White Bean and Chicken Chili with Italian Cheese Bread

My computer is officially incompatible with my cameras and flip video. Now how's that for the worst thing that can happen to a blogger? Old camera technology with new computer is a recipe for disaster. Bummer. Anyway, my son took pictures for me last night, so, I'm happy about that!

And then, while blog hopping, I came across this recipe for easy Italian Cheese Bread. It was the perfect complement to the chili.

Last night we ate White Bean and Chicken Chili , recipe from Giada. We love this recipe, because it is so versatile. I use canned chicken chunks (because I have a huge stockpile of them in the basement pantry).

Here is the link for Italian Cheese Bread. This is comfort style food, which works well with my 4 young adult sons.

Wilted Green Beans with Red Onion

My friend, Char, gave me a wonderful cookbook last fall. I really love it! Our friend, Martha, had checked the book out of the library, and Char thought we both needed our own copy. The recipes are easy yet satisfying. I had a big package of green beans (Costo purchase of course!) that needed to be used, so I thumbed through The Simpler the Better by Leslie Revsin, and found this very easy but delicious recipe for wilted green beans with red onion!

First, begin by rinsing and trimming your green beans, and put them in a large pot.

You'll need some olive oil and red onion. And red wine vinegar (I put white in the picture..oops!).
Slice a red onion, thinly sliced. I used a mandoline.

Put the green beans and red onion in the pot, and drizzle with a few TBSP of olive oil and some salt to taste.

Cook on high until it begins to sizzle, then reduce to low and cover for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally. Take off heat, and add a few teaspoons of red wine vinegar. YUMMY!

Teriyaki Chicken in Slow Cooker

Even though you plan a menu for the week, sometimes you need to make a change. My friend, Char, gave me a lot of bok choy from her garden, so I decided I better use it before I pick up my Bountiful Baskets produce this Saturday ( I ordered the Asian selection along with a regular basket, which includes bok choy) . After google searching, I found this Teriyaki Chicken in Slow Cooker recipe. The great thing about it is that it calls for 6 cups of bok choy! This really tasted fantastic.

Teriyaki Chicken cooking in Crockpot

TERIYAKI CHICKEN IN SLOW COOKER  from Cooks.com

3 1/2 pounds skinless chicken pieces

Read more about it at www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,231,154176-234200,00.html
Content Copyright © 2012 Cooks.com - All rights reserved331/4 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp. toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp. grated fresh ginger, or 1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
2 minced cloves garlic
6 cups sliced bok choy
2 tsp. toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Put  chicken in a 3-1/2 to 4-quart slow cooker. In a small bowl, stir together soy sauce broth, water, sesame oil, ginger, vinegar, and garlic. Pour over chicken.

Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours, or on high for 2-1/2 to 3 hours. Transfer chicken to a serving platter, reserving cooking liquid in cooker. Cover chicken with foil, keep warm.

Stir bok-choy into liquid in cooker. Cover, let stand for 5 minutes. Transfer bok choy to platter with chicken. Sprinkle chicken and bok choy with sesame seeds if desired. Spoon a little of the liquid from cooker over chicken and rice.

Broccoli plants are getting bigger!

Well, I have no idea how this broccoli will taste, but the broccoli heads are starting to grow. Here are a couple of pictures that show how the plants in this large pot are doing.

I'll keep you posted on when I harvest the heads! I am sure it will be in the next few weeks. It starts really warming up in St. George by March/April.

Turkey Cutlets with Peach-Vinegar Glaze

I was in Smith's a couple of days ago and was trolling the meat counter for marked-down meat. I saw several packages of Jennie-O meat products, and the price looked good to me. I bought 3 packages of Turkey Burger Patties (4/pack) and one package of Turkey Tenders (or something like that) for $2.29/package.
I have a great recipe for Turkey Cutlets with Peach-Vinegar Glaze. You should give it a try. It is very yummy!

