Ruly Ruth: Does a skinny stew stand up?

If you are following a health or weight loss New Year’s resolution, you might have tried a healthy meal for your Super Bowl watching.  Ruly Ruth road-tested a healthy chili from The Skinny Crockpot.  Read on for her review.

Okay, so we are working on assessing the tastiness of easy to make and healthy meals. I made Skinny Turkey Stew, Texas Style in a crockpot.  Although that’s a tad bit deceiving–the first part calls for sauteeing the garlic, onion and celery. And I used ground turkey so I browned that as well…as well as ground turkey browns that is! I used about 1 cup of Baby carrots to substitute for the 2 carrots in the recipe–I try to use produce that we will eat more of regularly. (Did you know that baby carrots are not really baby carrots but irregularly shaped carrots cut down? Just a tidbit!) And I was out of allspice, but since nutmeg is a main ingredient in allspice, I substituted the 1/8 tsp. for that instead. Nutmeg is a lovely spice to add to all ground meats, fyi!

The chili actually cooked in about 6 hours–but I have a HUGE crockpot that is a long oval–if you have the smaller more circular one I’d say you’ll need all 8 hours–less surface area to heat the food at one time.

So what’s the result? Okay–the taste is good. I followed the spices as recommended. It’s spicy! Now with a lot of Mexican dishes, you often add cheese to help cut the heat. And in Italian dishes with your beautiful marinaras, again–cheese! And with chilis–you could definitely add cheese to enjoy this–or sour cream. We actually used an avocado in the serving dish to add that creamy texture and cut the spice a bit–and added tortilla chips to make it a more hearty, almost a tortilla soup chili. It was very good—I don’t LOVE LOVE it–so I won’t keep this recipe and in general there are a lot of pretty healthy broth-based soups that we really enjoy that I’d make more often. But it’s always fun to try something new! So for a low-fat chili, go for it! With a good kick, that is!

Coincidentally, we also made a turkey-based Crockpot meal for the Super Bowl based on a recipe that came in the coupon circular for our local Giant grocery store.  I am trying to find a link to it but it doesn’t seem to be on their website.  The  recipe is called “Slow Cooker Stuffed Pepper Soup.”  While it is similar to recipes of the same name posted online, it uses ground turkey instead of ground beef and the seasoning is a bit different. It was delicious!  It tasted very similar to the stuffed peppers my Yiayia used to make and was really easy and hearty.

This was a great circular that included coupons and a list of tips about how to eat healthy on a budget that were really clever.  If I find a link, I will update this page.

For our nutritional education this month, I pose the question, “Which is ‘better,’ ground turkey or ground beef and why?”

We will use the nutritional information supplied by the beef industry and a poultry producer. (Note: I had to scale up the beef facts by multiplying them by 1.333 in order to compare similar portion sizes.)

When you see the ground beef and the ground turkey stacked up side-by-side, the results are interesting.  In my own non-medical, personal opinion, it seems to me that you can probably choose which protein you prefer without suffering any life-changing medical harm.  You can save on calories, fat and cholesterol with the turkey, particularly if you go for the ultra-lean 99% option.  On the other hand, you pick up iron and several other nutrients, including zinc, thiamin, B6 and B12 if you opt for beef and it doesn’t cost you that much more in calories or fat.

The beef industry is fighting back against any black eyes it may have in terms of nutritional value.  I was surprised to learn the following:

“Calorie-for-calorie, beef is one of the most naturally nutrient-rich foods. According to research published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, beef is the number one source of protein, zinc, and vitamin B12; the number two source of selenium; the number three source of iron, vitamin B6, phosphorus, niacin and potassium; and the number four source of riboflavin.”

“Red meat’s fat profile is often misunderstood and a common misperception is that animal proteins provide only saturated fat. Surprisingly, half the fat in beef is monounsaturated, the same type of heart-healthy fat found in salmon and olive oil. In addition, one-third of the saturated fat in beef is stearic acid, which studies have shown has a neutral or cholesterol-lowering effect.”

“A 3-ounce serving of lean beef offers the most protein with the fewest calories when compared to plant proteins such as peanut butter, black beans and tofu.”

“A person would need to consume two to three times the calories provided in a 3-ounce serving of beef to get an equivalent amount of protein from a veggie burger.”

Source: “Proteins are not created equal,” beefnutrition.org

You can create a healthy diet in an infinite number of ways.  If you want to include beef in that diet, there are good reasons to do so but you will need to be smart about your choices.  If you are focused solely on calories, however, swapping turkey for beef makes a lot of sense.  And, of course there are those who opt for vegetarian or vegan options that work too.

Anyone else testing out turkey recipes?  Have any turkey cooking tips?  Please share in the comments.