Pumpkin belongs in the chili

Makes one big pot in about 50 minutes, most of it simmering: six bowls, spread across the week or tucked into the freezer. The whole pot holds roughly 140g of protein, a little over 20g a bowl.

Get a heavy pot hot over medium-high heat with two tablespoons of olive oil. Add the turkey, press it flat across the bottom with a spatula, salt it, and leave it alone for five minutes, until the underside is properly brown. Then break it up and give it two minutes more.

Onion in, heat down to medium, a pinch of salt, eight minutes until soft. Garlic, chili powder and cumin go in next for one minute, stirring, until the spices smell toasted and darken a shade.

Tomatoes, pumpkin, beans and a cup and a half of water. Stir until the pumpkin disappears into the rest, bring it to a bubble, then drop to low and simmer uncovered for 25 minutes, stirring now and then so nothing catches on the bottom. Heat off, vinegar in, and taste for salt. It will want more than you think.

Why this works: browning the turkey as one flat slab before you break it up lets lean meat brown instead of steaming gray. Frying the spices in the fat for a minute before any liquid goes in pulls out flavor that simmering alone never reaches.

It keeps 3 to 4 days in the fridge and freezes well for a few months. It thickens as it sits, so reheat it in a covered pot with a splash of water.

No recipe, just an order of operations, and it is for the mornings when nothing sweet appeals. Two slices of dense rye bread, a thin swipe of grainy mustard on each, right out to the crust. An ounce of Swiss split between them. Three ounces of thin-sliced deli ham over the top, folded loosely rather than laid flat. A few thin slices of radish and a lot of black pepper.

Use the dark, heavy rye from the bakery shelf rather than soft sandwich rye. It holds up under the mustard and does not go limp in your hand. Roughly 25g of protein.

A jar of lupini beans from the olive and pickle aisle, drained and rinsed, in a small bowl with a few green olives. They are big, firm and briny, with a thin skin you can pop off between your teeth or just eat. Rinse them first, because the brine is very salty.

Where a bowl of chili or soup wants crackers crumbled over it, slide a fried egg on top instead. Keep the yolk runny so it breaks into the bowl like a sauce. One large egg brings about 6g of protein.

In the dairy case or the international aisle, look for paneer. It is a fresh cheese that holds its shape in a hot pan instead of melting, so you can cube it, brown it in a little oil on every side, salt it while it is hot, and drop it into greens, beans or a bowl of this chili.

A big pot of anything holds its heat for a long time, and the middle stays warm well after the surface feels cool. That matters because bacteria grow fastest between 40°F and 140°F, the range USDA calls the danger zone. Their guidance is to get cooked food into the fridge within two hours and to divide large amounts into shallow containers so it cools quickly all the way through. So ladle the chili into a few wide containers once it stops bubbling instead of putting the whole pot in the fridge. Stored that way, USDA gives leftovers 3 to 4 days in the fridge or 3 to 4 months in the freezer, which is plenty of time for a pot this size.

For the day this week when the stove is not going to happen: a slice of toast spread thick with peanut butter while it is still hot, so it goes soft and glossy. Press a sliced banana into it and add a pinch of salt. Cut it into small squares. Sweet, salty and soft, with real protein under the fruit.