Not So Chilly, Chili: Part 2

Ok, so ever since I made my homemade chili (which wasn't 100% to my liking), I knew I had to make it again. Enter, tonight! And let me tell you, tonight's was fabulous!

Last chili was spicy, but this one was spiiiiicy! And we loved every second of it! I guess adding cayenne pepper, jalapeno peppers, hot chili powder and hot garlic (yes, you heard me correctly) will do that!

Here's a glimpse at some spicy garlic...I had to buy it when I saw it!

Not that different, but has a purple-y colour to it! So here's my new and improved chili recipe (the old one's tasty, too!)

And here are the essentials for the chili:

Some spices.

Some beans.

And tons of veggies.

Not So Chilly, Chili: Part 2
(Revenge of the chili)

Ingredients:
5-7 roasted tomatoes, diced + any additional diced canned tomatoes (I needed the canned!)
1/2 tsp oregano
1 medium sweet potato, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
1 small zucchini, diced
4-5 medium mushrooms, diced
3/4 cup corn (frozen or fresh)
1 medium green pepper, diced
1/2 large onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic
4-6 jalapeno peppers, diced
1 can of red kidney beans, pinto beans and black beans, drained and rinsed
1 tsp cumin
1tsp curry powder
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp hot chili powder
1-1½ cups of vegetable broth
Salt and pepper to taste


Garnishes:
Mock sour cream (greek yogurt + lime juice)
Shredded cheese
Avocado
Freshly chopped cilantro


And here's how you make it!


First, I started by roasting the tomatoes (drizzled with olive oil, put into the oven at 425 for 30 minutes)

Skins should just peel off the tomatoes...it's super easy. Dice those up!

Then, in a large pot over medium heat add those tomaters and oregano and cook for a few minutes (until juices run from tomatoes).

Then, add sweet potato, onion, jalapeno peppers, garlic, carrots and celery to zee pot!

To look like this:

Let them cook and mix for about 10 minutes (still, over medium heat).

Next, add the remaining veggies: green peppers, zucchini, corn, mushroom to the mix.

Plus, the spices and you have a nice medley.

There's a lot going on in the pot, so this is when you might need a little vegetable broth. Let these veggies cook for another 10 minutes, then, spill the beans...into the pot, I mean! =D

Mix up until it's all heated (another few minutes) and this is what you'll have:

Move to a serving bowl and garnish!

And enjoy...with a glass of wine!

Off to Vancouver tomorrow, but will have an interesting post when I'm back again!

Hearty Meal

Here I go neglecting my blog again...I am horrible, but it's only because I need to get done chemistry. Since starting it, I've been challenging myself to finish sooner and sooner. So, all in all, I've been doing at least 4 hours a day and almost 2/5th's through the course. Hey! Better than nothing!

So, I was meaning to post this a few days ago when I actually ate it, but of course I wasn't on time. But here it is.

Hubby and I had a delicious dinner of baked chicken with roasted veggies and garlic mashed potatoes. I had been meaning to make this chicken for a while, and finally did it!

It was a perfect night for this hearty meal, since it was on the cool side and we had done a nice run earlier that afternoon!

First, I started by putting the chicken in brine for an hour:

Mmm, raw chicken!

So, while the chicken was 'brining' in the fridge, I proceeded to cut up the veggies. I would make this whole meal again just to have a veggies taste as good as they did...makes my mouth water thinking about it!

I cut up butternut squash, sweet onion, carrots and brussel sprouts in there!

Next step was to grind up some spices to rub on the chicken - coriander seeds, fennel seeds and bay leaves.

After the grind, I took the chicken out of the brine and dried it off. It should be completely dry! And place it on top of the veggies!

Next, rub that chicken with those spices!

I put the chicken and veggies in the oven for an hour and 40 mins at 375. 

Alongside, were some garlic mashed potatoes; I steamed the potater's, roasted the garlic in the oven, then mashed them together with a little butter, buttermilk and fresh organic chives!

Since we were so excited to eat dinner, all I remembered to take a pic of was the potatoes pre-steamed!

But, trust me, they were really good post-steaming!

