House Beautiful

Monthly Archive for December, 2010

Page 7 of 9

Guilt-Free Comfort Food: Turkey Chili and Vegan Cornbread

Published on December 9, 2010 in Eat & Drink and Guest Bloggers. 5 Comments

Ohhhhh, snap.  It’s holiday time, b*tches!  I love this time of year for so many reasons…  one being the fact that it’s totally acceptable to step into my elastic waistband pants and eat inordinate amounts of food.  Buh…  wait what?!  Mouth-watering comfort food that’s (gasp!) HEALTHY?  …POR SUPUESTO!

You can imagine my giddiness and intrigue when our sassy guest blogger, Jess, offered to treat me to a deeel-ish meal of turkey chili and vegan cornbread she was trying out.  I’ll let Chef-boy-ar-Jess take it from here!

Hi guys!!  Jess here.  First of all, I was so happy when Karrie and I came up with the idea of her coming to my house to make dinner one night for Covet Living.

I’d been wanting to concoct a turkey chili for years, but had never pulled the trigger.

After last night, I can safely say that chili is THE easiest thing you can make for a group.  It also got RAVE reviews!  So if you’re entertaining soon and want to keep it low-maintenance and low-key, chili is a great way to go.

I served the chili with the Vegan Cornbread below…  Yum.

As you can see by looking at both recipes towards the bottom of this post, all of the ingredients were wholesome, fresh and delicious.

The amazing cookies above (chocolate chip/potato chip!!!!!!!!) came from Betty and Denise at GRUB in Hollywood.  To be clear:  these are definitely fresh and delicious, but maybe not-so-much wholesome.  I hope you all enjoy it!

Love,

Jess Turkey Chili Recipe

  • 2 lbs of ground turkey (1 ¼ white meat, ¾ dark meat)
  • 2 onions
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 2 cans of 28oz diced tomatoes
  • 3 cups of water
  • 1 T of Kosher Salt
  • 1 tspn of white pepper
  • 1 tspn of garlic powder
  • 1 tspn of onion powder
  • 1 tspn of paprika
  • 1 tspn of cayenne pepper (more if you like things spicy like me)
  • 1 tspn of crushed red pepper flakes
  • ½ tspn of cumin
  • Shake of oregano
  • 2 cans of kidney beans
  • Glug of olive oil

Garnish:

  • Avocado
  • Tortilla strips
  • Green onion
  • Mexican blend cheese
  • Sour Cream
  • Jalapeño
  • Hot sauce

Directions:

  1. Put the olive oil in your pot and warm.
  2. Add the onions and garlic and put the flame to medium.  Wait for the onion to become translucent – this will take a few minutes.
  3. Add the turkey meat to pot and cook until cooked through.
  4. Add the tomatoes, water, kidney beans and the rest of the spices.  The spices in this recipe are meant to be a guide of what to put in but go with your taste and personal preference.
  5. Put the burner to a simmer and allow 2 hours to cook through.

Vegan Cornbread

  • 2 T of ground flax seeds
  • 6 T of water
  • 1 cup of whole-wheat white flour
  • 1 cup of cornmeal
  • ¼ cup of sugar
  • 4 tspn of baking power
  • ¾ t of kosher salt
  • 1 cup of rice milk
  • ¼ cup of canola oil
  • 1 can of corn
  • Pinch of cayenne pepper and garlic powder

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
  2. Spray 8 inch square baking dish with non stick cooking spray
  3. Bring water to a boil in a small saucepan
  4. Add the ground flax seed and reduce the head to medium low and simmer the ground flax in water for 3 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally.  Set aside.
  5. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt, garlic power and cayenne until well combined
  6. Add the ground flax seed, rice milk, canola oil and corn to the dry mixture
  7. Beat until smooth.  If you are using a mixture keep it on the low setting.
  8. Put into baking plan
  9. Put into the over for 20-25 minutes.
  10. Let cool and serve!

Thanks Jess!  Here’s to a yummy – yet healthy-ish (!) – meal.

xoxo,

5 Comments

DIY Pillow Project

Published on December 8, 2010 in Decor and DIY. 2 Comments

After ooh-ing and ahh-ing over Calico Corners here and here, I finally scared up a few yards of my faaaaaavorite, swoon-worthy fabric – Thom Filicia’s City Square in Mistymorn – and busted a move on some throw pillows.

I whipped ’em up chez Bud & Ruth (the GP’s) over Thanksgiving.  As you can imagine from the photo below, a trip to their house is never anything short of entertaining.  Bud taught me a lot of neat tricks when I was a kid, like “pull my finger.”

I had 2 yards of City Square, but instead of using all of it to recover two oversized throw pillows, I used an inexpensive, faux charcoal velvet (that feels like butt-ah) on the back of the each one.

This is a smooth move for two reasons:

1.  If the fabric you’re working with is pricey, “backing” it with a coordinating, less expensive fabric means you only have to buy half the amount of fabric, or can save some for your next project.  This also works with upholstered pieces, like the ones below.  Designer Kristen Cox used Quadrille’s Contessa (about $200/yd) only on the backs of these slipper chairs.

via

2.  “Party-in-the-front/business-in-the-back” pillows are also a cozy (and practical) move, because come nap time, you can flip ’em over to the part that feels like a Snuggie.  Plus, you don’t have to worry about drooling on the pretty side.  These pillows are currently making the living room in my little Chicago greystone so happy.

Now, for the SEWING HOW-TO:  I’m deferring to THESE D*S INSTRUCTIONS for THE best (and easiest to follow) ABC/123 for pillow-making that I have ever run across, because those are the ones I follow.  They do this whole sew the fabric together with a loose stitch and seam rip it after the zipper is in thing that’s totally genius.  Grace Bonney and the crafty girls over there know what they’re talkin’ about.  Click here to bounce over to Design*Sponge’s step-by-step instructions.

And check it:  my silly goose of a dog, Gus, is already putting them to good use.  CLEARLY he didn’t read the part about flipping it over to the velvet-y side and not drooling on the Thom Filicia side.  But seriously, who cares – look at that little nugget!

Goodwill Hunting note:  that little white gourd lamp (on the right in the photo of my apartment) was $4 at my top secret favorite thrift joint in Muncie, IN – the Walnut Street Baptist Mission.  Hollar.

XO!

2 Comments