Easy Chili and Valentine's Day Surf and Turf

I hope everyone had a great weekend! It's snowing like crazy here in Columbus, and it's literally pitch white (instead of pitch black..haha). I've got a lot to share today, so let's get started.

2010 Cookbook, Quick, Cheap, and Healthy Recipe #12

Thick and Meaty Chili

Ingredients
(Makes 2 large servings, or 3 small)

6 ounces cooked ground turkey
1/2 can tomato, with all the juice
1/4 can black beans
2 T tomato paste
1/4 cup red pepper
1 t. basil
1 t onion powder
1 t cumin
1 t garlic
1/2 t cayenne

Possible Modifications
- Use any protein you wish
- Use any kind of bean you wish
- Add any other vegetables you wish
- Add more or less of any of the spices!

Instructions
This is EASY AS PIE. Throw everything into a large pan, turn on the heat, and cook until desired temperature is reached. YEAH!

I served mine over some spinach, and added some grated parmesan, and Red Hot.

Nutrition Facts
(for one large serving)

My Rating: 9 out of 10
This recipe was SO EASY! And I just love chili, no matter what, so it deserved a 9 more it's easy prep and delicious taste.

Nick's Rating: 9 out of 10
He added extra Red Hot to his, and it was VERY SPICY

Surf and Turf From My Valentine

I thought of a new job for Nick on Friday (when we celebrated V-day) and that is to be a food safety inspector! See the plate below? I put the lobster on the same plate as the fillets, so I could get a picture. WELL the food safety "Natzi" yelled at me and said you can't put seafood and raw meat together because that could cause "cross contamination". But they haven't been cooked yet!, I said. Apparently it doesn't matter. Ooops.

Despite a couple "wrong moves" I made in the kitchen, and despite having the tiniest kitchen on this planet, we came together and made an AMAZING meal. We used Alton Brown's recipe for steak fillets, and set off the smoke alarm.....at least we know it works!

We used a simple recipe for the lobster. Basically we steamed the lobster tails in salty water for 10 minutes. EASY! The hard part was getting to the meat. My goodness, we paid a ton of money for about 4 ounces of lobster. It was worth it though.

Our final dinner consisted of freshly baked sweet potato, sauteed spinach, lobster tail with garlic and basil butter, and medium rare fillets. For drinks we had our favorite pale ale, Sierra Nevada. Not pictured is the blue cheese we added to our steaks

Freshly dipped lobster tail. Devoured in ten seconds.

Dessert: Gluten free brownies (which actually have more sugar than the regular kind..why were the in the "healthy" section again???) and homemade chocolate ice cream with peanut butter chips.

Coming Up

Tomorrow I'll be answering your questions from Sunday's supplement post! Also if you're interested in reading about some 2010 Fitness trends, I wrote a new blog post for our workplace wellness website; 2010 Fitness Trends.

Thanks for reading, and have a great night/day!