White Chili with Chicken

I love chili. I could eat it almost daily. As a matter of fact, when I was pregnant for my second child, I went through a phase when I did eat it daily. He still loves spicy food to this day. But not chili. Go figure. I guess it's the beans. But you can't very well have chili without beans, now, can you?
Well anyway, he did manage to eat a bowl of this white chili and said it was "Okay". The rest of us liked it, and I'll definitely be making it again.
With that, let's begin...
Here's what you'll need:

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped* (optional) (and I skipped this. The cumin gave it a little bit of a spicy flavor, and that was enough for us.)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 4 cups chicken broth (I had about a cup of drippings left from the chicken I made on Sunday which I used, to that I added 3 cups of water and 3 chicken flavored bouillon cubes. Wasn't sure what would happen, but it worked out.)
• 2 cans (15 1/2 ounces each) great northern beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley (which I don't ever have, so I poured about a teaspoon and a half of dried parsley into my palm, decided that looked reasonable, and threw it in. It worked. I know, SO Rachael Ray. If I'd used 'EVOO' you'd be thinking I was her, wouldn't you? No, I know...not in a million years....)
• 1 tablespoon lime juice (why, I don't know, but I used it, and it was fine. Honestly not sure if I'd notice if it was gone. But maybe...)
• 1 to 1-1/4 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 2 cups cubed cooked chicken (I actually ROASTED A CHICKEN yesterday just so I'd have some for this recipe. No, really, I did. My husband thinks I did it so he would have a nice meal, but NO, it was for THIS recipe.)

Let's get started...

In a large saucepan, or dutch oven style pot, cook the onion, jalapeno (if you're more daring than me) and garlic in oil until tender. Stir in the broth, beans, parsley, lime juice and cumin. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. Combine the cornstarch and water until smooth. Stir into chili. Add the chicken. Bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. I think I went with three minutes myself.

I had planned on taking the leftovers in my lunch tomorrow. Well, there aren't any leftovers to take! This was delicious! And easy (okay, not 'easy-peasy', but still...). It took just over 30 minutes to make, and that included the time spent chopping the onion and taking my 2 year old to the bathroom.

Enjoy!!

*a note on the chopped jalapeno. Now, I don't really know much about them, except they're hot, hot, hot, mon. I've never actually worked with a raw jalapeno, but I do know that you have to be very careful handling them. You should always wear rubber or plastic gloves while handling them, and avoid touching your face.

Hamburger Vegetable Soup

I like a good crock pot meal. Monday's are exceptionally hectic, with the boys having Boy Scouts that night, so crock pots are a good thing on those nights. This particular recipe is very easy to throw together. I found that for me, the best thing is to brown the burger the night before. And so, let us begin....

Your ingredient list:
1 pound ground beef (the leaner, the better)
1 medium onion, chopped (I had a great big onion, and I used maybe about a third. I don't buy small onions)
2 garlic cloves, minced (or the equivalent in dried minced garlic. That's what I use. I never buy cloves.)
4 cups vegetable juice (V8 or something similar. I used the cheap WalMart brand and it was fine. And cheap.)
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) stewed tomatoes
2 cups coleslow mix (this is really just shredded cabbage. I don't know why they don't just call it that.)
2 cups frozen green beans (or, if you're like me and completely skip this line when making your grocery list, use one can of green beans, drained. Add 1/2 hour before serving. I called my son and made him do it.)
2 cups frozen corn
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce (let me just say, I've used this for years, and never known until now what was actually in it. That's a good thing. Had I known then, what I know now, I would probably have steered clear. Now, I made the mistake of reading the ingredients list. Ew.)
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Seems like a lot of stuff, but it's really very easy to throw it all together. Here is what you do with it all:

In a saucepan, cook beef, onion and garlic over medium heat until meat is browned. Like I said, I did this the night before so it was waiting in the fridge this morning.
If you're not using a handy dandy crock pot liner, you simply throw all the ingredients in the crock pot together and stir them up. If you are using a liner, put it all in a big bowl, stir it up, and then pour it in to the crock pot. It's just easier to stir it all up when you don't have to worry about messing up the liner. At least for me it is.
Cover and cook on low for 8 to 9 hours.
Now, the recipe says it makes 10 servings. I don't think so - the Princess really didn't like it (too much tomato flavor for her), so the boys and I are the only 3 that ate it, and there was just enough left for one lunch.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Last night I made some really good baked mostaciolli and beef. Too bad I left the recipe at home. Since I did, I'm going back to my 'tried-and-true' recipes, and today I'm reaching in the hat and pulling out......

