The Daily Balance

Good morning and Happy Monday! Blech! Hate Mondays, don’t you?!

After an incredibly relaxing weekend of gaming, pizza and football (who was watching the Packers/Cardinals game? — CrAzY!), it was really hard to brace the frigid temps and head to work this morning.

At least I have a good lunch (leftover chili) to look forward to

I decided to “go all out” last night and make some of my favorite homemade chili –but instead of making the entire recipe for just the Mister and I, I halved it and saved some ground turkey for dinners this week. Ground turkey is one of my favorite ways to add protein to a meal without a lot of fat. When cooked properly, it does a great job of staying moist and works well with any seasonings. It has really become my ”go to” protein add-on, whether I add it to an omelet, pasta sauce or soup.

Naturally I started thinking about tonight’s dinner LAST night, and due to the freezing temps, I knew I would be craving some comfort food. Enter: Operation Sloppy.

Yes, Sloppy Joes bring us back to our childhood – isn’t there just something amazingly fun about eating a sandwich that is SUPPOSED to be messy? I still remember squealing with delight each time my mom whipped up sloppy joes for my brother and I (I swear, I lived on sloppy joes, grilled cheese, chicken nuggets, tots and Campbell’s chicken noodle soup!) Ah, the good old days…

But with healthy, wholesome ingredients, sloppy joes can be just as good for adults — get out of here with your “manwich” cans of processed ingredients! Don’t you know half the fun in eating a sloppy joe is making it, too?

Here’s what you’ll need:

Makes 4 servings

• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 1 lb. lean ground turkey
• 1 medium onion , diced
• 1 carrot , peeled and diced
• 1 medium red bell pepper diced
• 2 cloves garlic , minced
• 1/2 cup ketchup (make sure you pick an organic brand or a variety with no HFCS)
• 1 Tbsp. chili powder
• 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 4 warmed whole wheat hamburger buns

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the olive oil, turkey, onion, carrot, pepper,and garlic. Sauté, stirring occasionally, until the turkey is cooked and the onions are translucent (about 7 to 10 minutes). Next, add the ketchup, chili powder and Worcestershire sauce. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for at least 15 minutes (this allows the turkey to soak up all the flavorings). Serve with the buns.

Nutritional Information:
Roughly 300 calories, less than 5 grams of fat

ENJOY! Serving suggestion — pair with sweet potato fries for a complete meal!

What childhood comfort food do you still enjoy as a grown-up?

Tags: recipe, the mister

This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 10:13 am and is filed under Make It. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.