And finally the chicken is ready! I only managed to take one quick pic while the hubby was cutting it up. My mind really wasn't there thinking about the delicious meal that was only minutes away!

Just look at how good the veggies look! I would make this exact same thing again, just to have the veggies nice and roasted under the chicken!

Following that night, my life has been chemistry (woot, woot!) and going crazy!! I think I'll work out now for a bit so I don't go entirely crazy!

In good news: tomorrow is my very first wedding anniversary. I can't believe that this time last year, was my actual wedding day. It feels like yesterday.

It truly is amazing when you get to marry the most perfect person for you. How we came into each other's lives just amazes me. I don't know where I'd be without him. He really is my everything.

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend. I know I will =)

Happy October!!

I know I'm a day late with the, 'it's October!' post, but I still can't believe how quickly the months are flying by. October used to be an ok month, but now, it's better than ok! This month I will celebrate my first wedding anniversary and at the end of the month, my husband and I was will leave BC for a while (it's been fun!), go back to Ontario and see our family for a bit!! This is all something I'm reeeeeally looking forward to!

Yesterday did not feel like it was the 1st of October because the temperatures here have suddenly been pleasant, so the high got to about 23 degrees! But, since the colours on the trees are slowly changing (as everyone can appreciate, because they are gorgeous), you still know that fall is here.

I've recently been sick (we're going on day 6 now - come onnnnn immune system!), but did not let that stop me from getting a little exercise...just a little. With the beautiful weather I went for a lovely run on this trail pretty close to my house, that I absolutely love. As a runner, I must say that when your nose is either a) stuffed up; b) running like crazy; or c) a bit of both (sadly enough) it does not make it easy to run!! Mine happened to be a bit of both on Wednesday (hence, only running 5k) and more on the runny side yesterday (hence, only running 6k). Not having a clear nose greatly decreased my focus, energy and endurance!! I was like a 5 year old! I swear for every 6 steps I ran, I sniffled (almost down to a T). On that note, hopefully by tomorrow (when I plan to run next), I'll almost be cleared up and ready to run!

So, my baking adventure from Wednesday seriously bombed...so sadly, I do not want to talk about it, nor post pictures about it *sigh*. But, I was experimenting yesterday and...success!!

I managed to make some delicious muffins that I must share!!

White Chocolate & Mixed Berry Muffins

Adapted from Zoom Yummy

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutues

Makes 12 large muffins, 16-17 medium muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 3/4 - 1 cup of almond milk
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 4 tbsp agave syrup
• 1 egg
• 2 cups wholewheat flour
• 2-3 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 6 tbsp sugar
• 1 cup white chocolate chunks or chips
• 2 cups fresh or frozen mixed berries (I used frozen)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325
2. In a bowl, add all wet ingredients - lemon juice, milk, applesauce, agave and egg
3. In a second larger bowl, combine all dry ingredients - flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, white chocolate
4. Pour the wet mixture into the dry one and mix just until it combines (do not over mix)
5. Finally, add the berries
6. Pour into greased muffin tray or line with muffin tins 
7. Fill each cup, almost to the top and for additional yummyness add a few chocolate chunks to the tops
8. Bake for 30 minutes

I was very impressed!! I love berries and white chocolate, so how would I not be impressed!

There are a few things I would change for next time though:
Add more baking soda (a tsp), and;
Grease the muffin tray vs. lining it (the muffin liners stuck to the muffins too much!)

And then, onto dinner. Complete with garlic broccoli.

Which I simmered in a pot, until tasty! Then, made some homemade cream corn (hubby loves cream corn!)

I tell ya...homemade cream cream corn beats canned cream corn's butt any day!! I would never eat the stuff from a can, but this, I would eat! Then topped dinner off with some delicious balsamic bbq sauced chicken drumsticks. After careful placement on the plate (well, on mine at least), this was our finished product:

Delicious!!!

I definitely need to post my goal's for the month (which I will do later tonight), along with the adventures I make for myself today!!

What's your favourite month?
Any delicious muffin recipes that you enjoy??

Sunday Funday?

