Guilt-Free Skinny Coleslaw

I’m just getting ready to throw a whole chicken into the oven for tonight’s dinner. I’m going to serve it atop a pile of fresh spinach sautéed in a splash of olive oil and some minced garlic and alongside one of my favorite recipe creations: Skinny Coleslaw.

I can eat it by itself as a healthy mid-day snack, pile it inside a wrap with leftover chicken, serve it alongside grilled bratwursts, and, if I decide to spoil/treat my family, it’s even great piled inside a pastrami or corned beef sandwich. The longer the leftovers are in the refrigerator the better it tastes, so if you can make it a day ahead you are really going to taste all of the flavors at their best. Nutrition information per 1/2 cup serving of this homemade pleasure makes it something that I can eat all week and feel no guilt about at all!

Calories: 75 Fat & Cholesterol: 0 Sodium: 15mg Protein: 1g Carbohydrates: 13g Fiber: 2g Sugar: 8.5g

Salad: ½ Head Medium Red Cabbage; ¼ Head Large Green Cabbage; 1 Can Crushed Pineapple Un-drained; 2 Large Granny Smith Apples Grated; 3 Medium Carrots Peeled & Grated

Dressing: 3 TBLS Light Olive Oil; 1/3 Cup Honey; ½ Cup Apple Cider Vinegar; ½ tsp Dry Mustard; ½ tsp Celery Seed; ½ tsp Garlic Powder; ½ tsp Freshly Ground Pepper; ½ tsp Cracked Sea Salt

Chop the Cabbage, Grate the Carrots & Apples into bowl with a lid. Add the can of Crushed Pineapple & the Celery Seed and toss to combine. Cover and refrigerate.
In a small saucepan, combine the Oil, Honey, Vinegar, Mustard, Garlic Powder, Salt & Pepper. Over medium heat bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes stirring occasionally.
Remove sauce from pan, put into a shallow bowl and put into the refrigerator to cool (about 30 minutes).
Once dressing is cooled, combine with the cabbage mixture and toss to combine. Cover and return to the refrigerator to chill until serving.

This salad is Gluten and Paleo friendly and won’t break your diet if you’re just watching calorie and sugar intake. Yum

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My Family Demanded Meat For Dinner

I tried to slip my planned Meatless Monday dinner menu past my husband and son as they left for work this morning and was met with a groan. When your child (whether he’s a grown ass man or not) whines like he’s being starved, Mom caves.

My Ralph’s Fresh Fare (AKA Kroeger’s) is too expensive to shop at for every day groceries, but I can’t pass up their meat department. It is head and shoulders above my local Albertson’s in quality, selection of available cuts of meat and variety of wild caught fish. They frequently have meat specials so I stock up and load the freezer when I can. I headed to the garage, dug through the icy depths and came across a perfectly trimmed, vacuum packaged Flat Iron steak.

I still had a couple of ripe avocados off my tree, a couple of jalapenos that needed to be used up, 3 green onions nearing their toss time, and 1/2 a lemon that was destined for freshening the garbage disposal if I didn’t use it soon. I had already tossed the wilted cilantro, so no Chimichurri. The basil in the drawer was well beyond it’s crispy best, so no Pesto. But, have no fear, with some pepper, olive oil and garlic salt a sauce was beginning to take shape in my head.

Pan Fried Flat Iron Steak with Spicy Avocado Sauce and Asparagus Risotto

Add about 2 TBLS Olive Oil to a 10″ skillet and heat over medium-high heat until oil is hot but not smoking. Liberally season a 2 LB Flat Iron Steak (trimmed of all visible fat) with Pepper and Garlic Salt and place in pan. Sear each side until browned (about 5 minutes per side) lower heat to medium-low and cook another 5 to 8 minutes per side for medium rare; 8 to 10 minutes per side for medium; 10 to 12 minutes per side for Medium-Well to Well. Time is estimated – adjust based on thickness of your meat.

While the steak is cooking prepare the sauce. In my Vitamix container I combined 1 and 1/2 ripe avocados, 1 large seeded jalapeno, 3 cleaned green onions, 2 TBLS Olive Oil and juice from 1/2 of a small ripe lemon. Process until it becomes a smooth, medium-thick sauce. Add garlic salt and pepper to taste and set sauce aside.

When steak reaches desired degree of doneness, leave in pan and remove from the heat to seal in the juices before slicing.