6 Turkey breast cutlets 3/4" thick (I used the burger patties....they work fine)
3 tsp seasoned pepper (garlic, lemon or blend....I use lemon)
3 tsp olive oil
3/4 c. red onion
3/4 c. chicken broth
3/4 c. peach jam (I just pureed a pint of apricots, added 1/4 c. sugar and simmered it)
3 TBSP balsamic vinegar

Rub turkey on both sides with seasoned pepper. Heat olive oil in a skillet over med-high heat and cook turkey until browned on one die; turn and add onion to the pan. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally until onion is tender, about a minute. Add broth, jam and vinegar to the pan; cover, lower heat and simmer 8-10 minutes. Serve turkey with pan sauce over rice or pasta.

Above, the patties have been browned and the red onion added. Below, the apricot puree cooked with some sugar. I know, I'm creative in the kitchen. But really, who wants to keep running to the store? Not me.

Here is the delicious dish below, served over mini Farfalle pasta! It was so good. Everyone raved!

I enjoyed a glass of OJ with mine. It is a nice comfort food meal without a ton of calories.

Check out my impromptu center-piece for the table...mini roses in a yellow ware bowl.

Broccoli in my garden!

Just look at that head of broccoli beginning to form! I've neglected my pots, but moved them off of the patio to get some rain, and look what I found.....

Here are some of the pictures from my patio garden! Cauliflower ....
....and some spinach...that obviously needs some fertilizer!

There is Luigi, getting a little stretch in......Lettuce at the lower right...

Wow...see the little head of broccoli starting to form!!! I am so excited!

I actually have several heads of broccoli forming. I love having a garden! Even in January!

Freezing Surplus Fruits and Vegetables-Food Storage

POMEGRANATE ARILS........

CRANBERRY SAUCE MADE WITH FRESH CRANBERRIES!

20 CUPS OF FRESH PUMPKIN PUREE IN MY NEW CHEST FREEZER!

Long time, no blogging! I'm making an early resolution to blog a couple of times a week.

So, I woke up this morning at 8 am. Well, actually, I woke up at 6:30 am to feed and potty the dogs, then I went back to bed, and woke up at 8 am. Gotta keep my facts straight! Anyway, I had a plumber here to fix a previous contractor's poor work. What does all of this have to do with pumpkin, pomegranates and cranberries? I was up early enough to work on processing all of these foods today.

I started with the pomegranates. I had about 6 of them, and wanted to get them peeled and ready to use. I had seen a cool video of how to peel them underwater (makes less mess), so I tried it out. It worked well. Now I have 2 containers of pomegranates arils (the red seeds). Here is a link that tells you how to do it. I didn't cut mine up, just gently tore it apart in a bowl of cold water. I like the fact that they can be frozen. I like to use frozen fruit in my morning smoothies.

Next, I made some Cranberry sauce with my fresh cranberries. There is nothing quite as nice as some fresh cranberry sauce with turkey or chicken. I've been cooking turkey breasts in the crock pot lately, and now I have some fresh sauce for the next time I cook one. I put the rest of the large bag (costco) of cranberries in the freezer for future use.

Finally, I got to work on the box of pie pumpkins sitting in my garage. I put it out there to keep them cool until I could make a little time to process them. I got them at Albertson's for 50 cents a piece after Thanksgiving. That was a great deal on pie pumpkins!

Having my new range really was wonderful in helping me steam the pumpkin. I used my Vitamix to puree the cooked pumpkin, then put them in freezer containers. Pumpkin is the "new" banana. After reading a report about all of the pesticides used in banana growing, I've discovered that pumpkins are perfect for replacing banana in smoothies. You don't taste it, but it adds a nice texture. Also, there is a wonderful vitamin A perk that you don't get with bananas.

My smoothies are something like this: 1 c. spinach, 1/2c. pumpkin, 4 frozen strawberries (costco has huge bags of delicious strawberries), 1/2 c. yogurt (sometimes I make it myself in the crock pot) and whatever other fruit is hanging around (pear,pineapple,etc) and some water. It is usually around 350 calories, which is just about right for my breakfast.

So, it was a busy day of processing food, but it is done and the freezer is filling up nicely!