crockpot mexican chicken chili

My husband often uses our crockpot to cook greens, paleo chili or big hunks of pork or beef. But for me, the crockpot is the last thing that comes to mind when thinking about preparing dinner. Maybe it's because you actually have to think and prepare ahead of time!

So one of my goals for 2010 is to actually take advantage of having the crockpot do the brunt of the work for me. I can't imagine what it'd be like to come home after a day at work and a hard workout at the gym to have dinner already prepared. (That's what my husband gets to come home to!) What would I possibly do with that extra time? Probably get online and blog or catch up reading blogs :) But hey, at least it'd be some added 'me' time.

Wednesday, I opted to skip the gym after work due to only a couple hours sleep the night before since the hubby was sick, and instead came straight home and threw together a crockpot meal. Typically, I think the flavors might meld better if you cook crockpot recipes on low for 7 or 8 hours. But in the interest of time, I put my concoction on high and hoped it'd be done in less than 4 hours, when the hubby got home. Luckily, it was, and I'd like to think the warmth and spiciness is contributing to his recovery, along with something called amoxicillin.

Crockpot Mexican Chicken Chili

Ingredients:

• 1 cup salsa verde
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 can Rotel tomatoes 
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 pound boneless chicken breasts, trimmed and halved
• Optional toppings: shredded cheese, sour cream, chives
  

1. In crockpot, add salsa verde, celery, Rotel, onion, chili powder and cumin. On a whim, I bough Pace Salsa Verde at the store earlier this week. Sure, I'd love to create my own version, but another trip to the store wasn't worth it to me. Here's a good recipe for Salsa Verde in case you're interested in what's in it.

2. Turn crockpot on high and place chicken breast halves on top of mixture. Be sure to push them down a bit in the mixture so that they're basted with liquid.

3. After 3 or 4 hours, check to make sure chicken is cooked. Then shred halves with a fork and serve.

You can eat as is for strict paleo-ers...or garnish with cheese, sour cream or chives.

christmas, in retrospect...and green drink

As with Thanksgiving, Christmas this year was a blur. After the Christmas party my parents hosted, James spent most of Thursday and Christmas Eve building four plyo boxes for the gym. I think he really enjoyed wearing the safety glasses.

Meanwhile, my sister discovered the 'nice' camera and left me the gift of random pictures on my SD card!

Amidst all the holiday food, we did squeeze in some healthy meals, like this salad with shrimp, yellow bell peppers, avocado, feta, toasted pecans and oranges.

And we also scrounged up old church directories. Thank goodness bangs have evolved since 1992. Yikes!

The cousins and I received our lepoard print coolers from Grandmother. She definitely keeps us guessing every year!

And it even decided to snow on Christmas!

I got lots of great stuff from Crate and Barrel, thanks to my fam and the Hobsons. I think this officially makes me old.

Unfortunately, the slight cough that James developed before the holidays quadrupled while we were away. This says a lot, because James is hardly ever sick. I do remember a time four years ago where he got a little sick right before he left for South America for 6 weeks. But it didn't slow him down. Instead, he got on the plane to leave his sickness, in the form of streph throat, with me. And I was out of work for a full week because of it while he was galavanting down gigantic sand dunes on massive buggies and barreling down the world's most dangerous road on a bike.

So, like any devoted wife, I spent $170 at the grocery store when we got back home and practically bought one of everything in the produce department. I made him, chicken tortilla soup (only this time I pulled chicken from a store-bought rotisserie and also threw in some salsa verde), sauteed fish with julienned veggies and a mexican chicken chili (I'll share the recipe soon).

James has also downed roughly 18 green drinks in the past 5 days, though it wasn't enough to cure this sickness. He just got a round of antibiotics yesterday, and I'm hoping they kick in quickly.

To his credit, James eats more for fuel than taste, and I could definitely use a few pointers. He's in tune to his body, knowing when he needs more vegetables or fat in his diet. These manifest themselves in the form of the 'green drink' or him taking shots of olive oil (yes, straight from the container). Unfortunately, my body only tells me to eat chocolate. I couldn't stomach the olive oil, but I do enjoy a good cup of green drink.