I found a bag of Trader Joe’s Asparagus Risotto in the freezer so I stir fried it in a dry non-stick skillet for about 8 minutes, then divided it among the three plates.

After thinly slicing the steak across the grain at an angle and resting it atop the risotto, I spooned a generous amount of the avocado sauce onto the meat and served it to my salivating family.

Dinner took about 30 minutes from stove top to plate and the cavemen in my household were satisfied & stuffed.

A Chocolate Twist on Thanksgiving Tradition

I’m starting with the admission that this post is totally stolen from a recipe that comes direct from the Food Network Kitchen! It can be seen in this month’s Food Network Magazine article Thanksgiving Desserts: Pies and Beyond.

Since I was very young, I have been a sucker for the smell and taste of pumpkin pie. My Aunt Lisa would bake them and the family would devour them. That was a family tradition. Since I’ve had to make them (or buy them from Marie Callender’s) myself, pumpkin pie just hasn’t been the same.

That was still the case until I saw this picture and fell in lust with Pumpkin-Brownie Swirl Pie.

This pie will definitely grace my holiday table. Ok, I’ll really be keeping it all to myself to eat with day after leftovers brought home from someone else’s house, but WHATEVER.

I must make this pie. I may even drizzle some hot caramel sauce over the pie AND the mandatory Vanilla ice cream. To Hell with Tradition!!

Pumpkin-Brownie Swirl Pie

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottom and side of a 9 1/2-inch deep-dish pie plate.

Make the brownie filling: In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt 1 stick unsalted butter, 1 – 12 oz package semi-sweet chocolate chips, and 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar, whisking occasionally until melted and combined thoroughly. Remove from the heat. Whisk in 2 large eggs, one at a time and then 1 teaspoon vanilla, whisking until smooth. Whisk in 1/2 cup flour, 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt until combined.

Pour about one-third of the brownie batter into the prepared pie plate; set aside the remaining batter. Bake until just starting to set and the top is shiny, about 20 minutes.

Make the pumpkin filling: In a medium mixing bowl combine 1 cup pumpkin puree, 1 cup heavy cream, 1 large egg, 1/4 cup sugar,1/4 cup flour, 12 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, and 1/4 tsp salt whisking until smooth.

Pour the pumpkin filling over the warm brownie layer. Stir 1 tablespoon water into the remaining brownie batter, then spoon the batter (in about 6 scoops) onto the pumpkin filling. Use the back of the spoon to pull the brownie batter into the pumpkin filling and create a swirled pattern. Bake until the pie is set, 40 to 45 minutes. Transfer to a rack and let cool completely. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

I only have one word for the way my mouth is watering in anticipation: Yum!

Roasted Jalapeno Avocado Bacon Pie

Because Thursday is the slowest day at my “real job” I usually have time to fool around in the kitchen to try to create a new dish to serve for dinner. This week was no different except that I needed to come up with something healthy because I am (BOO – HISS) dieting i.e., not eating anything that even resembles Halloween candy or that I can pick up at a drive-thru window, have delivered to my front door, or comes out of a can or box. No Bueno!

Determined to stay on track, into the kitchen I went to make a healthy meal that would taste good, keep me full and make my digestion work hard (and burn calories) all night long.

Happily I found some of my favorite spicy, salty, satisfying flavors there! Bacon, fresh jalapenos, a forgotten Roma tomato (thankfully still firm), some ripe avocados from my backyard, green onions, eggs, and a wedge of aged gouda. AHA Moment: I’d eat breakfast for dinner!

Roasted Jalapeno Avocado Bacon Tortilla Pie

4 Large Eggs
1 1/4 Cups Sour Cream
4 Slices of Bacon (cooked crisp, drained, cooled and chopped)
3 Green Onions
1/2 of 1 Large Roma Tomato
7 Corn Tortillas
1 Medium Avocado
1 Cup Shredded Aged Gouda Cheese
1 Cup Shredded Parmesan Cheese
Olive Oil Spray
Freshly Ground Salt & Pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray the bottom and sides of a 9.5″ Pyrex pie plate with the Olive Oil Spray.

In a small non-stick frying pan heat each of the tortillas until just lightly browned on both sides. Lay one in the center on the bottom and then layer the rest around the pan overlapping to make sure there is a “crust like” coverage.

In the same pan roast the whole jalapenos until the skin bubbles and begins to blacken. If you want a bit less spice, remove the seeds and stem first. Combine both of the cheeses: sprinkle 1/4 of the cheese over the bottom of the tortilla crust. When peppers are roasted, chop them and scatter over the first cheese layer.