So...my Sunday didn't start off too 'fun.' I'm still fighting some sort of sickness. I drove the hubby to work at 8am, came home, then decided to sleep for another few hours. I thought it would help a bit, and luckily it did...a bit.

I roughed it out and went to the grocery store for some dinner items. My face may have not looked pretty in public, but I at least my hair did (I curled it last night to go out and it remained intact while I slept!).

I'm not gonna lie, but going to the grocery store was draining. When you're already lacking in energy and you decide to go out...not a good combo. While I was out, had I the energy, I would have side-tracked from the store and went on a run (the weather permitting for once), but I stopped, thought about it, and realized if I could barely walk around a grocery store, how was I going to run 1, 2, 3...8 km? Scratched that thought and made it home safely to the couch again.

Cooking brightens me up (hence, going out to the grocery store to get ingredients), so I made sure to make something delish!! More than obvious that the staple of a sick person's diet is soup, so of course that was on the menu this fine evening!

What are some of your remedies when you're feeling sick?

I decided on (and am slightly obsessed with) thai curry. I made a thai curry soup as adapted by 'A Good Appetite' that turned out delicious.

First, I mixed together ginger, garlic, red curry paste, coconut milk, chicken broth and chicken, then let it simmer until the chicken was cooked:

After the simmering (and mouth watering), in goes fish sauce, a little lime juice, and a weee bit of brown sugar. Then, last...save the best for last...the veggies!

I also made an amazing spicy roasted sweet potato salad (good thing I found this one, because it was just sooo good...the flavour was awesome). I roasted the cut up sweet potatoes in the special seasoning mix and roasted them:

This dish also had you roast whole garlic coves with the potatoes. I was a liiiittle skeptical of this, but wow!! I would definitely do that again and again!

The finished products resulted in 2 amazing dishes that both me and the hubby loved! They had a perfect balance of spice and delicious-ness. And yes, there's leftovers!!

What's your favourite Thai dish to make?

All in all, although I was pretty sick today, the day actually turned out pretty good. Amazing food and amazing company to share it will. Now it's off to snuggle my hubby and watch a movie!!

The Last Few Days...

Ahhh-HHHHHHH....I got my macbook back!!!! It was long awaited and very overdue!

It's very refreshing to know that I have it back...and from now on, I will back it up (every month, which is one of my goals)!

So let me take it back 2 days ago...my husband normally has Tuesday's and Wednesday's off (it sucks that he doesn't exactly get the weekend off, but we make the best of making Tuesday and Wednesday the weekend), so on Tuesday we decided to stay in and make some pizza.

This pizza was so delicious. We used fresh and local goat cheese, eggplant, spinach, zucchini, cremini mushrooms, onion and peppers. This is the first pizza I've ever made AND had where it wasn't covered in cheese (I really enjoyed having the majority of the pizza covered in veggies instead - plus one of my goals this week is to not eat cow's products).

We also got a soup from Natures Fare (local, organic grocery store) to go with the pizza:

This was just amazing! It was a Moroccan spiced soup with yams and turkey. I would eat it again...as in, I was craving it the next day!

Also, we decided to make cookies!! Cookies with peanut butter because I love peanut butter! For the longest time Skippy was always my favourite brand, becoming more healthy I eventually switched to organic peanut butter, and boy had I been missing out. If I had known all along that organic could taste better than hydrogenated oiled peanut butter, I would have switched years ago! I also enjoy almond butter!

In this case, these peanut butter cookies actually asked for peanut butter cups (oops!) so, not as healthy. I chose this cookie recipe though, since it contained no milk! Tyler and I are an awesome team...he greased the trays while I finished mixing up cookie mixture:

He went a little butter crazy:

Boo! We burnt them!

















Ah well. Better luck for us next time!

Apart from burning them...we had fun.

On Wednesday, I attempted to golf with my hubby! He was super excited to fiiiiinally take me out and to tell you the truth...I actually didn't do that bad. My first time golfing in a year and a half, and I actually hit the ball the first time! It was nice to get out and try at least. I might even attempt it one more time before the season's over!

