Chilly Sunday Chili

We've sure had some surprised in Massachusetts this past week. When SHand I returned home from a work trip in NYC on Thursday night, we were greeted with snow. Then yesterday we had a Nor'Easter and got 3" of wet, heavy snow...all before Halloween!

I decided this morning that some warm comfort food was in order for the chilly football Sunday.

Chilly Sunday Chili

• 1 Medium Onion
• 3 Cloves Garlic
• Celery Stalks
• 1 Green Pepper
• 2 Jalapeno Peppers
• Olive Oil

• 3 lbs. Ground Turkey

• 1 14.4 oz Can Diced Tomato w/ Jalapeno
• 1 28 oz Can Crushed Tomato (No Salt Added) 
• 1 15.5 oz Can Garbanzo Beans *you can add any beans, pintos are most common in chili

• Chili Powder to taste
• Season Salt to taste
• Crushed Red Pepper to taste
• 2 tsp Cacao Powder

Dice your onion, celery, green pepper, jalapeno and garlic and add to a heated pan with a little bit of olive oil over medium heat. Cook until onion starts to get translucent.

Add the ground turkey and mix thoroughly with the vegetables. Cook until the turkey is almost completely cooked through and drain off fat. (While the turkey is cooking, prep your crock pot and turn the heat on low)

Mix the turkey with both cans of tomatoes and drained/rinsed garbanzo beans.  Add the spices to your linking. Just remember, the longer you cook your chili, the stronger your flavors will become. 

I didn't measure my spices, but I know I only had a couple teaspoons of chili powder left and I usually like to add 4-5. I compensated by adding some Paprika in addition to the spices listed above. I just sprinkled the spices until they covered the chili and mixed them in. This version was a little bit hotter than I would normally make, but it's cold out!

One ingredient you should always add to your chili is Cacao powder. 

Why? 

Well it adds another dimension of flavor to your chili.  A rich, roasted flavor. The longer you let it cook, the deeper the color of your chili will become. Plus cacao powder is full of healthy antioxidants and the acidity helps tenderize your meat (so you should also add it to your next beef stew!)

I got this cacao powder in the Dominican Republic, but you should be able to find some at your local grocery store. 

Let your chili cook in your crock pot for a minimum of  5 hours on low. 

Top it with grated cheese, a dollop of sour cream or just serve as is. Eat it with crushed up crackers on top, Italian bread, or put it in a sourdough bread bowl. 

And on this football Sunday, GO PATRIOTS!!!!!

Original Photo Source

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Caramel Apple Trifle

Recently I was invited to take part in a fun Improv Cooking challenge from Sheryl over at Lady Behind the Curtain.

Every month she gives you two ingredients you must use in a recipe and a date by which you have to complete your recipe and blog post.

The month of October the two ingredients were apples and caramel.

What I like about this challenge is that she doesn't try and trick us into combining two totally random ingredients like ostrich eggs and cow tongue, rather ingredients that compliment each other. The goal is to see the many creative ways people combine the two ingredients and share lots of delicious recipes!

Once I learned of the ingredients I got to thinking about my recipe.

One of my favorite desserts growing up is my (Great) Aunt Eileen's super-easy Black Forest Trifle. It combines three of my favorite things: Chocolate, Cherries and Cool Whip!! Stay with me, I know there aren't apples or caramel in a Black Forest Trifle, but I'm getting there.

I'm not entirely creative when it comes to creating my own recipes, but I realized I could use my Aunt Eileen's dessert as inspiration for a Caramel Apple Trifle (or as I like to now call it, New England Forest Trifle).

The Ingredients:

• 1 package yellow cake mix
• 1 package of vanilla-flavored sugar-free pudding*
• 1 21oz can of apple pie filling (I would have used sugar-free if I had found it)
• Caramel ice cream topping
• 1 container Cool Whip Free (thawed)
  

The Instructions:

• Bake the cake per the instructions on the box in a 19x13" pan and let cool
• Prepare the pudding per the instructions on the box and chill in the fridge at least 1/2 hour
• Once cake is cool, cut into cubes
• Mix 3-4 TBS (or to taste) of the caramel ice cream topping with the chilled vanilla pudding
• Mix 3-4 TBS (or to taste) of the caramel ice cream topping with the thawed Cool Whip
• Layer the bottom of a Trifle Bowl with 1/2 of the cake cubes
• Layer 1/2 of the apple pie filling over the cake cubes (I liked to cut my apples up into smaller pieces)
• Layer 1/2 of the pudding mixture over the apple pie filling
• Layer 1/2 of the Cool Whip over the pudding
• Repeat Layers
• Chill at least 8 hours (if you can wait that long!)
• Drizzle caramel ice cream topping over the top of the entire thing 
• ENJOY!

