Today, I’m going to pretend to write a recipe blog, complete with the recipe all the way at the bottom. Feel free to jump down there if you got here just for the recipe. Why a recipe? Because all we do is feed these kids!  That’s half of homeschooling.

Do you remember the campaign to get kids to “Eat the Rainbow?” It was supposed to spur them to eat a wider variety of fruits and vegetables. The reason for this is that foods that are different colors tend to have different nutrients. It also is good for your general health if you eat fruits and vegetables every day, and this rainbow goal helps with that.

Currently, my family has developed a love of chili. I have adapted a red chili recipe and tweaked it for more color and nutrients. I know those of you with super picky kids are feeling jealous, but hopefully this gives you some new ideas you can use. Below, I’ll include my recipe and more information on what tweaks I made. My recipe avoids all of our allergies and is a little spicy. If you want more kick, feel free to add some red pepper. Allergies we are avoiding in this recipe? Gluten, dairy, red meat, corn, nuts, peanuts, and sesame.

Eating a Rainbow

My tweaks to this recipe include substituting an orange bell pepper where most people would use green. Orange peppers have about 10 times the amount of lutein and zeaxanthin as other color peppers, and those nutrients are good for eye health.  For red, we have tomatoes. Green sources of goodness are from jalapeños and celery. Dark Red Kidney beans are almost purple, and packed with nutrients that include vitamin K, iron and folate. For yellow, I throw in a little turmeric, which has been found to have all kinds of health benefits, including decreasing inflammation. I haven’t found anything blue to put in the chili yet. You can eat it with blue corn chips if you want to add that color to your meal.

This chili recipe takes some time to simmer, so I preplan what day of the week I can be home to let it work. It makes a huge batch. Which means my family is fed and we have left overs for lunches and nights I don’t want to cook. My kids like to have it reheated as chili cheese fries. Normally that meal isn’t healthy, but with baked fries and homemade chili, it isn’t a bad choice!

Substitutions

Here is where a typical recipe blog would now put a 15 paragraph essay on the wonders of chili or something. We don’t have time for that. What I will tell you is that you can make lots of substitutions in this recipe to make your own family happy. Leave something out, use different beans, etc. When I have fresh herbs growing in the summer, I chop up parsley, basil, oregano and thyme and toss a bit in for the nutrients. Heck, at once point I used to finely chop baby spinach and throw a bit in and tell my kids it was basil- just to try to sneak in a little more nutrition. My kids have made it and added a 1/3 cup chili powder (instead of 1/4 like I use)  to kick up the flavor. They also added hot sauce. Those changes did make it more spicy.

Recipe

My actual chili.

• 3 pounds ground turkey (If you substitute ground beef, leave out the oil)
• 2 Tbsp oil – I use regular Olive Oil
• 1 onion – chopped
• 2 stalks celery – chopped
• 1 Orange Bell Pepper –  seeded and chopped (You can substitute any color bell pepper)
• 2 Jalapeño Peppers – seeded and chopped – OR 1 can sliced jalapeños – drained
• 4-5 cloves garlic – chopped or a couple of Tablespoons of garlic from a jar
• 1/4 cup Chili Powder
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/4 tsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1 40 oz can of Dark Red Kidney Beans – drained and rinsed
• 1 15 oz. can of Pinto beans – drained and rinsed  (you can use different types of beans or different amounts if you want, the beauty of chili is it will still be chili)
• 1 29 oz. can of Tomato Sauce
• 1 29 oz. can of Diced Tomatoes
• 2 cups water

Add the oil and meat to the pot and start browning it over medium heat.  Chop the vegetables and as they are chopped toss them in with the meat. They can start cooking with it and the juice they release will keep your ground turkey from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Stir often and break up the meat.  Once the meat is browned and the vegetables are all added, add the spices and stir to cover the meat. Add the canned goods and water. Stir. Turn the heat up and bring to boil. Once it boils, turn it down to medium-low and let simmer 2 hours. Stir every 15 minutes.

We enjoy this chili served with cheese, and chips or over baked potatoes.