Chop and quickly dry saute’ the whites only of the green onions (chop the greens and set aside) and the Roma tomato with a bit of salt & pepper. Distribute the onion/tomato mixture over the jalapenos then cover with 1/2 of the remaining cheese.

Chop the avocado then layer it with the bacon over the second cheese layer.

Mix the 4 eggs and the sour cream until well combined and beginning to thicken. Add cracked salt and pepper then pour carefully over the pie surface taking care not to overflow the edges of the exposed tortillas on the sides. Sprinkle remaining cheese over the top and put pie pan in the center of the pre-heated oven. Bake 40-45 minutes, or until cheese begins to brown and a knife inserted into the center of the pie comes out with no egg mixture on it and center is cooked through. Remove from the oven and allow to sit for 10-15 minutes before slicing into wedges to serve. Top each wedge with the reserved chopped green onions.

To make this a complete meal serve with a salad of Romaine, the reserved 1/2 of the tomato, and any other fresh produce you’d like (I chop a green apple, some jicama, and add a shredded carrot) then dress lightly with olive oil, combined with salt, pepper and some lemon juice to keep it healthy.

Halloween Treats For the Gluten Intolerant Child

I always feel sorry for the kids who have dietary restrictions or allergies that keep them from the annual day when they are given permission to gorge on as much candy as their little hands can shove into their mouths. There are only so many carnival mini toys, erasers, glow bracelets and stickers that one child can find exciting in their bags before the disappointment starts to set in and they lose the childhood joy of dressing up for Halloween.

Thankfully candy manufacturers care about their bottom line and have made a better effort to label their packages so that parents can safely let their gluten intolerant kids collect all the candy they can grab in a couple of hours in the neighborhood and, when it comes to sort it, they can even eat a lot of it now!

In an October 2015 article featured in About Health, Celiac Disease & Gluten Sensitivity Expert Jane Anderson compiled an updated list of candies that are safe for gluten intolerant kids (and their parents) to enjoy this Halloween:

M&M’s (all EXCEPT for pretzel-flavored M&M’s). Note that some special flavors have a risk of gluten cross-contamination because they’re made in facilities that also use gluten-containing ingredients — for example, in October 2015 the Pumpkin Spice M&Ms available in some stores are labeled “may contain traces of wheat”) NOTE: plain M&Ms (in any color) actually meet the more stringent standards for gluten-free certification, which require the products to contain less than 10 parts per million of gluten.
3 Musketeers Bars (all flavors)
Milky Way Midnight Bar (not the original Milky Way Bar)
Milky Way Caramel Bar
Dove Chocolate products (all flavors EXCEPT for milk chocolate cinnamon graham/cookies and cream)
Snickers Bars (all flavors)
Munch Nut Bar (the customer service representative urges consumers to check the labels on this one)
Almond Joy (all)
Mounds (all)
Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Kisses
Hershey’s Filled Chocolate Kisses (only caramel and cherry cordial creme, NOT Hugs, Special Dark, Milk Chocolate with Almonds, or Cookies & Cream)
Hershey’s Nuggets (milk chocolate, milk chocolate with almonds, special dark chocolate with almonds, and extra creamy milk chocolate with toffee and almonds)
Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar, only in the 1.55 oz. size
Hershey’s Milk Chocolate with Almonds Bar, only in the 1.45 oz. size
Hershey’s Air Delight
Hershey’s Milk Duds
Heath Bars
Payday
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (all except for seasonal shaped items, such as Valentine’s hearts)
Reese’s Pieces (all except for Reese’s Pieces Eggs)
Rolo Caramels in Milk Chocolate (all except for Minis)
Skor
Skor Toffee Bar
York Peppermint Pattie (all except for York Pieces, York Minis and York Shapes)
Baby Ruth
Bit-O-Honey
Butterfinger Bar (original flavor only, NOT giant bar, Crisp, Stixx, Snakerz, Medallions, Jingles, Hearts or Pumpkins)
Nestle Milk Chocolate
Goobers
Nips (including both regular and sugar-free)
Oh Henry!
Raisinets (including Cherry, Cranberry, and Dark Chocolate flavors)
Sno-Caps
Wonka Pixy Sticks
LaffyTaffy (including LaffyTaffy Rope and FruitartsChews)
Wonka Lik-M-Aid Fun Dip
Smarties
Tootsie Roll (All products)

***Disclaimer – Because the same product can be produced and packaged in many different manufacturing facilities for the same company (creating the possibility of cross-contamination), always check the packaging and ingredients before consuming any candy, even if it does appear on this list

If you experience any reactions to products listed here, that display the GF symbol or statement on the packaging contact the manufacturers listed at the numbers on the linked PDF.

