Healthy Comfort Food: Turkey Chili

Just about everyone who knows me, knows I love healthy comfort food and the recipe for Turkey Chili from the Body Beast nutrition guide. I’ve shared it before in my meal prep post and I post photos of it quite often on Instagram. I’ve even been having my 21 Day Fix participants begin using it with their meal prepping. It’s such a simple, versatile and yummy recipe that I think it would be wrong not to share it.

For those of you are not familiar with it, here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 pound lean ground turkey meat
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 med white onion, chopped
• 1 medium bell pepper, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 Tbsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 15 oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes or diced tomatoes with chilis
• 1 8oz can tomato sauce, no salt added
• 2 TBL chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Directions:

 

1) Heat oil in large saucepan over med/high heat. Add turkey, onion, bell pepper and garlic.
2) Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until turkey is no longer pink.
3) Add cumin, chili powder, salt, and cayenne pepper; stir and cook another minute.
4) Stir in beans and tomatoes; bring to a boil
5) Reduce heat to low and gently simmer, stirring occasionally, for 15 to 20 minutes or until thickened.
6) Serve warm sprinkled with parsley.

As you can see, it’s really simple to make and uses lots of great, clean ingredients. The beauty of it, is that it’s simple to tweak in order fit into the 21 Day Fix program.

If you have issues fitting in all of your green containers, add spinach, zucchini, extra peppers, kale, eggplant or any other veggie you have on hand to this dish and bump up your veggie intake. You could even serve it over some cauliflower rice or top it with some shredded romaine lettuce.

Are those yellow containers your issue? (Not using enough of them, that is. I know many people feel there are not ENOUGH yellow containers in general, I can’t help with that, sorry. You’ll have to take that up with Autumn.) add extra beans, some corn or peas. You could also serve this over some rice or quinoa – another option is to cash in a “treat” and have a few tortilla chips on the side for dipping.

Unsure of how to use your blue containers? Top your chili with some shredded sharp cheddar cheese or some avocado. Better yet, use both by using half a container or each.

Falling short on red containers? Top this with some plain greek yogurt instead of sour cream for a creamy component that will make your taste buds happy.

Purple containers also fit into this dish! Top your chili with some fresh salsa for an added kick, as well as a color pop. (We eat with our eye, too!)

As you can see this is a very useful recipe to have while doing the 21 Day Fix. You can easily make this into your meal planning and use up just about any container you may be lacking.

Do you have a versatile recipe that would work well with the 21 Day Fix? If so, I would love to learn more about it.