Best Chili Recipes - You Can Lose Weight Eating This Low Calorie Chili

In this article we will look at a low calorie, high protein chili recipe that is sure to please you and your family or guests. It is not hard to make a quality dish of chili as many times this dish gets bad press as being fattening and this is just not the case.

I love chili! I can eat it anytime of the year and never be unhappy with it! It is fast, and cheap like some of the girls I dated in college but that is another story entirely! Many people think that chili is fattening because of the carbs associated with it in the form of beans. Let me be the first to tell you that no one person has ever gotten fat from eating beans unless they bury them in fat and grease. Period! Chili, if done properly whether it is beef, chicken, or even pork can be a low fat, high protein shot that tastes great! The secret is to get the flavor you want from the ingredients and not from the fat! Believe me, this is not hard to do. Here is a low fat, high protein chili with all the benefits of helping one to lose weight and stay healthy and not have all the fat that can be associated with day to day chili. This chili recipe will serve 6+/- people. In this recipe I will use beef, but you can substitute whatever kind of meat protein that you wish. Chicken, turkey, pork or even tofu if you want to make this a vegetarian style of chili. There are also tofu products that are textured like tofu sausage that is really excellent for chili recipes. So here we go with the ingredients.

Cooking Recipes Dinner

The ingredients you will need are:

Best Chili Recipes - You Can Lose Weight Eating This Low Calorie Chili

1. 1 1/2-2Lbs of lean ground beef. It should be 10% or less if you can get it.

2. 4 garlic bulbs finely chopped.

3 tablespoons of either California or New Mexico chili powder.

1 dash of cayenne for added heat if you like. The thermogenics and metabolism boost from it is good too!

I tablespoon of cumin.

1 teaspoon of smoked paprika.

1 large can of fire roasted tomatoes diced up. These cans are either 26 to 28 oz.

2 15oz can of some kind of red bean either kidney or Louisiana red bean. Pinto beans will do in a pinch though.

1 large onion chopped fine. Either a brown or red onion the choice is yours.

1 1/2 of a cup or more depending on taste of canned diced chilies. The Hatch chili variety is best in my opinion.

3 to 4 tablespoons of tomato paste.

1 or 2 dashes of Worcestershire sauce.

1 one little dash of salt or sea salt or even season salt, or you can leave the salt out for your guests to add themselves. I know salt make you hold water, but is some cases you just have to have some to bring the flavors of your food out.

OK! Lets cook:

1. Get your hands on a large skillet of either the no stick, stainless steel or my favorite a cast iron skillet and take your very lean ground beef and brown it up. When the beef is browned and not burned, it is time for you to drain off the excess fat from the skillet. I usually put the beef in a bowl and then take another bowl and place it on top of the bowl with the beef and squeeze down and tip sideways over the sink and squeeze all that extra fat out of the beef. I leave what little grease is still in the pan and if there is too much I drain it out until only a slick remains.

2. Now it is time for you to put the beef back into your skillet and put the garlic, chili powder, and cumin in for you to mix together on a low medium heat. When the total ingredients in the skillet are hot and simmering as you can tell from the little bubbles on the sides of the skillet it will be time for you to add y our tomatoes, onions, chilies, beans, and tomatoes to the recipes and stir them together and let them blend. It is good to let this mixture cook for 2 to 4 hours on low simmer and you should check it every now and again with your spoon to see if you want to add anything to this recipe. About ten minutes before the dish is done add your Worcestershire sauce, smoked paprika and salt. Keep on low for another thirty minutes and then turn the heat off and let the flavors marry to each other. When your guests arrive it is chow time!

Best Chili Recipes - You Can Lose Weight Eating This Low Calorie Chili

An Easy, Quick Recipe - Baked Ham Steak With Pineapple

Are you often rushed in the evenings? Finding it hard to get dinner on the table and still have time for the important things in life? A few easy quick recipes, combined with a little planning will make cooking dinner a pleasure again.

Look for recipes that are simple --with minimum preparation, then let your oven or slow cooker do the work. This recipe features an easy preparation, then cooks quickly in only 20 minutes in the oven while you fix a salad and warm some dinner rolls. Baked Ham Steak with Pineapple is an old favorite that can easily and quickly solve tonight's dinner crisis.

Cooking Recipes Dinner

You will find these pre-sliced ham steaks vacuum packed in the meat department of your grocery. Sizes range from 1 to 2 pounds. This recipe calls for 1 1/2 pound, but choose a steak that will serve your family. If it is much smaller, then cook for a little less time. This serves 4 generously.

An Easy, Quick Recipe - Baked Ham Steak With Pineapple

Baked Ham Steak with Pineapple

1 1/2 pound ham steak

1 can pineapple rings

brown sugar

cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Trim off or slice through the fat on the edge of the ham in several places to prevent curling in the pan.

