Chicken Chili

Finally a new post!  I haven't posted since I decided to go back to school.  Yes, back to school!  Enjoying it almost as much as I enjoy cooking!  Really...no joke! :)  I've decided to cook some meals and freeze them so I have something to pull from the freezer during the school quarter.  I've done a great job procrastinating until the day before school starts.  

Normally I make turkey chili.  Today I have extra chicken that needs to be used so my niece and I will have chicken chili.  Side note while the garlic and onion are cooking, don't get side tracked by Words with Friends, the garlic and onion might get a little over cooked.  I probably used about 2 TBSP minced garlic.  I used Canola oil instead of olive oil because it was in the cupboard.  I didn't use pepper since I didn't have any, but I did use salt.  

1 pkg chili powder (I used McCormick Chili Seasoning Mix – 30% less sodium)
1 TBSP garlic or more if you love garlic
2 small onions
Olive oil
3 ½ cups diced cooked chicken

dash of salt and pepper
1 large 28 oz can stewed tomatoes
1 can pinto beans
1 can black beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can corn
cilantro
sour cream
shredded cheese

Saute onion and garlic in canola oil. Add chicken, brown, and season with salt and pepper. Pour into a crockpot.  Add the chili powder to the crockpot and follow directions. Open all the cans and pour it in the crockpot. (I drain corn but nothing else). Season and cook on high for 30 minutes then turn to low for at least an hour. Serve with cilantro, sour cream and shredded cheese. 

Ground Turkey Tater Tot Casserole

There are so many versions of this recipe online.  I’ve decided to take the general idea and put together one with ground turkey instead of hamburger and use items that are in the cupboard and fridge already.  If you are kind of bored and really don’t have much to do the rest of the day, line the tater tots up in single lines.  Using a food processor makes grating cheese so easy!

2 1/2 lbs ground turkey

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

2 tsp garlic powder

3 cans cream of mushroom soup

2 cans of green beans

2 1/2 lbs of tater tots (1 two lb bag plus part of another bag)

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Brown ground turkey, drain.  Add soup and green beans, mix together.  Pour mixture in 11x13 glass baking dish.  Sprinkle 4 cups of the cheese over mixture.  Place tater tots on top of the cheese.  Bake at 400 for 30 minutes.  Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the tater tots.  Bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Before Cheese.

 After Cheese.

Pasta with Pesto and Shrimp

This is another modified recipe.  The original recipe came from the Flat Belly Diet Cookbook.

Decided not to use pine nuts, instead used sliced almonds.  Since my friends and I like garlic I added 2 cloves instead of 1 clove.  Since we didn’t have angel hair pasta, I used garden rotini pasta.  The original recipe didn’t call for shrimp, but it sounded good so of course I threw it in.

Pasta and Shrimp

1 pkg Garden Rotini pasta

2 cups shrimp

2 TBSP Butter

¼ tsp salt

Pesto

1 ½ cups packed fresh basil

2 cloves garlic

1 TBPS olive oil

½ cup lightly toasted sliced almonds

Toppings

Ken’s Steakhouse Lite Ceasar

Grated Parmesan Cheese

Cooked the pasta according to package directions.  When I drained the pasta, I drained the liquid into a bowl and set it aside.  Cooked the shrimp in butter.  Finely pureed pesto ingredients in a food processor.  Re-added the pasta back into the pan, added the pesto and the shrimp in addition to 6 TBPS water from the cooked pasta.  Serve in bowls and sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese.  One person added a few teaspoons of Ken’s Steakhouse Lite Caesar salad dressing and it ended up tasting pretty good.  

Top Sirloin with tomato, red onion, and basil

I was looking through a Redbook magazine while getting my hair done.  I came across a recipe that sounded really good.  This is the modified version.

There wasn’t enough balsamic vinegar so my friend recommended mixing balsamic vinegar and sherry cooking wine.  As the balsamic vinegar and sherry cooking wine cooked, it filled the air with a strong vinegar smell, which prompted my friend’s son to search out the gas mask kept in the house and he put it on.  He sat at the table and wore the mask until the food was served.   

A small town market doesn’t really have much of a choice in cheese so instead of goat cheese we used ricotta cheese, very nice mellow taste added to the salad.

1/2 c balsamic vinegar Modena

¼ c sherry cooking wine

5 large plum tomatoes, julienned

1 red onion, julienned

¼ fresh basil, julienned

1 Tsp kosher salt

1 Tsp fresh ground red pepper

5 top sirloin steaks (approx 4 oz each)

1 TBSP olive oil

5 TBSP  Ricotta Cheese

Combine balsamic vinegar and sherry cooking wine in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil and turn down to simmer until reduced to about ½.

Combine tomatoes, red onion, 1 TPBS of the balsamic vinegar and sherry sauce, ¼ tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper in bowl and mix.  Heat oil in nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until hot.  Cook steaks for 3 minutes on each side, longer if you want the steaks cooked more than medium rare.  Transfer steaks to a plate to sit for 5 minutes.  Divide vegetable mix between 5 plates, set a steak on top of each pile of vegetables.  Add a TBSP of ricotta cheese on top of each steak.  Divide the rest of the sauce between the 5 plates, drizzling on top of the pile.

Ham Hock and Wild Green Gumbo

I have never made gumbo, but it sounded good so I thought I would try it.  Not sure how this one came about, I think it started with a conversation about soup and turned into a search online for what to do with ham hocks.

This recipe calls for 4 lbs of greens.  In a small town that is bordered by small towns, it’s hard to find that many greens and a variety of greens.  I found collard greens, mustard greens, arugula and spinach.  Over 30 miles (15 miles to the nearest full grocery store with a produce section) and 2 stores later, I had enough greens for the recipe.  I even found File powder at the first store, which was not located in the spices section it was located in the seafood section of the store.

The Essence, which is a blend of seasonings, at the end of the recipe I made the night before.  This blend of seasonings can be used later on other meals.  It adds a good amount of spiciness to the food.

Thought I was safe from tears from onions using a food processor, but no, I eventually had to take the lid off to scoop the onion out and here come the tears! 

Oh cool, found juicer for orange that I needed for a recipe yesterday, also found the ¼ cup measuring cup I needed 2 days ago.  Back to the current recipe…

Leftover chopped onion, celery and bell pepper, I think I see a soup in the near future.

I didn’t get fresh parsley so I ended up using dried parsley, we’ll see how that turns out.

Recipe turned out good, at least the adults liked it. 

Recipe link:

Ham Hock and Wild Green Gumbo

Slow Cooker Orange BBQ Pulled Pork

Slow Cooker Orange BBQ Pulled Pork

This was a super easy recipe.  Started the meal and had time to start the seasoning for tomorrow’s recipe. 

I just added pork, juice from an orange, and a bottle of Kraft Hickory Barbecue Sauce in a slow cooker, simple and easy.  No juicer at the house so I just squeezed the oranges with my hands. 

Starting to think about Christmas gifts like those little juicers for oranges, yes already, in January for December 2011, for some of the friends I cook for to make my life easier. J  Anyways, slight left turn into right field, now back to the recipe…

I cooked on high for 3 hours then turned the slow cooker to low and ran errands for 2 hours.  When I got back to the house I took the pork out to shred with 2 forks and put the pork back in the BBQ sauce.  Some of the people used buns and some of us used flour tortillas.  Some of the toppings used were sliced dill pickles, sliced onions and WSU Ferdinand’s Smoked Cheddar cheese.   Was not sure about dill pickles and barbecue sauce, but it was pretty good. 

Recipe link:

Slow Cooker Orange BBQ Pulled Pork