Chili & Cornbread, Greek Yogurt Style

I know, its 90 degrees outside and who wants to eat chili in the Kansas humidity...  This girl :)

I love chili in all its forms and mutations.  How the flavors convalesce and get even more amazing in leftovers.  How you can use chili for so many different things like tacos and nachos and good golly I have officially made myself hungry again.

In my ongoing purge of the deep freeze, I encountered more frozen chicken breasts and while I was pondering a possible use, I noticed two cans of great northern kidney beans looking a bit lonely and toward the back of the pantry shelf.  And then I just knew... white chicken chili and cornbread.

These recipes are adapted from Allrecipes.com where I found their origins, but they have been tweaked to my specifications and greek yogurted...yogurtized?..yogurtified?  You get the point.

I umm forgot to take pictures because...uh, we ate it all (the whole family, not just me).  So here are some beautiful stock photos that pretty much sum up how it looked :)

Easy White Chicken Chili
Original recipe can be found here.

Prep Time: 15 Minutes (if you already have cooked chicken, if not, tack on some time)
Cook Time: 20 Minutes
Ready In: 35 Minutes
Servings: 6


INGREDIENTS:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1-2 tsp minced garlic
14-16 ozs low sodium chicken broth
2 (15.5 ounce) cans great Northern beans
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers (I used the Trader Joe's fire roasted variety)
1 pound of cooked chicken, torn into bite sized pieces or chopped.  I use this recipe to bake my chicken first seasoned with garlic powder, chili powder, salt and pepper.  (P.S. I use this method to cook chicken ALL THE TIME AND ITS FREAKING AMAZING... that's all, moving on)
1 tbsp ground cumin
1/2-1 tbsp chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (more if you like more heat)
1 (8 ounce) cup of nonfat greek yogurt
2% Shredded Monterey Jack cheese (optional)
Habanero Hot Sauce (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in onions and garlic, and cook until softened and translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Pour in chicken broth, great Northern beans (undrained, you want liquid), chopped chiles, and chicken. Season with cumin, chili powder, and cayenne pepper. Increase heat to medium-high to bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for at least 10 minutes.
2. Stir in greek yogurt and simmer for 5 minutes. To serve, ladle into bowls and sprinkle with Monterey Jack cheese & flavor with habanero hot sauce (we prefer Valentina Extra Hot Sauce, its crazy hot!)

Per Serving (according to MFP): *minus the cheese
Calories 276
Carbs 25 
Fat 5
Protein 29  
Sodium 426  
Sugar 4

Excellent and Healthy Cornbread
Original recipe can be found here

Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cook Time: 25 Minutes
Ready In: 35 Minutes
Servings: 9










INGREDIENTS:
1 cup unbleached flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup white sugar or coconut sugar (which is what I used)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain nonfat yogurt
1/2 cup applesauce
1 tablespoon oil, vegetable or coconut (of course I used the coconut oil)
2 tablespoons honey

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease an 8x8 inch baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix flour, cornmeal, sugar, soda and salt. Stir in yogurt, applesauce, oil and honey. Do not over mix, stir only until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until center of the bread springs back when gently pressed.

Per Serving (according to MFP):
Calories 171
Carbs 34  
Fat 2 
Protein 5  
Sodium 417  
Sugar 12

Best Damn Popcorn Ever Popped!

Yep, I said it.  Its the (healthy) best.  At least in my 31 years of existence, its the best.  Now, I'm not ranking this against butter-laden, chalked full of salt movie theater popcorn.  That stuff is special and beautiful in its own setting.  Its unhealthy but as an occasional indulgence, its a delightful part of the movie theater experience.

My recipe is for the evening movie snack or a light lunch.  Its quick, simple and easily repeatable.  I've adapted the recipe a bit from various other blogs and websites so feel free to find one that works for you.

Here is the cast:

Ingredients / Supplies:
1/4 cup of popcorn (I found a wonderful non-GMO variety purchased in bulk from Amazon)
3 tsp of coconut oil, divided
Lawry's Seasoning Salt, Less Sodium
Nutritional Yeast Seasoning
1 brown paper lunch sack

Instructions:
Add popcorn kernels to brown paper lunch sack with 1 tsp of coconut oil.  Fold over the top of the bag about 3 times and crease it.  Now coconut oil is a solid until warmed to about 76 degrees so rather than melting it prior to adding to the bag (because that would be a bit of a hassle... for me), I put it in the bag as a solid and proceed with the following steps.  Put the bag in the microwave and add 2 minutes (on high) to the time.  After about 15 seconds, take out the bag and give it a couple of good quick shakes to coat the kernels with the melted coconut oil.   Place it back in the microwave and start the microwave again.  For my microwave, 2 minutes is perfection.  No overly done kernels, most of the kernels are popped (especially after I bought a higher quality brand).  When its done, the bag should look something like this:

I highly suggest wiping down the glass turntable each time, it gets a little greasy.  Take the bag out of the microwave and melt the remaining 2 teaspoons of coconut oil in a small cup or bowl.  Pour the contents of the bag into a large bowl (its probably 3-4 cups popped) and drizzle with the melted coconut oil.  Add some shakes of Lawry's Seasoning Salt (or whatever seasoning you want) and adjust the amount per your taste.  Take a large pinch of Nutritional Yeast Seasoning and crush with your fingers into the palm of your other hand.  Sprinkle the crushed yeast seasoning onto the popcorn for a slightly cheesy flavor addition that kicks the whole thing up a notch.  I LOVE this popcorn and eat it roughly 4-5x per week (usually for lunch or snack).