This is an extremely easy, light and tasty dessert that is sure to impress friends and family. The best part is the dessert is entirely customizable.

I went the easy route and used a bunch of prepared items (which isn't usually my style). However, if you have your own cake and pudding recipes you can easily replace those. Of course you can sweeten your own fresh apples after a weekend of apple picking and the cool whip could be home-made whipped cream. It's entirely up to you!

Let me know if you try this recipe and what you thought of it. Here are some of the reviews I got this past weekend:
"OMG! What is this?!?! It is soooo good I cannot stop eating it!!!"
"Can you PLEASE send me this recipe? It's such a light dessert and tastes incredible"
"We absolutely LOVED that apple trifle"

*You may notice in the ingredients picture I don't have a box of pudding, rather pre-made Kozy Shack Gluten-Free Creme Caramel Flan. I do NOT recommend using this in your trifle. When I mixed it up it was lumpy and appeared rather unappetizing. Take my advice and used the boxed vanilla pudding instead!

Ten Words That Make Me Cringe

Do you have favorite words? Or words that you just can't stand? Me too. Below is a simple list of 10 words from the English language that I just can't stomach.

1. Moist (Ewwwwwwww - I think most people will agree with me on this one!)
2. Cash (I like to have it, but prefer not to call it the "C" word!)
3. Tweak (And any form of it)
4. Chunky (Reminds me of vomit. Every. Time.)
5. Irregardless (B/C it's not a word!)
6. Caulk (Do you pronounce the "L" or no?)
7. Obvi (ously...this isn't a real word)
8. Totes (I don't like it whether it's an annoying abbreviation of "totally" or a "tote" bag - either way, no)
9. Vlog (Sounds like some sort of disease!)
10. Delish (Same with Presh and Yumm-O which is totally different, but I ran out of space!)

The worst part is every once in a while I'll catch myself saying one of these (Especially #1 which makes me cringe every time it comes out of my mouth. How else can you describe an exceptionally good cake or cupcake? You can't call it damp!! Help?!?!)

Linking up

Do You Have Sensitive Skin?

Growing up I used to get many compliments from friends, family and even strangers on my skin. While once in a while I'd get the occasional blemish, I never dealt with acne issues (even during those awkward teen years.)

Lately it seems as if things have changed. To put it mildly...my skin is a mess.

See:

While the most noticeable area affected has been my cheeks, my chin has become ruddy and bumpy and my skin is extremely dry. I even have peeling issues around my eyelid area. I thought this was because of the dry air last winter....but ummm....right....it's been almost a year and no matter how much I moisturize it doesn't get better.

I've been dealing with other health-realted issues and thought they might be the cause. Because of those issues and some stuff going on at work, I've also been under an extreme amount of stress. These things combined could be irritating my skin.

My regular skincare routine obviously hasn't been working, so when I was presented the opportunity from BzzAgent to try out the Burt's Bees® Natural Skin Solutions for Sensitive Skin I jumped on it!

I'm excited to try out these products for a few reasons.

Of course the first one is obviously I'm hoping it helps clear up my skin problems.

The second is because I love Burt's Bees® products.  All of their products are free of phthalates, parabens and soduium lauryl sulfate. The Sensitive Skin line contains 99% natural ingredients like cotton (seriously!!), rice and aloe.

Plus, this stuff is less expensive than my normal skincare products so if it works not only will my skin be clearer, but I'll be putting less chemicals onto my body and I'll be saving money!!!

I'll report back on my findings in a few weeks and provide a full product review. In the mean time, if you want to learn more check out the Burt's Bees® Natural Skin Solutions for Sensitive Skin Website or Like Burt's Bees®  on Facebook.

What do you use on your skin? I know many of my friends have turned to drugs like Accutane while others still swear on the same Neutrogena products we used in the 6th grade.

I'm hoping a combination of drinking more water, trying to eat better and using these new products will really help me out over the next few weeks. Fingers crossed!

Disclosure: I'm a BzzAgent and have been provided a sample of the Burt's Bees® products in exchange for sharing my experience with others. All opinions on the Burt's Bees® products are my own. If you are interested in a $1 coupon and single use of the Burt's Bees® Natural Skin Solutions Sensitive Daily Moisturizing Cream please let me know.