This Dinner Will Get You Thirsty This Thursday

We missed taco Tuesday this week.

I was just too tired and sad from having to put my beloved lab to sleep Monday, to even think about cooking and getting my Mexican food fix. The household is slowly recovering so I ventured out to the grocery store and then into the kitchen to throw something together tonight, that wasn’t takeout. I came up with something tasty, filling and gluten free!

Chicken Stuffed Pasilla Peppers with Arborio Rice

4 Large Pasilla (A.K.A. Poblano) Peppers
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Orange Bell Pepper
1 Yellow Bell Pepper
2 Roasted Chicken Breasts
6 Strips Crisp Cooked Bacon
1 1/2 Cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese Blend (Cheddar/White Cheddar/Sharp Cheddar)
2 Chopped Green Onions
1/2 Cup Trader Giotti’s Arrabiata Sauce (found at Trader Joe’s stores)
1/2 – 1 1/4 Cup Organic (Gluten Free) Chicken Broth
1 Cup Arborio Rice
3/4 Cup Sour Cream

I bought a nearly 6 pound whole young chicken and roasted it in a 375 degree oven for about 1 hour 45 minutes, took it out to rest and then removed the breasts and placed them in the Vitamix container. Strain the drippings into a measuring cup and add enough chicken broth to equal 1 1/2 Cups.

In the same oven, while the chicken was cooking, I laid 6 strips of bacon on a cookie sheet and baked them for about 18 minutes, until they were crispy and browned but not yet burning. Remove the bacon from the oven to drain and cool then cut it into pieces and add to the Vitamix container.

Once the chicken has finished cooking, increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees.

Wash and dry the Pasilla peppers then carefully cut the top off of all four, discarding the stem and seeds. Take each of the peppers and cut a wide V shape on one side (from the top toward the solid bottom it’ll look like a V-neck shirt). Place all 4 peppers on a cookie sheet.

Remove the stems and seeds from the bell peppers. Cut in half and then into quarters until all pieces can lay flat on a cookie sheet. Bake both sheets of peppers 20-25 minutes until the skins blister and start to blacken. Remove the bell peppers from pan to cutting board to cool and then cut into small pieces and add to the Vitamix container.

Pulse the mixture until well combined. Move mixture to a mixing bowl, add 3/4 cup shredded cheese, the chopped green onion and the Arrabiata sauce stirring to combine.

Fill each of the Pasilla peppers with the chicken mixture mounding each until they’re full. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over each of the peppers and bake in the 400 degree oven until the cheese is melted and starts to brown.

Rice: In a medium saucepan with a lid, combine the reserved drippings/chicken broth, 1 TBLS butter or olive oil, and 1 Cup Arborio rice. Cook over medium heat until it reaches a boil then put lid on, reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove pan from heat and allow to steam for 10 more minutes then fluff rice with a fork.

Sauce: While the rice is cooking, simmer the reserved pieces of Pasilla pepper with about 3/4 cup chicken broth until liquid reduces by half and peppers are fork tender. Move peppers and broth to the cleaned Vitamix container and process until only a few small pieces remain. Add 3/4 Cup sour cream to the Vitamix container and process until thoroughly combined and smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve: Place rice in the center of the plate, lay one stuffed pepper on top of the rice and drizzle the sauce over the pepper.

If you are on Facebook and are 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 have a Facebook page you can visit too https://www.facebook.com/ThisGirlLovesHerFood

Cooking and Blogging in a Wrist Brace

It is amazing how much of your body is controlled by the nerves in the small part of your spine in your neck.

C5 – controls the Deltoids (the rounded part of the shoulder) and the Biceps (flexion of the elbow and rotation of the forearm); C6 – controls the muscles that make up the wrist extensors and enable wrist extension and hyper extension and the movements that are tied to the Biceps (front of the upper arm); C7 – controls the Triceps (muscles in the back of the upper arm that allow the elbow to straighten); C8 – controls the hands

Either by hauling 40 lb bags of rocks to create a dry riverbed in the backyard, moving heavy plants and outdoor furniture around or moving furniture to clean places the housekeepers have been ignoring for months, I have managed to cause myself indescribable pain and numbness that has persisted for well over a week – thus my blogging absence. Typing puts my wrists in the wrong position and sends shooting pains up my arm & directly across my shoulders to my neck…

I threw a 16th birthday party for my friend’s son this weekend and the honoree requested chocolate cake (which French’s Bakery did a fabulous job on) and Buffalo Chicken Dip.

