This Sauce Has Balls

My husband, although his Mother was 100% Italian, doesn’t care for much sauce on his pasta. I, on the other hand, love a thick meaty sauce, no matter what style noodle (even gluten free) we are eating.

I’m in the mood for spaghetti which means sauce that’s nice and meaty, with extra spicy balls for good measure. Just the way I like it. 😉

Hearty Pasta Sauce with Balls

1 lb Fresh Ground Pork Sausage
1 lb Fresh Ground Sirloin (90/10 or 85/15)
1 1/2 TBLS Salt-Free Garlic & Herb Blend Seasoning (Mrs Dash or McCormick Perfect Pinch)
1 tsp Ground Black Pepper
2 tsp Dried Oregano
2 tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
1 TBLS Garlic Powder
1/4 Cup Grated Parmesan Romano Cheese
1 TBLS Olive Oil

In stand mixer, combine the pork and beef.
Add the spices and cheese and mix until well combined.
Pre-heat 1 TBLS Olive Oil in the pressure cooker pan. Set the machine to the Brown.
Remove 1/2 of the meat mixture from the bowl and place in pressure cooker pan set to Brown. Cook with the lid open, stirring to break the meat up, for 5-7 minutes then remove and drain off the fat.
Replace pan on pressure cooker base and set to the Brown setting.
Add the following to the pan, in order:

1 TBLS Olive Oil
3 Stalks Celery, finely diced
1/2 Medium Onion, chopped
1 Green Bell Pepper, chopped
2 Cloves Garlic, chopped
1 tsp Dried Oregano
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Black Pepper

When pressure cooker returns to temperature, cook for 6-8 minutes until vegetables are soft and onions are translucent.
While vegetables are cooking, add 1 egg to the reserved half of the uncooked meat. Form inch to inch and a half balls and set aside.
Add 1 Can (6 oz) Tomato Paste to the vegetables, stirring until combined.
Add 2 Cans (14.5 each) Diced Fire Roasted Tomatoes (with the juice) and stir well.
Return the cooked meat to the pan.
Add 1 Cup Good Red Wine (If you wouldn’t drink it, don’t cook with it!)
Stir and add the meatballs to the pan.
Close the pressure cooker, set to high and cook the sauce for the full 10 minute cycle.
Let the pressure return naturally then serve over cooked pasta with garlic bread.

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Quick Corned Beef & Cabbage

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! This is the day every year where I pull out the Crock Pot, load it with corned beef, red potatoes, chunks of carrot, onion, garlic & spices and let it spend 10 hours cooking dinner for me. But, because I made a huge trip to the grocery store and forgot some key ingredients, it looks like the slow cooker is being swapped for the new pressure cooker. I hope I don’t screw dinner up…

I’ve searched the internet for help with timing, liquid and how to keep from overcooking the vegetables and into the deep I’m diving again. Because I have added tips for keeping warm after preparing early, serving suggestions and a bonus leftover recipe, please read the recipe through before beginning your preparations.

Quick Corned Beef & Cabbage

1 – 2 to 3 pound Corned Beef Brisket (vacuum sealed in brine with spice packet)
10 to 15 Small Red Potatoes (unpeeled and whole)
1 – Yellow Onion (cut into quarters)
5 Large Carrots (peeled and cut into large chunks)
6-8 Whole Cloves Garlic (peeled)
2 TBLS Olive Oil
4 Cups Beef Broth
1 & 1/2 – 11.2 oz bottles Guinness Draught (Dark Beer)
1 Head Green Cabbage (cut into quarters)
2 TBLS Cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 Cup Cold Water

