Cooking – Page 6 – Fervent Foodie

Black & White Chicken Chili

November 12, 2010 1 Comment

Every year, my company holds its annual Crockpot Fest where employees anonymously submit chilis and soups to a contest judged by our fellow coworkers. I’ve never participated in the crockpost fest from the submission side of things, though I have been more than happy to taste everyone else’s creations!

Given the recent relocation of my wildly attractive boyfriend Winking smile I suddenly have quite a bit of free time on my hands (which my Type A Personality is feverishly seeking to fill), so I thought this contest would be the perfect opportunity to start catching up on all the quality kitchen time I’ve been missing out on.

I decided to go with my spin on this recipe, which I call Black and White Chicken Chili.

As with any great recipe, it started off with a big fat onion:

Then it was time to bring on the HEAT. If you can’t take the heat… well… don’t eat the chili. Just sayin’ Winking smile

The heat in this recipe came in the form of chopped green chilis, jalapenos, and cayenne pepper along with some garlic, cumin, and dried oregano.

First up, I heated up a tablespoon of olive oil in a large pot and then dropped in the chopped white onion:

Then I sat back and let the onions do their thang.

Once they were soft and translucent, I added the seasonings, chilies, garlic, and jalapenos and let everything jive together for a few minutes:

Then I tossed in my black beans:

And the white beans:

And gave everything a nice stir. Isn’t it beautiful?

Next up, I added the chicken broth, chicken stock, and shredded chicken:

I popped a lid on the pot, and let the chili meld together for about 15 minutes. Then I added 1 cup of shredded cheddar jack cheese:

YESSSSSSSSSSSSS.

Once the cheese melted, I turned the pot off to let everything cool down.

As with all soups, making this chili the night ahead makes for EVEN BETTER tasting chili the next day. Here’s a shot of my hard work at the contest:

Gotta love an accountant’s humor hahaha…

Another great thing about this chili is that it freezes really well. Last time I made it, I portioned it out into six individual servings and popped four of them into the freezer. Gotta love that!

Next time I make this chili, I think I’ll start off with a rue to help thicken things up a bit. As it stands, it’s a bit more like a choup than a chili. 🙂

Black & White Chicken Chili Ingredients List (Serves 6)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 big fat onion
3 cloves garlic (and by 3, I mean 5)
8 ounce can diced jalapeno peppers
4 ounce can chopped green chile peppers
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground cayenne pepper
16 ounces reduced sodium chicken broth
8 ounces chicken stock
3 cooked and shredded chicken breasts
2 cans great northern beans, drained and rinsed
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup shredded Cheddar Jack cheese

Stats on 1 Serving: 351 calories, 38g carbs, 11g fat, 27g protein, 14g fiber

Ramblings, Recipes, Slow Cookin

Some like it hot

November 3, 2010 6 Comments

There is a small portion of the population out there that crave heat in their food. These are the people who actually enjoy the runny nose you inevitably get when eating something hot. The people who know when others say something is “hot” it won’t even phase them because of their extreme tolerance for heat. The people who’ve contemplated carrying around a bottle of hot sauce in their purse/bookbag/car. The people who have found a way to incorporate buffalo sauce in to breakfast, lunch, AND dinner. The people who constantly get asked “you put hot sauce on that?!”

You know who you are.

This recipe is for you.

I bring you slow-cooked buffalo chicken sandwiches:

When I first stumbled upon this recipe, I KNEW it was destiny. Buffalo chicken dip is a staple in my circle of friends and family, so how could a buffalo chicken sandwich NOT be amazing?

Simple answer. If you like hot food, you will love this sandwich.

The recipe was very easy to throw together.

Throw the following into a plastic baggie to marinate overnight:

4 raw skinless boneless chicken breasts
3/4 of a Quart (24 ounces) buffalo wing sauce (use your favorite brand–we used Gionino’s, of course)
1 package dry ranch salad dressing mix

The next morning toss the marinated chicken into a crockpot, and cook on low for 6 hours. Once the chicken is cooked, pull the breasts out of the crockpot and shred them up with two forks. Toss the meat back in and then add:

2 tablespoons butter
8 ounces of buffalo wing sauce (which is the remainder of the quart)

Cook for one hour more, and then serve on top of a toasted kaiser roll.

To make the sandwich even more amazing, add some pepper jack cheese.

Awwwwww yeeahhhhhhh.

WARNING: Things may get a little sloppy. But true hot sauce lovers like to become one with their food, am I right? 😀

Recipes

Eggcellent.

November 1, 2010 6 Comments

My kitchen is no stranger to eggs.

Shortly after starting this blog, it dawned on me that I really do eat an excessive amount of eggs. So I started thinking about possible substitutions I could make. Something healthy, clean, and full of protein. Something filling and delicious that gave me energy without spiking my temperamental blood sugar.

I searched high and low and ended up right where I started.

Eggcellent.

One of the MANY things I LOVE about eggs is that I can make them in a big batch. Typically, I cook up a 5 serving egg scramble Sunday night and that serves as my breakfast #1 for the workweek. Each serving of my scrambled eggs consists of 1 whole egg and 3 egg whites, which I season up with S&P, Red Pepper Flakes, and some Franks Red Hot.

I was feeling lazy Sunday night, so I ended up pushing back the egg-makin til Monday night this week. After work I headed to the grocery store to get the goods. I typically have some roasted broccoli alongside my eggs, but made a last-minute produce aisle decision to use up some of the frozen veggies in the freezer instead.

