Fresh Corn and Chicken Chowder

I'll give my hubs some credit here: he made this meal. I was out for the night, and he still cooked what we had planned- so proud! I ate it the next day for lunch, and the leftover chowder was just as good as I imagined it being the night before.

Recipe from Better Homes & Gardens 30 Minute Dinners magazine

Ingredients:

* 12 oz skinless, boneless chicken breasts
* 4 ears of corn
* 1 32oz container chicken broth
* 1 small green pepper, chopped. (I added some sauteed red pepper on top of mine)
* 1 1/4 cups instant mashed potato flakes
* 1 cup milk
salt and pepper
crushed red pepper (optional, for heat)

To Make:

* In a dutch oven, combine chicken, corn, and chicken broth. Bring to boil, then reduce heat. Cover with lid and simmer for 10-12 minutes. When cooked through, transfer chicken and corn to cutting board.
* add half of the pepper to the broth mixture in the dutch oven. Stir in potato flakes and milk. Shred chicken and return to dutch oven. Cut kernals off cobs of corn and add to dutch oven. Season with salt and pepper
* Serve in bowls and sprinkle remaining pepper- this is where I used the sauteed red pepper

No Bean Chili

Chris hates beans in his chili.
I enjoy beans in my chili.

Guess who won that battle?

Ok, let me rephrase that...
Guess who is the better of the two spouses and would willingly make sacrifices without complaint for the other's happiness?

That's right... I'm that selfless spouse :) Hence the title of the blog being 'NO BEAN chili'

I didn't take a picture of the final product (topped with sour cream and mild grated cheddar) because we were all too busy woofin' it down. Whoops.

I've made my fair share of chilis, but this was BY FAR my favorite recipe because it had the most veggies in it, and didn't have that greasy, heavy feeling- it was about as light and healthy as I can see beef chili being :) Originally, this chili is a stovetop chili, but I made the crockpot version because there is nothing better than your house smelling like amazing chili all day. Scentsy should make that into a new scent... just sayin'.  If you don't want to/or have a crockpot, the stovetop edition of this recipe can be found on the link to the original recipe below.

No Bean Chili
Recipe adapted from Deep South Dish.

Dry Seasoning Ingredients:
* 1 tablespoon ground cumin
* 1 tablespoon dried oregano
* 1 tablespoon chili powder
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon cajun seasoning (why did we never own this sooner?)
* 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Wet Seasoning Ingredients:
* 2 tablespoons Worchestershire sauce
* 2 tablespoons Kitchen Bouquet (I omitted this)
* Coupld dashes hot sauce (I omitted this as well)
* 1 6-oz can tomato paste
* 2 cans diced tomatoes (not in original recipe, I added these on my own)

Chili Base Ingredients:
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 medium yellow onion, diced
* 1 medium green pepper, diced
* 1 medium red pepper, diced
* 1/4 cup green chilies (I used 2 jalapenos)
* 2 lbs ground beef
* 3 garlic cloves, minced
* 2 cups beef stock or broth
* 2 bay leaves
* salt and pepper to taste

Crockpot directions:
* Brown ground beef in skillet over medium-high heat. Drain. Transfer to crockpot. Add the dry and wet ingredients, veggies, and the rest of the chili ingredients. Stir well. Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours or on low for 7-8 hours.

Turkey Noodle Soup

Every Black Friday, while people are pushing and shoving their way through packed stores and slashed prices, getting stepped on, trampled on, and ran over just to get ten extra dollars off that big screen TV or season of Dexter, I'm at home in my snuggly jammies, with a cup of hot coca or chai, cooking. Sure, I had just spent the entire day before slaving away in the kitchen. And sure, I'd love to save a few bucks on Christmas presents and spend the rest of the day tired from being jacked-up on adreneline after waiting in the freezing cold for 7 hours, but I'd much rather put my energy to an even better use and have a wonderful meal to share with my family, instead of nap time. This is why, every year, I take that left over turkey carcass and make a turkey noodle soup. Yes, I save some turkey for sandwiches and such, but a large amount of it goes to this soup. You can freeze it and enjoy it later, or you can eat it up right away, but either way, sitting in a warm house in your slippers, smelling turkey soup simmer on the stove sounds a lot more appealing to me than fighting angry mobs! 