Set the pressure cooker to brown setting and place the garlic cloves, onions, 1 TBLS olive oil and corned beef (fat side down) into the cooking pan. With lid open, once cooking temperature is reached, let the fat render for 10 minutes. If your fat layer is thick you can run another 10 minute brown cycle if you like. I did, but only to brown all sides of the brisket.
With about 2 minutes left in the brown cycle, add the carrots,
When browning is done, add the spice pack, 1 bottle of the beer and broth to the pan. Close and lock the top and set to cook on high for 50 minutes. My brisket was just under 3 1/2 lbs so I upped my cooking time to 55 minutes and it was incredibly tender when I transferred it to the frying pan.
If your brisket has a thick fat layer, when timer sounds set a heavy frying pan (I use a cast-iron pan) with 1 TBLS olive oil in it on the stove over medium high heat. Quick-release the pressure then unlock and open the lid of the pressure cooker.
Remove the corned beef and transfer to preheated frying pan with fat side down. Lower heat to low and allow the fat to slowly burn off. If just browning, make sure you turn your brisket to keep it from charring.
Add the potatoes to the pressure cooker set to cook for 15 minutes.
When timer sounds, release the pressure, open the pressure cooker just long enough to add the cabbage then immediately close and lock the lid.
Bring the cooker back up to pressure and then immediately release the pressure so that you can open the cooker to remove the onions, carrots and cooked cabbage (leave the garlic). Put in a bowl and cover to keep warm.
Turn the pressure cooker to the brown setting.
Remove the corned beef from the frying pan to a cutting board, cover with foil for 5 minutes to allow juices to settle and then slice/shred as desired. Cover meat to keep it warm while preparing gravy. **See Tip below if you aren’t ready to slice and serve, or have prepared the brisket more than a couple of hours before you plan to serve it.
Deglaze the pan with about 1/2 of a bottle of Guinness. Pour the broth, spices and garlic from the pressure cooker into the drippings from the frying pan. Bring juices to a boil, scraping up any brown bits and smashing the garlic, then add the cornstarch mixture.
Whisking constantly, cook 2-3 minutes until broth/drippings thicken into the consistency of gravy.
Put gravy into a small saucepan with a lid to keep it warm or make reheating later easier.

Serve slices of the corned beef on top of the cooked cabbage with potatoes, carrots and onions piled alongside. Cover with gravy if desired.

Another way my family likes it is shredded with two forks so they can pile it on rye bread with spicy mustard, Swiss cheese, onions and cabbage with the gravy soaked potatoes and carrots on the side. A buttered piece of rye bread is great for sopping up the leftover gravy!

Because my son won’t be home for St. Patty’s this year (Boo Jason!) I will slice up half of the brisket and shred the other half while it’s hot to get the most use of the leftovers.

TIP: If you are preparing this ahead of time and want to keep it warm for an hour or two before dinner (without drying it out):

Reserve about a cup of the juices from the pressure cooker
Set your Crock Pot (Slow Cooker) to “Keep Warm”
Layer in this order: Potatoes, Carrots, Onions, Cooked WHOLE Brisket, Cooked Cabbage, then pour in the reserved juices.
Cover and keep warm as long as you need to.
Remove brisket from slow cooker to cutting board, cover for 5 minutes to allow the juices to settle, then slice as directed above.
Bring the gravy back to a boil. add the juices from the slow cooker, and whisk until well combined. If gravy is too thin add another TBSP of cornstarch to a small amount of cold water and whisk in until gravy is as thick as you’d like.

If there is any leftovers that don’t become sandwiches, the corned beef makes a flavorful hash. Combine the shredded/chopped corned beef in a cast iron skillet with melted butter, some chopped bell pepper, any leftover onion and potatoes and cooked to crispy brown perfection. Add a couple of fried eggs and some sourdough toast and it’s a great Sunday brunch!

Instead of taking roughly 12 hours from start to finish using the slow cooker, this year’s St. Patty’s Day feast was ready in about an hour and a half! The pressure cooker shaved 10 1/2 hours off of the cook time and, instead of not being hungry once the cooking was done (because I didn’t have to be tortured by smelling it cook all day), I was able to enjoy this annual favorite with everyone else at dinner!