The coconut oil drizzle is going to tack on some calories (good fats) and you may think it sounds just grody because coconut oil, really?!?, but I promise its a sensational combination and a great alternative to melted butter or margarine.  I'm also planning to try a sweet version on a night were I'm craving kettle corn.  Same principal, but instead of Lawry's and Nutritional Yeast, I will use cinnamon sugar with the melted coconut oil.

Happy popping!

Roasted Butternut Squash & Brussel Sprouts

I've been on a mission to consume the contents of the deep freeze.  I have all sorts of quirky things that I have purchased over the last year such as a leg of lamb, andouille sausage, ground pork... stuff that I purchased for a certain recipe that I found online and then discovered that I was missing an ingredient or two so it was shipped to the island of lost food... the deep freeze.  But these items will be abandoned no more!  I shall resurrect them from their frozen waste land and use them to create delicious and healthy dinners!!   Huzzah!  <fist in the air>

So I had these two packages of frozen vegetables that were just dying to be paired up.  I went in search of some recipe that combined them in a healthy side-dishy sort of way... and found pretty much nothing.  Plenty of butter-laid scrumptious looking dishes, but nothing that I felt I could serve my family without impacting their cholesterol levels.  Thus my recipe was born.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did and enjoy experimenting with different seasoning combinations (next time I plan to get a little crazy and add some rosemary or perhaps a sliced onion).

Now you could go to the store and buy a large, fresh butternut squash and the spend the next 4-5 hours carefully peeling, slicing and cubing.  And while you are in the produce aisle you could bag up some adorable little brussel sprouts all fresh and new and ready to go home with you.  Or you could wander over to the freezer aisle because its 5:30pm and you don't have time for all that nonsense and grab a bag of frozen diced butternut squash and family-sized brussel sprouts.

Throw them in the microwave together on defrost for about 7 minutes (still in their individual bags).  After that, take out the butternut squash and defrost the brussel sprouts by themselves for another 2-3 minutes.  You want the butternut squash to still be fairly firm and partially frozen otherwise it will get pretty mushy during the roasting process.

While all that defrosting is happening, you can preheat the oven to 400 degrees and prepare the rest of the ingredients plus a large jelly roll pan.  The next items on the list are probably the most used in my kitchen:  Extra virgin olive oil, fresh minced garlic, and extra virgin coconut oil.  Now the coconut oil is optional, you could just stick with regular ol' olive oil if you don't have any coconut oil or if you aren't inclined to use it.  I have been meaning to write an ode to coconut oil in another blog post and one of these days I will get around to it.  Its magical and amazing and changing my life.  Oh and grab the sea salt grinder and pepper shaker (not pictured cause I got excited about the life-changing coconut oil and forgot to put them in the picture).

With your veggies all nice and defrosted, open the butternut squash package and add to a large mixing bowl.  Open the brussel sprout package and then take a knife to slice the brussel sprouts in half length-wise as you add them to the bowl.  They should still be pretty cold and almost a bit frozen so they are easier to slice.  Once they are all halved, you can stir in 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of melted coconut oil (it melts at 76 degrees so you may have to warm it up in the microwave), and about 2 tablespoons of minced garlic or whatever you prefer.  I never really measure garlic, I just throw some heaping spoonfuls in because you can never have too much garlic.  Ever.  Give that mixture a good gentle stir to coat everything without ripping apart the brussel sprouts.  They are cute and delicate and once they are halved, they are more inclined to fall apart.  Use about a teaspoon at olive oil to coat the bottom of the jelly roll pan with your very clean fingers (its good for your skin anyway, rub it into your cuticles afterward!) and then spread the veggie mixture evenly over the pan.  You could also use aluminum foil to cover the pan, but its a snap to clean up, so why bother?  Season with sea salt and black pepper to your hearts desire and then place in the oven.

Set the timer for 15 minutes and wait for the aroma of garlic.  Its coming and its heavenly.  After 15 minutes, remove the pan and use a wide spatula/flipper/whatever is handy to turn everything over.  Place it back in the oven and set the timer for another 15 minutes.  Brace yourself for opening that oven door to take it out when its done, you might pass out from garlic overload.

Here's the recipe:

Roasted Butternut Squash & Brussel Sprouts
1 package of frozen butternut squash cubed or diced
1 package of brussel sprouts, family size
2 tbsps garlic, minced
2 tbsps olive oil or 1 tbsp olive oil + 1 tbsp coconut oil
Sea salt to taste
Ground black pepper to taste
1-2 tsp olive oil (for pan)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Defrost butternut squash for 5-7 minutes and brussel sprouts for 7-10 minutes.  
Add butternut squash to large mixing bowl.
Slice brussel sprouts lengthwise and add to large mixing bowl.
Stir in olive oil, melted coconut oil (optional) and garlic.
Spread mixture into a large jelly roll pan and season with sea salt and pepper.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, remove and turn.  Bake for another 15 minutes until brussel sprouts are starting turn slightly golden brown around the edges.

Serves: 4
Per Serving according to calculations by MyFitnessPal:
Calories - 169
Carbs - 20
Fat - 7
Protein - 400-600 (depending on how much you use)
Sugar - 6