Vig’s Easy International Chili

It’s a good day! I’ve lost 2 lbs. And my voice is getting stronger. I had 4 cigarettes yesterday, and 3 glasses of wine. (Tuesday was 2 cigarettes and 1 martini.) I wanted something wonderful, quick, and cheap for dinner, so I invented a great Chili.

I had a bottle of chili sauce at home, so that would be a quick start to a Turkey Chili. But I was in the mood for some carbs to go with it, pasta or rice, but I’m trying to reduce the waistline right now, and I’d already had plenty of carbs at lunch. (Irish Pub lunch: corned beef with cabbage, potatoes, and mashed carrots and parsnips – and it came with a side of some wonderfully sinful cream sauce. Delish!) Anyway, since I’d had a big potato with lunch, I wanted to replace the carb with a vegetable. I found inspiration in the frozen food section. There was a southwestern entrée that had broccoli in it, now I’m so over broccoli right now, but it made me think of cauliflower, cauliflower goes great with curry. And that was the beginning of the plan. And wouldn’t you know, I didn’t have any curry, but the garam masala, yeah, I have that. And I’m using it on just about anything I can think of. (Try dry roasting some almonds, and sprinkling them with salt and garam masala. Yes, very nice.)


Vig’s Easy International Chili
Low Fat, Low Carb?, High in taste
Serves a crowd, with leftovers for lunch, maybe some to freeze.

3 T. Olive Oil
½ bag frozen diced onions
2 packs ground turkey

1 bottle Heinz chili sauce
1 28oz can diced tomatoes
2 c. turkey stock (low sodium, home made if you have any.)
1 bag frozen pepper strips
1 head cauliflower, halved then sliced 1/4 in.

1 15 oz can corn – with liquid
1 15 oz can red kidney beans - rinsed
1 15 oz can garbanzo beans - rinsed
1 15 oz can fat-free refried beans

4 zucchini – diced

Garam Masala – main seasoning- to taste
Cumin - to taste (optional)
Coriander – to taste (optional)
Cayenne Pepper – to taste

2-3 T. Chopped Cilantro – Add after removed from stove.

IN a stock pan, or something pretty big, brown the turkey with onions and olive oil. Add next 5 ingredients (and some spice), bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, cover for 20 minutes or until you get back from a nice walk with the dog in the park. Remove cover. Test seasonings. Stir in next 4 ingredients and heat through. Correct seasonings. Add zucchini and simmer until crisp-tender. Remove from heat and stir in Cilantro.

A green salad with avocado goes great with this.

Comments: I don’t usually write my creations down, but this was just so good, I knew I’d want to make it again for a party, or to have on hand for busy times. I hope you enjoy it! I learned to cook like this when I lost 45 lbs. with Weight Watchers. I’ve put some of it back on, and I want to lose it before auditions come up.

The refried beans and the chili sauce had so much salt in it that I didn’t need to add any additional salt at all. Also, the cumin and coriander are redundant. They're already in the Garam Masala. I won't use them next time. Yes, I had homemade stock on hand. But it isn’t a big player in this, so I am sure it will be just as good the next time I make it. I recommend the kind of stock that comes in little cartons, but if you want to use the granular kind, just go easy on it until you test the seasonings at the end so it’s not too salty. The only things that had to be chopped were the cauliflower and the zucchini. I don’t like frozen of either, but it could save time and probably would be ok to use a bag of frozen cauliflower, and 2 cans zucchini in tomato sauce instead of fresh.

This chili was so good, that I don’t want to change a thing about it. And I really wish it was lunch time now, so I could have some more!