Are you on Facebook? You might be interested in the things I may not devote an entire blog post to: recipes, food facts, nutritional information, photos and other things that make my mouth water. I may not write a blog post every day, but there are daily updates to my This Girl Loves To Eat community at: https://www.facebook.com/ThisGirlLovesHerFood

Bloody Angry Baby Back Ribs

Enticing name, don’t you think? I’m not English and spouting a profanity, nor am I intending to butcher and cook ribs while they’re still bloody, I’m too big a wuss for that! 😉

What I did do though, is combine the flavors of the blood oranges ripening on my tree with BBQ sauce & hard cider and put it all into the pressure cooker to see what would happen!

What happened was a tender, tasty rib that absorbed the sweetness of the orange slices, the ginger-apple crispness of the cider before finishing with the smoky-spicy BBQ sauce! I don’t usually enjoy pork ribs, but these I ate with gusto. So much so that I only grudgingly encouraged my husband to eat the last slab on the serving plate. I wanted the ribs to be the star of the show, so I served them beside baked sweet potatoes.

About an hour and 30 minutes before you’re ready to eat dinner:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Wash and prick the skins of 2 medium sweet potatoes with a fork and place them on a baking sheet.
Bake for 50 minutes then remove from the oven, place them in a bowl and tent with foil to keep them warm while you’re finishing the ribs.

Bloody Angry Baby Back Ribs

2 Medium Ripe Blood Oranges
1 – 12 oz Bottle Angry Orchard Apple Ginger Hard Cider
2 Lbs Pork Loin Back Ribs
BBQ Sauce (whatever brand you prefer)

Slice the oranges and place into the bottom of the pressure cooker pan.
Cut your ribs apart into 3-4 pieces and stand them around the perimeter of the pan.
Pour the bottle of Hard Cider into the middle of the ribs, over the top of the oranges.
Immediately close and lock the lid and set the pressure cooker to Medium for 15 minutes and hit the start button.
When the timer goes off, release the pressure and open the top.
Remove the ribs from the pressure cooker pan and place them (bone side down) on a baking sheet lined with foil.
Brush your favorite BBQ sauce on them as lightly or generously as you desire.
Place the baking sheet back into the 400 degree oven you used for your sweet potatoes and cook the ribs another 15 – 20 minutes to bake the sauce in.

Serve with the baked sweet potatoes (with plenty of butter and brown sugar) and, if you’ve prepared some (or bought it) ahead of time, some crisp cold coleslaw. If you don’t have a recipe for coleslaw, you might want to give my recipe from September 2015 a try: Lisa’s Kicked Up Memphis Coleslaw. Enjoy!

Hawaiian BBQ Chicken & Pineapple Risotto

In case you’ve missed my posts from the last two days, I’m in love with my new T-Fal 6 quart electric pressure cooker!

Most nights my husband makes a brief stop at home after work before heading to the gym, then back home to spend some quality time on his stationary bike while I’m holding down the fort and figuring out/preparing (or ordering) what we’ll be eating for dinner. That didn’t leave me a lot of time (if any) to get my early evening workout in and I felt more like a short order cook than a valued member of my household. Realizing how much time & effort the pressure cooker saves me has changed my attitude and freed me up to get back to my post-work workouts too!

Tonight’s dinner did take some extra time because it involved cooking two separate dishes in the slow cooker, but the short time needed for the risotto to cook allowed me to prep the main dish for it’s turn in the pot! Next time I will prepare the rice/grain/potato side earlier in the day and reheat so dinner can still be prepped in one step.

Pineapple Risotto

Preheat the pressure cooker to the brown setting.
Pour contents of 20 ounce can of crushed pineapple (in juice not syrup) in to a 4 cup measuring cup. Add water to equal 4 cups + an additional cup and set aside.
Add 1 TBLS Olive Oil to the pressure cooker then 2 cups Arborio Rice and lightly toast it. The rice will turn from solid white to translucent as it absorbs the oil, then back to white. When a couple of grains look golden your rice is toasted!
Add about 2 TBLS of sweet wine (like Moscato) and stir the rice until the wine has fully evaporated.
Pour the contents of the measuring cup and the additional water to the pressure cooker, mix, close and lock the lid. Set to cook on high for 6 minutes.

