Green Pepper Turkey Chili

Our garden has been hit and miss this year. The zucchini didn't do well at all but have had great luck with cherry tomatoes! We have also been having good luck with peppers...but I don't always know what to do with them cause I'm not a huge pepper fan. Usually chicken fajitas are my go to when I have peppers to use up but we have had those quite a bit recently. So I decided to add the peppers to chili and see how it turned out. Then today I saw this blog post about green pepper chili....so I'm not the only one doing this...hehe! Here is my version...

Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey

1 small onion diced

2 green pepper diced

1 clove garlic pressed or finely chopped

1 large can tomato sauce {32 oz, I think}

1 can kidney beans

1 package chili seasoning mix

1 tsp dried oregano

Directions:

Brown the turkey, drain and return to cooking pot. Add rest of ingredients and heat til bubbling, then reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. {I cover pot while cooking so chili doesn't pop all over the stove!}

The hubs and I really enjoyed it! Might be my new way to fix chili from now on.

strawberry pickin'...

Little Bit and I got out in our garden today and picked some strawberries! She would find one, pick it and say..."Look mommy, here's a good one." Some of them weren't so good but it was just fun seeing her getting into it! We took a bowl full inside to wash them up and have a sample. Little Bit ended up eating at least half the bowl! I couldn't clean them fast enough!!! This was our first haul of the season and there were tons more that should be ready soon.

Sauteed Cherry Tomato Sauce

Since we have an over abundance of tomatoes in our garden, I have been trying to come up with new things to do with them. I made salsa the other day to go with taco night. I have always done chunky salsa before and haven't been a huge fan of it. So this time I decided to put it in the blender and puree it...turned out more like the Mexican restaurant salsa we love.

The other thing I decided to try was homemade pasta sauce. I have never attempted this before so I was a little nervous but it turned out really good. {Not the best container but I didn't have a jar to put it in!}

Ingredients:
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 small onion
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 cups cherry tomatoes
salt and pepper
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp or less dried red pepper flakes
3 tsp dried basil
2 tsp dried parsley
15 oz can tomato sauce

Directions:
Puree the garlic in a food processor fitted with the chopping blade. Add onion and pulse 3-4 times, until finely chopped.

Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat until hot. Reduce heat to medium and add the onion and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened...about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, place cherry tomatoes in the food processor and pulse 5-6 times...I wanted to make it more smooth than chunky. {I had to do this in batches because my food processor is VERY small!}

Once all tomatoes are chopped, add them to the onion/garlic mixture. Also add in spices and tomato sauce. Cover and simmer, stirring frequently, about 15-20 minutes.

Serve with your favorite pasta!

Fall is in the air!

At least in my house it is! Fall is my favorite time of year. I just love the weather, beautiful colors and good food that comes along with it! Plus my precious Little Bit was born at the end of September!!! {I still can't believe she will be 2 next week!}

...homemade granola is in the crockpot {will let you know how that turns out}, pumpkin pie squares are in the oven and decorations are being dug out! Little Bit and I are dusting and preparing for pumpkins all around! Those sweet little pumpkins above we just picked from our garden!

I just love displaying sayings with these scrabble letters. I saw the idea in a magazine years ago and thought it was so neat! A friend of mine bought the game cheap and just wanted the board...so she gave me the letter tiles and stands.

Garden goodies...

Summer is great!...well, don't love the heat but having a garden is just wonderful! Thursday night we went out to check on its progress....these are the goodies we harvested so far. The last of the lettuce, a couple handfuls of green beans, 2 onions, 2 zucchini, carrots and a couple cherry tomatoes! So of course I had to use it up! For dinner I decided to make meatloaf {using onion it it}, green beans and sauteed zucchini! It was great! Had more sauteed zucchini tonight and plan to make some zucchini bread tomorrow. Still waiting for the tomatoes to get fully ripe. This was our first attempt at a garden and it is a great success!!!