Pumpkin Chili???

It sounds kinda gross, right?

I'd heard friends rave about it, and some days it sounded great, other days it sounded terrible.

For awhile now, I've been making a bit pot of chili or stew or something on Sunday to have for lunched during the week.  Usually it ends up being a chili, since beans are my friends lately.

Which gets to why I have not updated this in so long....

Work is hectic.  But it means I still get a paycheck.

At the start of last year, I was having major problems eating anything dairy.  In addition to having to avoid gluten, let's just say it makes all food very not fun.  I was getting a bit angry at food.

Then I started making homemade yogurt in hopes it would help adjust some of the ick-ness of my gut, and it made a WORLD of difference.  I can do dairy again.

But then, about halfway thru last year, I started having hypoglycemic episodes. Doc got me a blood sugar monitor and I've tested for diabetes multiple times, and I do not have that, but I still have days where my blood sugar thinks it's opposite day, and I have high blood sugar before I eat, and then it drops way low after eating.  It's not fun, but at least now I know what is happening and I can deal with it as needed.

I've cut ALL corn syrup from my diet (that is a difficult one - you would not believe all the places they stick that stuff), most sugars, I use agave nector as my main sweetener the few times I do use a sweetener, I have to have a reminder set up on my 'Droid to remind me to have some snack times during the afternoon.  I don't eat any "white" carbs and only allow myself some whole grain carbs or potatoes a couple times a week.  For the most part, it seems to work.

Oh, and I also have to have an alarm to wake me up at 3:30 every morning, since I discovered that every night, I usually have a blood sugar crash around then, and catching it then is the difference between feeling like a normal person or a zombie the next day.  Awesome.

And I'm also (along with 90% of America) trying to start 2013 out a little more healthy, and this chili is a way to do it.

So... pumpkin in chili.  Actually not gross.  No, it will not make your chili taste like pie.

It actually just adds a little sweetness (good if your base is just canned tomatoes, like it is above) and creaminess, another good thing.  If we ever do a work pot luck again (we had one last year, I opted out) I may make a totally vegetarian version of this (LOTS of vegetarians at my work).

My biggest chili/stew secret of late... add a head of cauliflower.  Yes, a head.  (In the case of this chili, I had another half head left over from dinners this week).  Found it in a recipe on the Whole Paycheck... I mean Whole Foods website, and I've added it to pretty much every one since.  You really can't tell it's there (since cauliflower doesn't have much taste anyway) but it adds a lot of good veggie-bulk.  Not a bad thing.

Here is to 2013... may it be a better year for all of us.


Pumpkin Chili
It's a chili recipe, people.  Just go with the flow.

1 large onion, chopped
1 large red pepper, chopped
1 1/4 pounds ground turkey (or however much is in the ground turkey package)
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes
A lot of chili powder
2 cans chopped green chiles
1 large can black beans, drained
1 cup chicken stock
1 to 1 1/2 half heads cauliflower, sectioned

Get the onion and red pepper started.

Add your ground beef and cook until it's crumbled up.

Dump in the canned goods and the chicken stock.

The fun part... the cauliflower!  You can chop it before you add it, if you don't mind the mess cauliflower makes when you try to do that.  Or you can just kinda section it off into large pieces, and dump those in.

Simmer on low for an hour.

If you did not chop your cauliflower before adding it, fish out the pieces.  Much easier to chop now and not have cauliflower bits all over your kitchen for the next week.  Heck, you can even take a pair of kitchen scissorss to it while it's in the pot.  As long as it is good & cooked, it should break apart fairly easily.

Serve with whatever you like on your chili.

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