3. Place the ham steak in a shallow ovenproof pan and place the pineapple slices on top. Pour the pineapple juice over all.

4. Place the ham steak in the oven and bake for 20 minutes (uncovered).

5. After 20 minutes, remove the pan from the oven and turn the oven up to broil.

6. Baste the ham with the pan juices. Sprinkle a little brown sugar over the pineapple slices and dust with cinnamon.

7. Return to oven and broil for 3 to 5 minutes or until the pineapple is lightly browned. Serve each ham steak with a pineapple slice.

Serve with a tossed salad and dinner rolls for an easy quick dinner recipe solution. I hope that this menu will find its way onto your table soon.

An Easy, Quick Recipe - Baked Ham Steak With Pineapple

Spanish Food - How to Make Spanish Chorizo Sausage

Chorizo is that wonderfully tasty sausage to be found and enjoyed all over Spain. There are many different ones, each Spanish family having its own particular favorite but, basically, they fall into two different types... fresh chorizo, which will need cooking before you eat it, and cured chorizo, which you can slice and consume just as it is.

Chorizo sausages are normally a strong, orangey-red color. This is because of the paprika or pimentón they contain - a main ingredient of chorizo sausages.

Cooking Recipes Dinner

Paprika comes in two different types - "picante" or spicy, and "dulce" or sweet. Depending on the type of paprika used to make the sausage, the resulting chorizo will be either a spicy or sweet variety.

Spanish Food - How to Make Spanish Chorizo Sausage

But, how is chorizo made, and what are its origins?...

How To Make Chorizo

Going back, more Spanish families lived in the country. More-often-than-not, they'd have a little plot of land, where they'd grow their own vegetables, keep some chickens... and fatten a pig.

The beauty of keeping a pig was that it could be cheaply fed from kitchen leftovers and, once killed, nearly every part could be used, with practically no waste. When November arrived, and the pig was nice and fat, the family would gather together - each having their own particular role to play - and kill the pig.

In Spanish, this slaughtering of the pig is known as the "matanza", and is still very much celebrated in Spanish villages to-day, with fun-loving fiestas, free-flowing wine, and much rejoicing.

Why did the "matanza" traditionally take place in November? Well, the weather was cooler then, with less chance of the meat going off. Also, it meant that village people were well-stocked up for the winter. This was particularly important as - even to-day - more-isolated villages in mountainous areas are completely cut off for a spell during winter when heavy snows have fallen.

Going back, each family would kill its own pig. This was no easy task, as getting a big, fat pig settled, ready for the knife, is quite hard work!

The pig was killed by stabbing it in the neck. This also released the blood, which the ladies of the family would catch in a bowl. Care had to be taken to ensure the blood didn't clot, for this was needed for mixing with rice and spices to make "morcilla" or black pudding.

It was also the task of the females to make the chorizo sausages. For this, they would take the pig's intestine, empty it, clean it, and then leave it to soak in salt water, to remove any unpleasant odors.

Once ready, the intestine would be filled with a mixture of finely-chopped pork, paprika, garlic and salt, and the end tied in a knot. Originally, the chopping of the meat and the procedure of squeezing it into the intestine was all done manually. Nowadays, however, there's a machine to help with this.

Once filled and securely tied, the chorizo sausage was ready for hanging. It would be left to cure in a well-ventilated place, probably for at least 3 months.

Nowadays, the pig is killed in the local abattoir, under strict, hygienic conditions. A vet will test the meat and, once it's been approved, the owner of the pig will collect it, take it home, and carry on with preparing it.

And now, for those of you with a pig roaming around in your garden, which you plan to slaughter in November, here's a basic recipe for making your very own, tasty, chorizo sausage!...

Chorizo Recipe

Ingredients:

- 1 kilo pork
- 40 gr paprika - sweet or spicy, according to taste
- 2 cloves garlic - peeled and crushed
- 20 gr salt
- 50 cm pig's intestine
- A little water

Method:

1. Chop up the pork fairly finely.
2. Mix in the paprika, garlic, and salt.
3. If necessary, use a little water to facilitate mixing.
4. Cover with cling film.
5. Leave in fridge 24-48 hours.
6. Fill intestine with the mixture, leaving a few centimetres of intestine free at one end.
7. Tie a knot in the end of the intestine.
8. Leave to hang in a well-ventilated place, normally for 3 months plus.

Well, I do hope all this talk of killing pigs and filling intestines won't put you off enjoying all those delicious chorizo sausages you'll find in Spain!

Spanish Food - How to Make Spanish Chorizo Sausage