When timer sounds, release the pressure and open the cooker. Remove the inner pot from the cooker immediately to keep the rice from over-cooking. The rice may still be slightly liquid. Stir, and the rice will absorb the extra liquid in about 30 seconds. If the rice is still very wet, put the open pressure cooker back in the base unit set to brown, and finish cooking it this way. It’s ok if it’s a little sticky for this recipe.

Hawaiian BBQ Chicken

2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, chopped into 2″ chunks
2 Cups Fresh Pineapple Chunks (or 1 – 20 oz can chunks in juice)
1/2 Cup Water (if using fresh or frozen pineapple chunks)
1 Cup Light Coconut Milk (in the can)
1 Cup Spicy-Sweet BBQ Sauce (I use Guy Fieri Kansas City Smoky & Sweet)
Dried Crushed Red Peppers to taste
Diced Scallion (about 1/4 Cup) green and white parts
Shredded Coconut (if desired)

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the coconut milk, BBQ sauce and crushed red peppers. If you are using canned pineapples, drain 1/2 of the juice into the BBQ sauce mixture.
Add the chicken pieces to the measuring and stir to coat.
Layer the pineapple on the bottom of the pressure cooker pan. If using fresh or frozen pineapple chunks add 1/2 cup water.
Pile the chicken on top of the pineapple but do not mix together.
Pour the remaining sauce over the top of everything and close/lock the lid.
Cook on medium for 9 minutes then push button to release steam/pressure and unlock lid.
Remove the chicken & pineapple from the pressure cooker with tongs and turn unit to the brown setting.
Add 1 1/2 TBLS Cornstarch to 1/4 cup or so cold water then pour into sauce and whisk for about 1 minute to thicken.
Pour thickened sauce over the removed chicken and pineapple.

Pile a good amount of the pineapple risotto on the plate and cover it with some of the chicken, pineapple and sauce. Sprinkle a bit of coconut and green onions on top and enjoy!

What Goes With Quinoa?

So my first foray into pressure cooking went off without me getting maimed or burned, so I guess I’ll be using my new toy again soon! I made a huge batch of quinoa that turned out light, fluffy and quite tasty. Just one problem: we aren’t big eaters of any grain at dinner time outside of rice, so I was left at a bit of a loss as to what to do with my big bowl of quinoa.

lemonchickenquinoa The cupboards, refrigerator and freezer were rather bare due to the two week vacation we had just returned from, so I was left with very few options. A lemon, Roma tomato, small avocado, a bag of frozen edamame, and 1/2 lb of frozen diced chicken breast were all I could salvage to throw together some kind of dinner hearty enough to satisfy my husband.

Lemon Chicken with Avocado & Tomato Quinoa

1 1/2 Cups Cooked Quinoa (See yesterday’s post)
1 Small Roma Tomato (diced)
1 Small Ripe Avocado (diced)
1 Cup Frozen Shelled Edamame (Soybeans) Cooked
Juice of 1 Large Lemon
2 Tbls Olive Oil
1/2 Lb Fresh Diced Chicken Breast
1 tsp Minced Garlic
1/8 tsp Dried Dill
1/8 tsp +/- Arrowroot (to thicken the sauce)
Pinch Cayenne Pepper
Freshly Ground Salt & Pepper

Juice the lemon, stir in the arrowroot and set aside. In a medium frying pan, heat 2 TBLS olive oil and the minced garlic over medium-high heat. Add the diced chicken, season with freshly ground sea salt and pepper, and brown for about 2 minutes per side. Add the edamame, dill, cayenne pepper and lemon juice mixture to the pan and continue cooking about 3 minutes until edamame and chicken are done and sauce is well incorporated.

Spoon about 1/2 Cup of the cooked quinoa and about 1/3 of the chicken mixture into a bowl. Top with the diced avocado and tomatoes and add more ground pepper to taste.

