Love Live Balance: Lazy Day Crockpot Chili

Since I am home for Christmas break I did not make anything in the crockpot for dinner this week. I made a batch of crockpot vegetable soup for lunches, but I couldn't leave you with a repeat recipe. I have been meaning to do this feature for a long time because I have been drooling over this chili every time I see it! Sam from Love Live Balance made this delicious crockpot turkey chili and I thought it would be perfect to share for Crockpot Monday! Sam has lot of other delicious recipes and she's genuinely the nicest person ever, so go and check out her awesome blog!

Without further mention here is Sam:

Is there anything better than a simple crock pot recipe? Well what about a simple recipe that gives you chili?! I was really craving some chili last week so we decided to make it on the crock pot on Saturday morning.

The crock pot is perfect for lazy days when you don't feel like cooking but still want a delicious meal. So when I really wanted chili but neither Amanda or I wanted to make it, we figured we'd throw it all in the crock pot.

This makes a huge batch which is great to have as leftovers during the week! I'm going to take a page out of Rachael's book from The Simple Life and start doing crock pot Mondays, such a great idea!

For this recipe you'll need:
2 1/2 pounds lean ground turkey
1 can organic dark red kidney beans (15 oz)
1 can organic chili beans with sauce (15 oz)
1 can organic pinto beans (15 oz)
1 can organic black beans (15 oz)
1 can organic tomato paste (2.5 oz) + 1 can full of water (2.5 oz)
12 small tomatoes
1 large onion
1 tablespoon of cumin, chili powder, salt, black pepper, and garlic powder
1 habanero pepper

How to make it:

1. Dump everything in the crock pot

2. Cook for 6 hours on high

That's it! Although you can brown the turkey and onion if you want before putting it in the crock pot. We skipped that step since our turkey was frozen and honestly I couldn't tell the difference. Usually we brown the meat without cooking it all the way through but we were feeling kinda lazy so we completely skipped that part.

Also, all the beans were drained and rinsed except the chili beans with the sauce. You can keep the sauce for them as it gives the chili extra flavor.

Another substitution you can make is for the tomato paste and fresh tomatoes. You can replace the 2.5 oz of water and fresh tomatoes with a can of diced tomatoes. It was a funny story because Amanda and I were talking about how we realized we didn't have any canned tomatoes or enough fresh ones but when Amanda went to her meeting for our Bible study on Saturday morning, one of the leaders brought in fresh tomatoes! She had grown them in her garden but ended up having too many for her family to eat so she brought some in to give away. It worked out perfectly since we were in need of tomatoes which saved me a trip to the grocery store!

So if you do a can of diced tomatoes, don't add the extra 2.5 oz of water but instead use the juices from the canned tomatoes. You don't need the fresh tomatoes either. We used the water and fresh tomatoes as a substitute for the canned ones.

The spices can be tailored to your preference. Amanda isn't that big on spice so even though a tablespoon may sound like a lot it really wasn't that spicy for the amount we made. The habanero is also optional but we added it in because our grandpa gave us one from his garden and we've hardly known what all to put them in because they're so spicy! Amanda actually put on latex gloves to cut it because she was afraid of how spicy the pepper is-- I'm not kidding, I have a picture as proof.

Told you I wasn't kidding...

Gloves are not a necessity but just make sure you wash your hands very well after handling the pepper because if you were to touch your eye or something, ouch! Seriously, they're that spicy.

Once everything is added to the crock pot, just put the lid on and let it do it's thing. You'll have delicious chili in a few hours without hardly having to do anything!

This recipe made roughly 12 servings with each serving being a cup. Since I had to calculate the macros for myself, I figured I'd share that information with you guys!

Nutritional information per serving (1 cup): 271 calories, 7g fat, 25g carbs, 26g protein, and 8g fiber

Enjoy!

*Now go and check out Sam's awesome blog!