Chicken Noodle Soup! (hence the title of the post)

Your ingredient list:
* 3 cans (14 1/2 ounces each) chicken broth OR equivalent water and bouillon cubes (no, it doesn't look like it's spelled right - according to spell check, it is)
* 2 medium onions coarsely chopped (if you buy onions like me, this means about half a large onion)
* 2 carrots, thinly sliced (if you buy carrots like me, this means 8 to 10 baby carrots)
* 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
* 2 celery stalks, sliced (if you buy celery like me, this means 2 celery stalks, sliced) (sorry, I couldn't help myself)
* 3/4 cup small pasta shells
* 2 cups cooked, diced chicken

In this is what you do with all of it:

In a dutch oven or soup pot, cover and heat chicken broth or water and bouillon to a simmer. Add salt, onions, carrots and celery to broth. Cover and simmer until veggies are almost tender (about 5 minutes). Add pasta shells and cook, uncovered, for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add chicken and cook until pasta is tender, about 3 more minutes.

This is enough for the kids and I, but if I want enough for hubby's lunch or if he's home I need to double the recipe.

Vegetable Noodle Soup

This is a really easy, quick soup to throw together. Four ingredients – doesn’t get much simpler than that!

Here is the ingredients list:

· 3 ½ cups milk

· 1 (16 ounce) package frozen California blend vegetables

· ½ cup cubed processed American cheese (Velveeta)

· 1 envelope chicken noodle soup mix

See, pretty simple.

Here’s what you do with it:

In a large saucepan (or dutch oven of course) bring milk to a boil. Stir once in a while as it’s coming to the boil so that it doesn’t coat the bottom of your saucepan/dutch oven with cooked milk gunk. Doesn’t hurt anything, really, so if you don’t want to, don’t. I just don’t like having the gunk. Once your milk is boiling, stir in the frozen vegetables. Return to boiling. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 6 minutes. Stir in cubed cheese and soup mix. Return to a boil. Reduce heat (I know, back and forth and forth and back – just do it!). Simmer, uncovered, for 5-7 minutes or until noodles are tender and cheese is melted, stirring occasionally.

For being so simple, it’s really very good. This amount made enough for the 3 kiddos and me. Had the DH been home there would not have been enough. Maybe a salad and some crusty bread would have made it go far enough for all 5 of us.

Taco Soup

I stand corrected. Last night’s plan of stew didn’t pan out, because the hubby took all the leftovers to work with him. Here I thought there was plenty for both him AND stew. He confessed that it was just a little bit too much for him, but insists I didn’t have enough for the stew.
He did say there were some very jealous people at work last night. Pure goodness on a plate, I tell you.
So we couldn’t have stew. We ended up just having grilled cheese sandwiches and french fries. It was a good meal, but certainly no beef stew.
Tonight, if we have the beans, we’re going to have Taco Soup. My boys love this. My daughter loves part of it – the corn, the chips, and the cheese. It’s just like Chili (which they say they DON’T like) but it has corn added.

Here’s what you need:

* 1 ½ pounds ground beef
* 1 envelope taco seasoning
* 2 cans (15 ¼ ounces each) whole kernel corn, undrained
* 2 cans (15 ounces each) chili beans, undrained
* 2 cans (14 ½ ounces each) diced tomatoes, undrained
* Crushed tortilla chips (or Fritos – that’s what we usually use)
* Shredded cheddar cheese

And here’s how you throw it together:

In a dutch oven (I love my dutch oven) cook beef until done, drain (you could probably add some diced onions to the beef while cooking too, I sometimes do if I have an onion lying around). Stir in the taco seasoning, corn, beans and tomatoes. Cover and simmer (stirring occasionally) for 15 minutes or so, until heated through.
Place chips in soup bowls, ladle soup over chips, and sprinkle with cheese. OR, do chips, cheese, then soup. OR, do soup, cheese, then chips. Order doesn’t matter – the end result is the same. It’s all good!