Who am I to turn a 16 year old boy down?

Only minimum movement was required, I didn’t have to do much stirring or carrying, and it only takes a few minutes to make, so I was able to grant his request!

Buffalo Chicken Dip

2 Large Boneless / Skinless Chicken Breasts
2/3 Cup Hidden Valley Original Ranch Dressing
2/3 – 1 Cup (depending how spicy you like it) Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
1 – 8 oz Block Cream Cheese
1/2 Cup Shredded Cheese – Cheddar, Sharp Cheddar or my personal favorite: Aged Gouda
1/4 Cup Crumbled Blue Cheese (I am not a fan, this is entirely optional)
1/4 Cup Chopped Green Onion (optional but pretty)

Bring enough water to cover your chicken breasts to a boil. I leave the breasts whole to preserve the moisture and cook them for 20-30 minutes. When the chicken is done, I remove the breasts to the bowl of my stand mixer and using the paddle attachment, turn the mixer on to low then medium while the chicken shreds.

Put the whole block of cream cheese into the center of an 8 or 9 inch square Pyrex dish. Pour the dressing and the hot sauce over the top of the cream cheese and microwave on high for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the microwave and stir until well combined.

Add the shredded chicken to the dish and stir until all of the chicken is well coated. Sprinkle the shredded cheese over the top and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven 20-30 minutes (until bubbling along the edges).

Remove from oven and top with the blue cheese crumbles and chopped green onions.

I serve with carrot chips, celery sticks and jicama sticks. You could also use sturdy crackers (like Triscuit) or French bread chunks.

If it’s not going to be immediately inhaled, you can keep the dip warm in a small crock pot type warmer or, like I do, use your fondue pot to keep it bubbling hot.

To be honest, I forgot to take a picture, so yours (and mine) may come out looking different than the picture I found on the internet, but I’m sure it’ll look great!

Doc Says It Might Be Time To Cut Back a Bit

I hate dieting! Me without a hearty breakfast (think coffee, eggs, bacon, and some kind of bread), lunch, a snack around 4, and dinner + wine = a grumpy, hangry girl with a raging headache!

But I’ll be a good girl, at least as much as I can be, so my doctor gets happier with my blood tests and that stupid body composition machine she likes to torture me with every few months.

So, I grudgingly started today with a meal replacement shake prescribed by my doctor: Designs for Health PaleoMeal Plus Lean Body 14 Day Program.

There are some pluses to this choice:

It’s only available with a doctor referral
You get a significant discount off the regular $139 with a doctor referral
It’s made with Proserum, exceptional quality, native whey protein concentrate
Comes from cows that graze on pesticide-free, chemical-free natural grass pastures, and which are never given hormones, genetically modified organisms, or injected pathogens
The most important part, I get to eat between meals!

In addition, I know that I’m not making an effort to drink enough water, so 1 stocked up on liter bottles of Essentia 9.5% alkaline water.

Lunch was a really exciting smoothie concoction that I threw into the Vitamix:

2-3 Cups Fresh Baby Spinach
1 Large Ripe Nectarine – seed removed
1 Naval Orange Peeled
8 Medium – Large Frozen Strawberries
6-8 Ice Cubes

I mixed the fruit & spinach together on 2-5 speed until blended then threw the ice cubes in and popped it up to 8 until the ice cubes were crushed up. It was a very putrid shade of green but surprisingly sweet.

Big Bonus: I got 5 of my fruit/vegetable servings out of the way in one fell swoop!

Tattling on myself: While I was digging through the refrigerator I came across a bag of Sugar Babies. The bag of Sugar Babies is no longer in the refrigerator… Baby Steps.

If you are on Facebook and are 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 have a page on Facebook you can visit too: https://www.facebook.com/ThisGirlLovesHerFood

Tailgating on Thursday Night Sucks!

Any true college football fan knows that spending all day Saturday tailgating is as much a part of the experience as the game is.

Whoever decided to add Friday night games (the traditional high school game night), then compounded that mistake by adding Thursday night games to the schedule, took away a lot of the fun of hanging with old and new friends and getting hyped up on game day. That marketing “genius” should go down in the football hall of shame.

