hop...come follow me too! :)
    Sara
    http://curliegirlie03.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete

Hungripeeps want to say: