Easy Weekly Lunches: Three Bean Turkey Chili

One of the top challenges since switching to a gluten-free diet has been figuring out what to take for lunch to work Monday through Friday. Weekends are a bit easier, because I can scramble up some eggs or an omelet, or get a bit fancier and grill some fresh veggies with chicken or fish.

the weekly lunch dilemma

During the week, though, things get a little but trickier. For me, not only do my weekly lunches have to be gluten-free, but they also need to be:

• Easy (or relatively easy): I need to be able to cook them with minimal effort and cleanup Sunday afternoon and still have time for refresh my manicure, iron my clothes for the week, and relax a bit before Monday morning rolls around.
• Inexpensive: I need to be able to buy the ingredients and have each meal come out to no more than $2 or so. Usually they are actually much less.
• Healthy: While I'm at the point in my health where I'm not dieting per-say, I still watch what I eat pretty carefully. I don't follow any specific diet (Atkin's, low-card, paleo), but I do try to avoid processed foods and cook most of my meals, focusing on incorporating protein and eliminating sugar, salt, high-fat dairy, and anything fried.
• Portable: This means soups are out. I know they make those nifty locking lid plastic containers, but I'm the girl that always manages to spill things, locking lids or no locking lids. This also means salads are usually out for me, because I hate having to bring a separate little container for dressing.
• Reheatable: I've never been a huge fan of leftovers. My lunches for work need to be something that heat up well in our low-power microwaves without drying out or tasting tough or stringy.
• Work-friendly: This means I can't need a steak knife to cut it up. This also means it can't be any kind of seafood or fish, since my coworkers don't complain about an icky smell lingering in the break room microwave.

This week, my meal selection was a Turkey Three Bean Chili based off this recipe from Gina at Skinnytaste. I threw everything into my slow cooker right after lunch, and it was ready to cool down and portion after dinner.

I divided it up into 8 separate portions instead of the recommended 12, which left me with 309 calories per serving. This week's meal was also dairy-free, and packed with fiber filled beans. I also omitted any toppings, since they wouldn't be very portable in my opinion, and they would have just added unnecessary fat and sodium to my lunch. I personally like to save my indulging for dinner, when I find myself the most hungry, and I can really enjoy my food instead of scarfing it down to get back to work.

Slow Cooker Three Bean Turkey Chili

Ingredients
1 1/3 lb (20 oz) fat free ground turkey breast (I like Jennie-O)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes (I like Muir Glen organic fire roasted diced tomatoes)
1 (16 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (15 oz) can chickpeas, drained
1 (15.5 oz) can black beans, drained
1 (15.5 oz) can small red beans, drained
1/2 can chicken broth
2 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin

Directions
1. Brown onion in a medium skillet over medium high heat until softened and nearly carmelized.

2. Add garlic and turkey. Brown turkey until cooked through, draining fat if desired (I never seem to need to).

3. Transfer turkey mixture to slow cooker (unless using a slow cooker insert that can double as your browning skillet). 

4. Add the beans, chickpeas, tomatoes, tomato sauce, chili powder, and cumin, mixing well.
5. Cook on high 6 hours.

By the way, I am a woman madly in love with her slow cooker. I finally splurged and bought this All-Clad Deluxe Slow Cooker from Williams Sonoma. I got it for a smokin' deal- a one day Saturday sale that was $100 off retail.

Not only does it cook food evenly without it ever sticking to the pot, but the lightweight insert is actually removable, allowing you to place it on the stove to brown onions, meats, etc. on the stove before prepping the rest of the recipe. The digital display allows you to set time in half hour increments up to 8 hours on high or low, and automatically beeps then switches over to "keep warm" when food is done cooking.

Enjoy! Hope this helps give you some inspiration for easy weekly meal planning of your own.