Dusting off the ol' blog

Yesterday, I was running at the gym. I run. I'm a runner. Anyway, it was a very difficult run. I was trying for 5 or 6 miles and barely made it over 4. And that was with the distraction of What Not to Wear (Possibly my favorite TV show. They make me laugh.). I'm beginning to see why treadmills and any run over a mile don't go together. Running is boring (news flash, right?). Running on a treadmill is pretty much torture. You're stuck with annoying, repetitive commercials as your eye wanders between the stop button and watching your distance sloooowly creep towards your goal. When I run outside, there's the knowledge that the quicker I get through my miles the quicker I can eat something and take a nap. As I was spiraling downwards yesterday, unable to give myself a decent pep-talk, my show ended and I switched to the Food Network. Lucky for me, the Barefoot Contessa had something delicious up her sleeve:

Chicken Chili

adapted from here

I knew I had most of the ingredients on hand but I still had to change it up quite a lot. It turned out fantastic! Seriously yummy. A little on the spicy side. You can tone it down easily enough by using smaller amounts of the spices. We ate it with chips, sour cream and cheese. Here's the recipe:

1 onion, chopped (the original says yellow, I used white. I don't think it makes a difference either way.)

1 tbsp olive oil, plus more for chicken
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp kosher salt, plus more for chicken
2 cans (10 oz each) RoTel (diced tomatoes with chillies), puréed
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, puréed
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Rub chicken breasts with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 30 minutes or until done. Chop into bite-sized chunks.

Heat olive oil in a large stock pot over medium-low. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, 10-15 minutes. Add garlic, stir and cook for 1 minute. Mix in bell peppers and spices. Cook for another minute. Add puréed tomatoes, RoTel and cilantro. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add chicken and continue to simmer another 20 minutes. Serve with or without toppings.

PS. I'm actually about to sit down and eat the leftovers. And I never eat leftovers. Ever. Well, except for this. But really I normally hate leftovers.

Tahini-Free Hummus

I got this recipe from a friend at church. She adds sesame seeds instead of tahini (sesame seed paste), which can be expensive. I changed the spice amounts a little and you can do the same to get the flavor you want.

Hummus:

2 (15 oz) cans garbanzo beans (or chick peas), drained (save the liquid)

4-5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1 tsp ground cumin (missing from picture. Oops.)

1/2 tsp paprika

Dash of chili powder

Juice of one lemon

1 1/2 tbsp sesame seeds

2 tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil

Put all of the ingredients, except for the reserved liquid, into a food processor or blender (be warned: I killed my blender after making this a few times). Process/blend until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings, if needed.

Serve with pita chips (my three year old likes it with apple slices) or make a delicious wrap:

Hummus Wraps:

Prepared hummus

Flour tortillas

Bell pepper slices (we like yellow or red)

Feta cheese (this is very salty cheese so go easy on the salt in the hummus if you don't want it super salty)

Lettuce

Warm a tortilla, spread with hummus, add bell pepper, feta and lettuce; roll up like a burrito.

Enjoy!

Homemade Tortillas

One of my new favorite food websites is Our Best Bites. They have fabulous and simple recipes. A few days ago I tried the homemade tortillas:

As you can see, I had a hard time rolling out a circle:

I figured they'd taste the same (and they did). Maybe I'll invest in one of those pie crust measuring mats... Cooking them was trickier than I thought.

I over-cooked several and they were pretty much inedible, but the ones I thought would be undercooked were perfect (they're the ones on the bottom of the pile in the first picture). I also made the taco chicken, black beans(I didn't add the coriander because I didn't have any and I used water rather than broth, but it still tasted fine), lime cilantro rice (I used left over brown rice warmed up in the microwave and skipped the pineapple) and creamy lime cilantro dressing. We put that all together with romaine lettuce and mozzarella, for a fantastic dinner that I'll make again.......soon.

Chicken Chili Soup

A couple weeks ago, I got a recipe for Southwestern White Chili from a friend and finally, a couple days ago I tried to make it. If only I had checked the pantry first. After realizing I was missing a few ingredients, I decided to wing it. What I got turned out very tasty, but more like a soup than chili:

Chicken Chili Soup:

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium onion, diced

1 large jalapeno, diced

2 1/2 cups cooked chicken, cubed or shredded

1 (10 oz) can Ro-Tel

1 (5 oz) can green chilies

2 (15.8 oz each) cans white beans

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder

Juice of 3 limes (about 3 1/2 tablespoons)

Chicken broth

Toss everything into a crockpot. Stir and cook on high for 4 hours. We had it with sour cream and cheddar cheese, and it was delish.