HELLO! People work and a 6:00 PM weekday/workday kickoff in a downtown location like USC in Los Angeles makes for a much shorter, less fun pre-game experience – not to mention the traffic nightmares that face people who can’t get off early meaning seats look empty on the national TV broadcast.

Even worse, in a non-college town (unlike most of the towns around colleges in the South) game day is just another day in the week when it’s not a Saturday. The stadium isn’t as full as it would be on a weekend (especially one that holds 90,000 + when sold out) and, no matter how good or bad the team is doing, more and more people are skipping the game and/or giving away their Thursday night game tickets. The excuses are varied yet all some version of the same: unable to face the traffic, hate the rush to get there, and need to get up too early for work the next day. I am part of the working world, we are more than an hour from the stadium on a good day, but we only get 6-7 home games a year, so we’re blazing ahead!

Weeks like this are great opportunities to cut down the usual prep time, combine ready made foods in grocery stores with easy snacks, save setup and eliminate the need to cook on site, so we can enjoy our shortened time together!

Needless to say it won’t be like our Week 1 Lobster boil, but I’ve huddled with our fellow tailgaters and we’ve come up with a total no-cook pre-game plan:

2 Buckets of Grocery-Deli Fried Chicken
Deli Potato Salad
King’s Hawaiian Rolls
BBQ Sauce (for making chicken sandwiches on the rolls)
Chips & Sour Cream Onion Dip (OK we will have to add the envelope to the container)
Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies and various no-cook, grab & go snacks
Beer/Wine/Cocktails & plenty of Water for re-hydrating

Red Bean Chicken Chipotle Chili

It’s the first week of October and, after a few “cool” days in the low 80’s, it’s headed back up into the triple digits in perpetually sunny Southern California.

I’m not complaining at all, except that I do have serious weather envy about this time of year when the leaves are turning and there’s a chill in the mornings and evenings. The forecasters “promise” that we will be seeing rain and cooler temperatures “soon” but I’m not holding my breath.

To get out of the never-ending summer blah’s I will just crank the thermostat down to 70 degrees, put on a light sweater, pull out the slow cooker and throw together something that just might fool the family into thinking it’s really fall!

Red Bean Chicken Chipotle Chili

1 – 16 oz pkg Dry Red Kidney Beans
1/2 – 8.11 oz jar La Costena Diced Chipotle Peppers in Sauce
2 – 14.5 oz cans Diced Tomatoes with Onion
1/2 – 12 oz bag Fresh Spinach
3 – Large Carrots Peeled & Cut into Chunks
1 TBLS Olive Oil
2 Cloves Garlic Chopped
1 TBLS Chili Powder
2 tsp Ground Cumin
Fresh Ground Salt & Pepper
1 1/2 lbs Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
3/4 lb Chicken-Spinach Sausage (Or any other flavored fresh chicken sausage you prefer)

Rinse and pick the red beans in a strainer. In a medium saucepan put the beans and about 1/2 the pan of water over medium high heat until it just reaches a boil. If you are preparing the beans and soaking the night before, remove from heat, cover and set pan aside. If you are “quick soaking” the beans, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for about 2 hours.

Cut raw chicken breast into 3/4″ to 1″ chunks and sausage into 1/2″ slices. Spray a medium skillet with olive oil spray and brown the chicken and sausage over medium-high heat. It’s not necessary to cook the chicken through, it will finish in the slow cooker.

Place the carrots and 1/2 cup water in a 2 quart microwave safe bowl and microwave on high 2 1/2 to 3 minutes. Carrots should be fork tender but not mushy. Adjust time for the strength of your microwave.

In food processor/Vitamix container add undrained tomatoes, the carrots, chipotle peppers with sauce, the fresh spinach, olive oil, garlic, chili powder, and cumin. Process until well blended but not entirely smooth. Taste the sauce add a few grinds of salt & pepper and adjust the rest of the spices as necessary.

Put beans, chicken and sausage into your slow cooker then pour the sauce over the top, making sure you scrape as much as possible from the container. Stir until just combined. Cook on low for 6 hours.

I love this recipe because I get to hide vegetables in the sauce and it can be as healthy as you want it to be. I like to add some fresh avocado chunks and a bit of cheese to the top of mine and serve it with crusty bread and a salad for a hearty dinner that easily feeds 8 and packs 40g of protein in each serving.

Tomorrow’s Post: Tailgating on Thursday Nights Sucks!

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