Green Drink

1. Choose your ingredients and place in blender recepticle. For us, this mainly depends on what we have in stock, but most any fruits and veggies will do. Though I'll warn you, brocolini tastes bitter and should be avoided. We often use carrots, spinach and kale with fruit such as strawberries and a banana.

Most recently, James used a banana, kale, spinach, oranges, grapefruit and a carrot.

2. Then throw in some ice cubes and blend for what seems like forever, until mixture is relatively smooth with no ice chunks.

3. Pour in glass (baby glass for Haley) and enjoy! Don't drink too fast, as there are a lot of raw veggies in this drink.



We're headed to Athens for NYE tomorrow. Can't wait!

twas three nights before christmas



Luckily, no one in attendance is diabetic.

Southern Living Blue Cheese Bacon Dip--great on bell peppers and apples.

Pork loin, jumbo sausage balls, cajun shrimp, homemade hotwings....James was in heaven!

I applauded Whitney on her hair piece while her mom filled everyone in on the new and improved Bumpit, which somehow segued to Winnie the Pooh. Mrs. Bev is very talented.

He's single, ladies!

Broseph. We asked him to explain his shirt. He said, "It's simple. The moon is draining out into a river with little creatures floating in it." I guess we should have clarified and asked for the deeper meaning.





The little one in the red dress is my sister belting out Hark the Herald Angels Sing.

Southern Living's Blue Cheese Bacon Dip

I made this a couple weeks ago for a girls night I hosted, and it was a hit. So I decided to make it again for last night's Christmas party. I personally think it tastes best atop sliced red or yellow bell peppers, apples or pears. But you can also venture into the world of gluten (flatbreads) if you'd like.

creamy tomato basil soup and jalapeño cornbread muffins

Once or twice a month, we don't seem to have any leftovers for me to take to lunch at work the next day. As inconvenient as this may seem, I secretly look forward to it because of Panera's Creamy Tomato Soup. I never ate tomato soup growing up, but that's probably because I never realized there was anything other than Campbell's canned tomato soup. Thank goodness life now has more options.

My mom and I were recently impressed with the Tomato Basil Soup at Flying Biscuit, and as a result, my mom made her own version of it last week. I took her recipe, omitted and added some ingredients to fit my pantry and, of course, doubled it to created a homemade version of Creamy Tomato Basil Soup. At first, I was worried it might be too creamy, if anyone can consider that a problem. But the acidity of the fresh grape tomatoes really balanced out the flavor. It's delicious if you crumble in some Jalapeño Cornbread muffins.

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

Ingredients

• 1 large onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp butter
• 2 cans no salt added diced tomatoes
• 1 can Rotel tomatoes
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 2 cans chicken broth
• 1 pint half and half cream
• 1/4 cup Trader Joe's organic ketchup
• 15 basil leaves, chopped
• dash of salt
• 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved 

1. Sauté onion and garlic in butter until onions become transparent.

2. In dutch oven, bring sautéd onion mixture and remaining ingredients, except grape tomatoes, to a boil.

3. Keep at rolling boil for 15 minutes, then add in grape tomatoes and reduce to simmer for 15 minutes.

4. Blend to desired consistency using immersion blender/hand blender.

5. Serve with grated parmesan or Trader Joe's raw milk cheddar cheese, my personal fav.

Maybe next time I'll try to make this soup using coconut milk instead of cream.


Gluten-Free Jalapeño Cornbread Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups cornmeal
• 1/2 cup half and half
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup water
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 can corn, drained
• 1 jalapeño, minced (add more if you like it spicy)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp honey

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and place muffin tin in oven while it's warming.

2. Place all ingredients in medium mixing bowl and blend.

3. Remove muffin tin from the oven and grease. Then fill muffin cups to the brim and bake for roughly 15 minutes.