Oh wait... its not the day after Thanksgiving? Dang it. Well, yesterday, I found myself wanting to eat this soup with the same desire I have to win the lottery. But alas, no turkey carcass. I ran to the store and found some turkey drumsticks, fired up my crockpot on HIGH, and hours later I was in Post-Holiday-Heaven.

Kelsey's Crockpot Turkey Noodle Soup

Ingredients:
* Three large turkey legs
* 9 cups chicken broth
* 6 large carrots, sliced
* 4 sticks of celery, sliced
* 1/2 large onion, chopped
* 4 red potatoes, cubbed
* Chicken Bouillon cubes
* Salt and Pepper to season
* 3 Bay leaves
* 2-3 teaspoons Thyme
* Noodles (I used about 1/3 of a box of bow-tie)

To Do:
* If you have all day, throw the turkey legs in with the broth, veggies, and season with salt, pepper, thyme, and bay leaves. (Use a few bouillon cubes if it needs more flavor- I added three extra) Cook on low 8-9 hours. Check on turkey legs and once meat is cooked, remove from crockpot, shred meat off the legs, and put back into crockpot. With about 15 minutes left of cooking, toss in noodles until they are tender. Serve with warm biscuits.

* If you don't have all day, and you aren't able to get your ingredients into the crockpot until after noon, you'll have to make a few adjustments. I had to cook my turkey legs on 375 for about 40 minutes to make sure the meat would be cooked. Then, I shredded the meat and placed all ingredients in the crockpot together. I cooked it on high for 4-5 hours.

Panera Bread Broccoli Cheese Soup

Every month, Food Network does a Copy Cat recipe in their magazine. It is a perfect knockoff of famous dishes served in restaurants. This is probably my favorite part of the entire magazine. This one is my favorite Copy Cat recipe to date.

The first time I made this soup was when Chris first abandoned me in Mississippi. He was off to train in Alabama for six weeks. Bummer. We had only lived in the south for a few months and I still had not become familiar with the area. I had never heard of Panera Bread, but the soup looked amazing, so I figured I'd give it a try. Weeks later, I realized there was actually a Panera Bread about an hour from here. Heavenly.

I have made this recipe four or five times, and its turned out perfectly everytime (except my first attempt). Lesson learned: do not add any more cheese than the recipe calls for- in fact- you can do it without the cheese entirely if you'd like! The first time I made this, the amount of cheese just seemed to small, so I added more, and it was too cheesy. (Yes, there is a such a thing as too much cheese, trust me.)

Specks of broccoli and carrot- yay



Ingredients:

* 6 tablespoons unsalted butter

* 1 small onion, chopped

* 1/4 cup flour

* 2 cups half-and-half

* 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth

* 2 bay leaves

* 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg

* salt and pepper

* 4 cups fresh broccoli florets

* 1 large carrot (I used 2)

* 2 1/4 cups (about 8 oz) grated sharp white and yellow cheddar cheese (I just used medium cheddar)

* 4  7-in sourdough bread boules (round loaves) if you'd like to eat yours in a bread bowl

To Do:

* Melt butter in large pot on stovetop over medium heat. Add onions and cook until tender (about 5 minutes). Whisk in flour and cook until golden- just a few minutes.

* Gradually whisk in half-and-half until smooth. Add chicken broth, bay leaves, nutmeg, and salt and pepper to season- bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, uncovered, about 20 minutes.

* If you are having bread bowls, prepare them now. Using sharp knife, cut circle into the top of each loaf, remove top, and hollow out the center. Be sure to leave a thick shell.

* Add the broccoli and carrot to the broth mixture and simmer until tender, another 20 minutes. Once veggies are tender, remove bay leaves.

* Puree the soup in batches in your blender- be sure to get an even mixture of veggies and broth. Blend soup to your preferred thickness. If you like yours chunkier, don't blend for as long- if you like a creamy soup- puree the crap outta that thing!

* Return the blended soup to the pot on the stove and whisk in shredded cheese over a medium heat. This will only take a few minutes. Ladel into bread bowls, and garnish with more shredded cheese if desired