Since we're more than halfway through the week, I'll update you on how our goals are doing. Here's the summary with how we've progressed:

Tyler:

• Practice (golf) - 4 hours/2 hours short game  ~ practiced today.
• Workout 3 times ~ worked out once so far (shot hoops)
• Play golf 3 times ~ played Tuesday morning, then yesterday afternoon with me!

And mine.

Char:

• Eat foods that contain no cow's milk ~ so far, so good.
• Make a dinner with fennel ~ hoping for Friday to do this.
• Workout 3 times this week (run at least once and climb stairs) ~ climbed stairs yesterday and calves are KILLING today!
• Get a food journal ~ have been recording it on a whiteboard (oops, forgot today so far).
• Make a new recipe and/or create one of my own ~ we kinda did this with our pizza...but I'd like to fully make a new one, so hopefully before Monday!

There you have it!

What have you accomplished so far this week that you're proud of?

It's A New Day

Have you ever heard this song by will.i.am? It's great! If you haven't heard it...then listen!! I think we should treat everyday like it's a new day! This song sticks out to me for 2 reasons:

1) We have to appreciate everyday...even when we think the day 'can't get any worse';
2) After Tyler and I were pronounced husband and wife, we had this song played.



Just make sure you take the time to stop...take a deep breath...and be happy you're here.

On that note, it may be a new day, but it's not a nice new day here. In all honesty, it hasn't been nice here for the past few days. So I took it upon myself to make chili a few nights ago. I decided to just go at it, add whatever and hope that it resembled chili. Guess what...it did!!! Loved every bite of it (and so did the hubby). Because I almost never have a camera available to me (Tyler takes it to work everyday to video golf swings), I make do with what I have -- my BlackBerry camera! Keep in mind: the chili tastes better than it looks (I have a whole new appreciation for good cameras. Man, can they make anything look good!)

Not So Chilly, Chili

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time:  30 minutes

Ingredients:

Spices:

• 1/4 tsp oregano


• 1/2 tsp cumin


• 1/2 tsp curry powder


• 1 tsp cayenne pepper


• 4-6 tbsp chili powder

Other remaining ingredients:

• 5 tomatoes, diced (you can remove peels if you like, I kept them on, but they will roll off on their own in chili)


• 1/2 sweet onion, diced


• 2 small carrots, diced


• 1 small zucchini, diced


• 1 medium sweet potato, diced (once again, your decision for skin on or off)


• 1 cob of corn, kernels removed


• 1 med green pepper, diced


• 1 stalk of celery, diced


• 2 cloves of garlic, minced


• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of vegetable or chicken stock/broth


• 1 jalapeno pepper, diced


• 1 can each of red kidney beans, black beans and pinto beans, rinsed and drained


• Fresh cilantro, chopped for garnish


• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1) In a large pot, add tomatoes and oregano. Cook over med-high heat for 5-10 minutes (or until tomatoes are tender and juices run)

2) Reduce heat to medium, add to pot: onions, carrots, celery, sweet potato, jalapeno, and garlic, and cook for another 5-10 minutes.

3) Add remaining vegetables (zucchini, corn, green pepper) along with remaining spices (the four C's: cumin, curry, cayenne and chili poweder),  cook for another 4-5 mins; at this time, if consistency is getting too thick with all the veggies, start adding broth/stock according to how runny or thick you want your chili to be

4) Add the beans to pot, continuing to cook until everything is well-heated.

5) Add salt and pepper to taste

6) Move to a serving bowl and top with fresh cilantro

This really is hearty and makes you feel good with all the veggies you get to enjoy in it. I had leftovers for a few days after. It's a great recipe to make if you do want leftovers, then there's plenty to freeze and save for another day!

I've been thinking a lot about goals, which is why I even made a tab for them, and how important it is to stick to them!

One of my goals was to cook with a new fruit or vegetable each week, and this week, I have decided to use fennel!

Do you know any good recipes that use this ingredient?

Know what your goals are. Write them somewhere, where you can look at them everyday. The only way to make them happen is to be consistent with them, by keeping them fresh in your mind and vision. Happy Sunday!

What are your goals for the week? Month? Year?