Inaugural Post!

Hi Everyone!

My name is Gracie and I'm an amateur writer and avid food lover. I've always enjoyed writing but never found myself good enough to pursue it as a profession. I've tried blogging before but never managed to keep up with it, so welcome to my latest attempt! This is my newest project and I'm pretty darn excited. The purpose of this blog (aside for me to ramble about cooking and leading a healthy and active life style) is to post recipe ideas for college students like myself who are sick of the ambiguously labeled dining hall food. I've also been on a weight loss adventure for awhile now and it's really starting to pay off so I'd like to share what works for me (and will hopefully help all of you too!)

A little bit about myself: Born and raised in California where I also attend school. I'm in my second year of college and enjoying every minute of it... or trying to! I'm a history major with a concentration in Europe during the WWII Era and I'm also studying psychology on the side. I've been babysitting for over six years and have worked as an assistant at a preschool in my hometown for three summers now. I absolutely love spending time with kids so I do it quite often (sometimes even six days a week when I'm not in school!) Hmm, other interesting things about me? I have a gigantic rabbit (he lives with my parents and my brother while I'm at school) and he doesn't really have an official name. He's not the typical house rabbit, more like the family lap dog. He'll follow you around, sit on your lap, come when you call etc. I dunno how it happened, but I'm not gonna question it ;)

Anyway, back to the purpose of this blog! Tonight I made the healthiest version of chili cheese fries I could and they were pretty dang good (don't worry, my roommate tried them and thought they rocked so I wasn't the only taste tester.) Obviously fries aren't the wisest choice when it comes to food selection, but sometimes ya just gotta have em'! I'm not huge on following recipes, but when I do I'll definitely post them. Here's how everything came together tonight! (Note: I'm a huge fan of Trader Joe's so a lot of my groceries/ ingredients come from there)

Super Bomb Chili Cheese Fries With 10% of the Normal Guilt!
(This recipe makes a whole bunch of chili, so I just threw the leftovers in a heavy duty Ziploc Bag and put it the freezer)

Ingredients:

1 package of standard cut french fries (Trader Joe's fries are called Handsome Cut, how awesome is that?! Is that even a real thing?!)

Chili Ingredients:
1 medium yellow onion
1 pound 99% fat free ground turkey (I used Jenny-O brand)
A lot of Chili Powder... sorry, no measurement. I just kind of eye ball it, but I like chili so if I had to guess I'd say maybe 1/4 cup? Use however much suits your fancy!
About 3 tablespoons of ground cinnamon (I know it sounds weird but trust me, it's amazing!)
1 6oz can tomato paste
1 28oz can of diced tomatoes
1 can black beans
1 can kidney beans
Shredded cheese (if desired)

1. Sautee the onion and the ground turkey over medium high heat in a large stew pot until the turkey is cooked through and the onions are soft

2. Once the turkey is cooked add in all the canned ingredients (order doesn't matter, just toss it all in!)

3. Add the chili powder and the cinnamon and make sure to stir until it's fully incorporated.

4. Turn the heat to low and throw a lid on it. The longer it sits, the more the flavors soak in.

Seriously this chili is so easy it barely qualifies as a recipe. It would be super easy to make this in a crockpot as well but most of us college kids don't have a crock pot lying around...

5. While the chili is simmering, follow the heating directions on your package of fries and get those in the oven.

6. When your fries are done and the chili has stewed a little (again, no specific amount of time, whenever you get too hungry to wait any longer!) plate your fries and ladle the desired amount of chili on top. Sprinkle on some shredded cheese (or in my case tonight, some crumbled colby haha) and enjoy!

See, easy peasy! I also happened to go to Costco this week and bought a s*#t ton of vegetables, so I had some broccoli on the side! Would love to hear what you all think!

I'm off to my nightly gym sesh (a recent habitual addition!)

 Happy Eating!

Gracie