Light enough for my post-vacation diet yet hearty enough that 2 bowls satisfied my husband’s appetite. Win-Win!

A New Kitchen Toy

pressurecooker It seems I am always getting some kind of new kitchen gadget. Something as small as a new pair of nesting measuring cups can make my day. So imagine the glee I felt today when I opened the box from Amazon containing my new T-Fal 6 Quart Pressure Cooker!

To be honest, traditional pressure cookers have always scared me a bit. I watched my grandma and mother-in-law fearlessly use them with ease and skill, but the unpredictable nature of the steam behind the pressure made me steer away from any recipes that even mentioned the need for pressure cooking.

After seeing more and more positive media about the joys of cooking in “no time” using the new electric pressure cookers with pre-programmed settings for as many as 25 different foods, the ability to steam, cook, simmer, an even slow cook in one compact unit, I took the plunge and ordered one for myself.

I also bought the two top rated pressure cooker cook books I could find on Amazon.com so I’d be ready to prepare a gourmet meal upon my return from vacation this week. So what was my pressure cooker’s virginity breaking first meal? I chickened out of doing anything that I might result in me wasting a lot of ingredients and made a big batch of Quinoa!

Combine:

1 3/4 Cups Quinoa
2 1/2 Cups Chicken Broth (If I don’t have any canned broth on hand, I make my broth using 3 cups water boiled with 3 Wyler’s Herbed Chicken Bouillon Cubes)
Pinch of Freshly Ground Sea Salt
1 TBLS Butter

Put pressure cooking pan/bowl back into the machine and secure the lid as per your instructions. Turn your pressure cooker on and, if you have a setting for rice, select the rice setting and hit start. If you do not have a rice setting, you can manually set your machine to cook for 9 minutes on medium then hit start and let the machine get warmed up to do its job.

When cooking has finished, follow your machine’s instructions for releasing steam/ returning to normal pressure before opening the lid. My machine tells me to press the steam release button on the handle and wait until no more steam is escaping before turning the handle and opening the lid.

quinoa Remove the quinoa to a bowl and fluff to separate the grains. If you aren’t eating all of the quinoa prepared, store in a sealed container and refrigerate to eat throughout the week. Quinoa is fun because you can eat it as a side dish plain/with cheese/ or with vegetables, add some veggies to it as a salad, or add meat/chicken/fish/shellfish as a light main dish.

Spicy Shrimp Risotto

grillrender What’s the best part about the day after a barbecue? Leftovers of course!

Chicken went home with my girlfriend, the spicy Italian sausage and bacon wrapped jalapenos were devoured by everyone, but there were still some grilled vegetables and a dozen of the large freshwater shrimp left for me to toss into tonight’s dinner!

Spicy Shrimp Risotto

8 – 12 Grilled Large Freshwater Shrimp (Tails and Shells removed)
1 TBLS Olive Oil
1 Red Bell Pepper Chopped
1 Large Portobello Mushroom Chopped
1 -2 tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
1 Cup (dry) White Arborio Rice
1 TBLS Butter
2 1/2 Cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth

In a 2 qt saucepan combine the rice with the butter and 2 1/2 cups of the chicken broth. Bring to a boil then cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to steam another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in another 2 qt saucepan, over medium heat saute the olive oil, mushrooms and bell pepper for about 8 minutes. Chop the shrimp into chunks then add it and the red pepper flakes to the vegetables. Simmer on low for about 5 to 7 minutes then cover and remove from the heat.

When the rice has finished steaming add it to the pan with the shrimp and vegetables. Season with salt, pepper and more crushed red pepper flakes if desired. Serve with chopped avocado and your favorite hot sauce.