Low and behold I didn’t have any frozen veggies (dangit). You know, I actually think this was co-worker karma come back to haunt me. Recently, I discovered that roasted broccoli heated up in the community microwave makes the ENTIRE floor smell like butt. Apparently, I was oblivious to this smell for the last 9 months… Whoops! I guess it’s just pay back for those afternoon snackers who always burn their popcorn in the microwave leaving us with a 3pm funk. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! 😉

Luckily, I had 1 lonely large potato on hand (leftover from my Zuppa Tosacana). Eggs and potatoes. Can’t go wrong with that!

I tossed the potato into a bowl and seasoned it up with a drizzle of EVOO, some S&P, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper:

Then I popped them into a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes to get their roast on. Once everything was done cooking, i evenly divided the goods up into four containers:

Tuesday through Friday B#1:

Now repeat 52 times and you have B#1 for the whole year… hahahah 🙂

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What are your go-to workday breakfasts?

Recipes

Jambalaya. Jealous?

November 1, 2010 9 Comments

Every time I think of New Orleans, I hear the Zatarain’s rice commercial in my head. You know… Zatarain’s! (Said with much sass and flavor while jazz music wails in the background). Even before my trip to the Big Easy, I had this funny mental quirk.

This thought popped into my head tonight when I began to think about what to make for dinner. I was presented with the following challenge: what do you make when you’ve got leftover meats out the wazoo?

JAMBALAYA of course! It seems like ages since I last made Jambalaya! Well at least four months anyway. I had some chicken leftover from last week’s lunch and the turkey sausage was leftover from my Zuppa Tuscana…

Lucky for me, I keep frozen shrimp in the freezer at all times in case of emergency. So whipping together a 3-meat entre was easy peasy tonight!

3 meats, one dish:

The meats were ready to roll, so I heated the oven up to 400 degrees and got to choppin 2 roma tomatoes, 1/2 a white onion, and 1 green pepper:

I tossed the veggies into a bowl with:

1 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp onion powder
2 tsp minced garlic

I gave everything a good toss, then added:

1 cup brown rice
1 cup low sodium chicken broth

I intended on using 1.5 cups of brown rice, but I ran out! Ooops! That’s what happens when I grocery shop without taking inventory first! Dangit!

I divided the mix up evenly among three foil packets that I had sprayed down with some nonstick cooking spray:

One for my dinner, one for my lunch, and one for the BF’s lunch because I’m clearly dabomb.com.

I popped the packets into the oven for 30 minutes, and VOOOOILLLAAA!

Oh so spicy, and ohhhhh so delicious!

Yes, the jambalaya we had in New Orleans (and again) was a teensy bit tastier than my healthified version, but I’d like to see NOLA try and stack up to these stats:

Stats on 1 serving: 314 calories, 33g carbs, 9g fat, 27g protein, 3g fiber

Jambalaya Ingredients List (serves 3):

6 large shrimp, tails removed
2 links Jennie-O Hot Turkey Sausage
3 ounces grilled chicken
1 green bell pepper
2 plum tomatoes
1/2 a white onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp onion powder
1 cup reduced sodium low fat chicken broth

Recipes

Zuppa Toscana

October 29, 2010 15 Comments

It’s hard to believe that I used to hate soup. Whaaaattt???? I hated them. And I mean all of them. I found soup unsatisfying and uncravable. I needed something with substance (and by substance I mean a big hunk of meat or a big hunk of bread).

How could I resist this beauty???

Nowadays the soup and salad combo is one of my favorites, especially this time of year. I love the contrast: a cool crunchy salad and hot comforting soup. I went to lunch with my coworkers last week and tried Zuppa Toscana for the first time. It was DELISH, and I knew I had to give it a shot.

So first off, what is Zuppa Toscana anyway? Tuscan soup… not exactly descriptive. Google tells me Zuppa Toscana is supposed to include sausage, bacon, greens, potatoes and cream. Sounds like a good starting point!

After some futher googlin I found a few recipes that looked pretty tasty and after some tweaking and Maryfications I ended up with some mighty tasty results!

First up, I took some help for my girl Jennie O’, and grabbed 3 hot turkey sausage links.

I ran a knife along the back of each sausage link to cut through the casing, then removed the sausage meat and discarded the casings

Once my skillet was nice and hot, I tossed the sausage in and used a spatula to break out the meat. When the sausage was no longer pink, I removed it from the skillet and set aside.

Next up, I heated up a soup pot, once hot I added one large diced yellow onion, 1 tablespoon minced garlic, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper, and and 1.5 tsp red pepper flakes. I like it hot!

Glory in a pot:

Cook the onions until soft and translucent, then add 2 boxes of low-sodium fat free chicken broth (64 ounces). While you are waiting for the soup to come to a boil, slice up one large potato:

Bring the the soup to a boil, then add the sliced potatoes. Reduce to medium heat, and cook for about 20 minutes until the potatoes are fork tender. Next toss in the sausage and one cup of half and half.

Let the soup simmer away until everything is warmed through, and just before you are ready to serve it toss in 3 cups of spinach.

VOILA! Soup is served!

This soup was AWESOME. Only problem was my poor potatoes practically disintegrated in the soup. Next time I think I’ll chunk the potatoes rather than thinly slicing them.

Despite that potato problem, the soup was so tasty and it had a little kick which I loved! If you aren’t big on spicy foods, cut the red pepper flakes and black pepper back.

Serve with a delicious salad, of course!

Zuppa Toscana Ingredients List (makes 6 Servings)

3 links Jennie O’ Hot Turkey Sausage
1 large diced yellow onion
1 and 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tablespoon minced garlic
64 ounces Chicken Broth Fat Free Reduced Sodium Chicken broth
1 large potato
1 cup half and half
3 cups fresh spinach

Stats on one serving Zuppa Toscana: 207 calories, 15g carbs, 10g fat, 14g protein, 2g fiber

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