Turkey Black Bean Soup

It has been snowing, freezing, and miserable for two weeks straight here in Northern Idaho. To warm us up a bit, I asked Zac to make his amazing Turkey Black Bean Soup. He made this for me last year and I loved it! He got the recipe from his mother, so I give her the credit. I changed it just a bit by adding potatoes to make it a little more hearty, cut out some of the oil, and used ground turkey instead of cubed turkey breast ( just because it's easier) but basically it's a Curtis family recipe. It's delicious and keeping me warm right now.

Turkey Black Bean Soup

Ingredients
1 pkg (19 oz) of lean ground turkey breast
2 c. blackbeans or 1 can
1 onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 stalks celery, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp dried oregano leaves, crumbled
1 tsp cracked black peppercorns
1 tsp finely grated lime zest
2 tbsp cumin
1/4 cup tomato paste
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups water

Process:

1) In a skillet, brown ground turkey.
2) In a skillet, heat oil over medium for 30 seconds.  Add onion, carrots and celery and cook, stirring until softened, about 7 minutes.  Add garlic, oregano, peppercorns, lime zest, and cumin, and cook, stirring, for one minute.  Add tomato paste and stir well.  Transfer to slow cooker.  Stir in chicken broth, water, and beans.  Season to taste with salt.
3) Add cooked turkey and stir well.  Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or on high for 3 hours.
4) Add in 2 tsp ancho chili powder, dissolved in 2 tbsp lime juice.  Add in 1 finely chopped jalapeno.
5) Cook on high for 20 minutes
6) Enjoy!

Sweet and Sour Spicy Meatballs

We tried another recipe from the Weight Watchers website this weekend. Sweet and Sour Meatballs. It was really good. As usual, I modified it significanty. This time I added some more spice, used turkey instead of beef, and changed the size they called for the meatballs to be. We took them to a church party and they got eaten up right away. Yummy, healthy party food.

Ingredients

19 oz. uncooked lean ground turkey (with 7% fat)

3/4 c. rolled oats

2 large egg whites
1/2 c. scallions, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tbsp dried parsley
2 tsp dried oregano
8 oz canned tomato sauce
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
3 Tbsp mustard, spicy brown
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp hot pepper sauce
Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a large, rimmed cake pan or deep baking sheet with cooking spray. In a medium bowl, combine turkey, oats, egg whites, scallions, garlic, parsley and oregano; mix thoroughly. Shape beef mixture into thirty two1-inch balls; place on prepared baking sheet. Bake meatballs until cooked through, about 25 minutes. Meanwhile, combine remaining ingredients in a small bowl. When meatballs are done pour sauce over meatballs and let heat about 10 minutes.combine meatballs and sauce into a slow cooker to serve and keep warm. 

Notes
Yields 3 meatballs per serving. There are 3 WW PointPlus per serving. The picture I used on this post is from the Weight Watchers website.