Poolside Valentine’s Day BBQ

elm-131167-Valentines-Day-1 — Happy Valentine’s Day From Sunny Southern California

The threats and warnings of the “Fury” and strength of the approaching El Nino has, so far, failed to materialize in Southern California. A week and a half ago we were seeing colder than normal temperatures in the mid-50’s followed by last weekend’s mid to high 70’s and then this week’s high 80’s to mid 90’s. I had barely gotten the dust off of my boots & sweaters and had to dig my spring clothes back out to keep from sweating my ass off while visiting customers this week!

I am neither gloating or complaining, I would just really like the weather to make a decision. I have a great fireplace in the living room (and another one out by the BBQ island), but it just hasn’t been cold enough to justify lighting them. In fact, it’s been so warm and sunny that I turned the heater back on in the pool and invited a single girlfriend & her kids over to catch some rays and barbeque by the pool for Valentine’s Day.

Instead of making reservations for brunch we put together a menu that would need minimal prep, have no gluten and be able to be cooked & served in the backyard.

Backyard Bloody Marys:

Pour 1 1/2 to 2 ounces Tito’s or Smirnoff 21 Vodka (both are Gluten Free) into a glass (or in this case, red Solo cup) filled with ice
Fill the rest of the cup up with a homemade mix comprised of: Low Sodium V-8, a splash or two of juice from a jar of martini olives, a dash of your favorite hot sauce (we used Frank’s Red Hot), a dash or two of Lea & Perrin’s Worcestershire Sauce, a bit of fresh-full strength horseradish, an a dash of A-1 Steak Sauce.
Garnished with a slice of crisp bacon, a stalk of celery, a peeled mini carrot, a thick ring of red bell pepper, and a skewer with sweet peppers, onions, and pepperocini

The BBQ was kept busy with:

Bacon Wrapped Jalapenos Stuffed With Herbed Cream Cheese
Grilled Asparagus Spears
Grilled Portobello Mushroom Slices
Giant Fresh Water Shrimp w/Guy Fieri’s Smoky & Sweet Kansas City BBQ Sauce
Spicy Italian Sausage Links
Chicken Breasts Marinated in Scallion Oil Dressing (from The Restaurant at Ponte Winery)

Two simple side dishes allowed us to spend a couple of hours absorbing some natural Vitamin D, courtesy of our friend The Sun!

A salad of sliced English cucumber, halved plum tomatoes, thinly sliced red onion, 2 TBLS light sour cream, a dash or two red wine vinegar, freshly ground pepper and some garlic salt
Chunks of cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, and pineapple, thinly sliced Kiwi, fresh blueberries and a few whole strawberries

All in all a great day!

Weather forecasters promise that we will still be seeing the long promised “Godzilla” rain storms of El Nino, the storms are just taking their sweet time. Weather experts are “expecting a conveyor belt of squalls to enter stage left in late February and continue through March, possibly into April. This is a month or so later than original predictions for heavy rains.” In the meantime I will enjoy a few more days with the top down on my car and the ability to tan myself back from the brink of pale-dom before I have to hunker down in sweaters and rain boots.

Fit Fat Tuesday Feast

I love the comfort foods of winter but, because California gets a very short spell of cool weather, that means that I can’t just eat what I want and hide under sweatshirts and big sweaters…UG! Case in point: last week we had some of our lowest temperatures for late January/early February and this week it’s been in the high 80’s and low 90’s. I am going to be back in spring clothes before too long, so I have to stick to my diet plan.

Just because I’m watching what I eat doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy Fat Tuesday, right? By re-working one of my favorite Mardi Gras delights, I can (and did!) Laissez les bon temps roulez.

Let the Good Times Roll “California Style” Jambalaya

1 – 12 oz Chub Jimmy Dean Reduced Fat Premium Pork Sausage
2/3 pound Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast Diced
12 oz – Raw (Peeled, Deveined & Tails Removed) Shrimp
6 oz – Aidell’s Cajun Style Andouille Sausage
1 – 14.5 oz Diced Fire Roasted Tomatoes
2 Pkgs – Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice Natural Whole Grain Brown Rice (90 Second Microwave Packages)
1 Red Bell Pepper – Chopped
1 Green Bell Pepper – Chopped
1 Bunch Green Onions
2 TBLS Olive Oil
2 Cloves Garlic (Peeled & Minced)
2 TBLS Zatarain’s Cajun Spice Blend
Cayenne Pepper, Black Pepper To Taste

In a heavy duty skillet, preheated over medium-high heat, add 1 TBLS olive oil, the garlic, chopped onions, and chopped bell peppers. Cook while stirring about 5 minutes.

