Protein Packed Chili

You should be able to eat this for a week! There's a lot, so modify according to your needs. Vegetarians can cut the turkey or ground beef out. For the the garlic; I know we all hate to chop it up! You can cut some time and smell by buying already peeled garlic(Trader Joe's does them and there are 5-6 cloves per pack with about 5 packs in the bag), or you can buy it in the jar in the spice aisle of your super market. Just make sure you refrigerate both of these garlics, otherwise they will go bad. Also, this may seem obvious, but I made many mistakes in the beginning and I want everyone to avoid the headache, make sure you chop and dice all your ingredients prior to cooking. This saves tons of time and then the cooking part is a piece of cake, you're basically just combining.

1 lb ground turkey or lean ground beef
1-2 cans of black beans(depends on how chunky you want it)
1 medium to large sized green pepper, diced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4-5 garlic cloves diced
28 oz can of unsalted plum tomatoes
dry chili pepper
dry cumin
dry oregano
paprika
chili sauce
cayenne (optional)
salt
masa or arrowroot(you will dilute this in a 1/4 cup of water to thicken the mixture)

1. Get a skillet or sauce pan really hot to cook the meat, once it's hot bring it down to a medium flame. Add about 2 tbsp of canola oil(you can also use Extra Virgin Olive Oil(EVOO), but I like to use canola for high heat). Put the garlic and the onion in the pan. Saute about 2 mins.
2. Add the ground meat. If you are a vegetarian just saute the garlic and onion and set aside. Cook until the met has browned.
3. While the meat is cooking(keep an eye on it and stir frequently. If you're not a good multi-tasker just wait till the meat is cooked to go on), put the tomatoes, green peppers, and beans into a soup pot and set the burner to a medium heat.
4. When the meat is finished pour it into the pot. If you are looking to cut the fat(if you use lean meat I wouldn't really worry about it), you can drain some of the juice out of the skillet before you throw it into the soup pot(just be sure to not loose to much of the garlic and onion, we need those for flavor and texture). Stir these ingredients together in the pot.
5. Now here's where you can get creative but you've got to follow some guidelines. With the spices it's all about what you like. So you can give or take on these numbers a bit. Trow about 2 large tbsp of chili pepper, 1 tsp of both cumin and oregano, 2 tsp of paprika, 1 tsp on salt, and a decent sized squirt of chili sauce. I also like to throw in some cayenne, just a couple of dashes but you've got to be careful with cayenne and chili sauce! A little goes a long way.
6. Now you want to bring the temperature down so all these spices can come to their full flavor. Reduce the heat so that the chili can simmer for about 30 mins. If you want it a bit spicier, let it sit for another 10. Stir occasionally.
7. Add 2 tsp of masa or arrowroot to 1/4 of warm water. Dilute it in your measuring cup with a fork by mixing it around until it's a thick but still flowable mixture. Then add it to the chili.
8. Let your chili simmer for another 15mins or so, try it out. Does it need a little more spice? Add it and stir.
9. Take it off the heat and eat! It's super healthy and delicious, will fill you up and you'll have left overs. You can freeze it in containers for up to 3 months(just make sure you allow it to cool before adding it to plastic, otherwise it melts some of the plastic and we don't want that. Better yet, get some glass containers-better for you and the environment!).
YAY!