Cincinnati-Style Chili

I know. I haven't blogged in ages, but while I was on the low iodine diet in preparation for my follow-up scan, I wasn't eating much of anything let alone anything interesting. Then after the scan, I went a little crazy eating stuff I shouldn't have. I gained three pounds, and I really knuckled down, and I've lost that weight, so now I feel as though I can play again.

Not too long ago, I got low calorie cookbook, with the highly original title of 1,000 Low Calorie Recipes...I'll prove it.

See, I didn't make it up. Tonight I tried one of these recipes for the first time. It's called Cincinnatti-Style Chili. It was interesting because it has chocolate in it, and it's served over pasta. I dated a guy from Cincinnatti once, but we never got around to discussing chili, so I don't know how authentic it is. This recipe definitely gave my spice rack a work out. The only thing I didn't have was fresh oregano, but on top of cocoa powder, it called for chili powder, cumin, cinnamon, allspice, cayenne pepper...believe me, it smelled fabulous. It was a bit spicy too. Thank goodness I had a tall glass of kombucha. Beans were optional. I don't like chili without beans, so I added some pintos. Now the book said it was 290 calories a serving (it makes 6 servings), but when I figured it out with myfitnesspal.com, it was about 324. Not only was it good, but it was easy too. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 tble grapeseed or canola oil

1 pound ground turkey

1 large sweet onion, finely diced

1 large gralic clove minced

1 tble Worcestershire sauce

1 tble apple cider vinegar

1 (15 ounce) can no-salt-added tomato sauce

1 cup low-sodium vegetable broth

1/2 ounce unsweeted chocolate finely chopped or 1.5 tbls unsweetened cocoa powder

2.5 tsps chili powder

1.5 tsps ground cinnamon

1 tps. cumin

1 tsp salt

.75 tsp ground allspice

.5 tsp cayenne pepper

.5 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp chopped fresh oregano

1 pound spaghetti or linguine

Instructions: 1. Heat oil in large pan over medium high heat. Add turkey and onion and cook until the onion is softened and turkey is crumbled and just cooked through, about five minutes. Reduce heat to medium, add garlic, and cook 1 minute. Stir in Worcestershire sauce and vinegar and cook for 1 minute.

2. Stir in the tomato sauce, broth, chocolate, chili powder, cinnamon, cumin, salt, allspice, cayenne, and dried oregano and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered. Stir in fresh oregano and serve over cooked pasta.

I'll definitely being having this again, and I'll be exploring a lot more recipes from it.