Preheat a large heavy duty stock pot or stew pan over medium high heat. Add 1 TBLS olive oil and the pork sausage to the pan. Break up with a wooden spoon and cook until nearly done, Add the diced chicken, sprinkle with the Cajun Spice, and continue cooking until chicken is nearly cooked through (4-5 minutes). Slice the sausage into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices and add to the pan. Cut each peeled, deveined, tailed shrimp in half and add to the other meats in the pan. Cook about 2 minutes.

Tear the packages to vent and microwave the Uncle Ben’s rice packets for 90 seconds each on high.

Add the sautéed vegetables to the cooked meat. Stir in the canned tomatoes and bring all to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and add the two packages of rice to the pan.

Stir to combine. Add 1 TBLS ground black pepper and about 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper.

Serve with hot sauce of your choice, and, if you’re like me and love it California Style, add 1/4 of an avocado to the top of your bowl of steaming jambalaya.

Are you on Facebook? You might be interested in the things I may not devote an entire blog post to: recipes, food facts, nutritional information, photos and other things that make my mouth water. I may not write a blog post every day, but there are daily updates to my This Girl Loves To Eat community at: https://www.facebook.com/ThisGirlLovesHerFood

Rainy Day Delight

It’s such a rare occasion in Orange County, California to have a cold, rainy, stormy day that I was excited to see a wet patio outside my window when I got up this morning. WOO HOO! I am SO getting the slow cooker out and making some chili!

Not my usual rip-off of Mom’s XLNT Brick of Chili Con Carne based chili with ground beef, cubes of left over steak, canned crushed tomatoes and red beans. Nope! Today’s a White Bean Chicken Chili day.

It’s a ridiculously easy recipe and practically cooks itself.

Rainy Day White Bean Chicken Chili

1 Can Diced Ortega Chilis (Mild or Hot – your choice)
2 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts – about 1 1/2 lbs (Frozen or Thawed)
16 oz Chicken Broth
1 – 16 oz Bag of Dry Great White Northern Beans
2 tsp Dried Cilantro Flakes
1 tsp Ground Black Pepper
2 tsp Onion Powder
1 tsp Devil’s Dust (or any Smoked Chili seasoning you use)
Sour Cream and Chopped Fresh Cilantro to serve (if desired)
1 Ripe Avocado Chopped (if you have one)

In a large stock pot, 6 to 8 cups water on to boil.

Using a large colander, rinse and drain the white beans. Pick out any icky ones and then add to the boiling water. Boil the beans for about an hour then turn off the heat, cover and let stand for another hour.

While the beans are soaking get the other ingredients going in the slow cooker set on low heat.

Empty the can of diced green chilis (undrained) into the bottom of the slow cooker
Put the frozen chicken breasts on top of the chilis
Pour the chicken broth over the breasts
Dust the tops of the breasts with the spices (ending with the cilantro)

When the beans have finished soaking, empty them into a colander and then transfer them to the slow cooker. Stir just enough to mix everything together and leave it the chili to cook for 6-8 hours on low heat.

About 4 hours into the cooking time, shred the chicken beasts with forks and mix the chicken back into the chili.

When the cooking time has completed taste the chili, adjust the spices and serve with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of fresh cilantro on top. If you’re lucky enough to have a ripe avocado on hand, do yourself a “flavor” and chop it up to put on top of your bowl of chili!

You can speed this recipe up, making it one you can throw together in 10 minutes or less when you are leaving for work so it can cook all day, by substituting 3 cans of white beans from the grocery store.

I can’t wait for dinner time!

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