Summer Vegetable Chili

Summer Vegetable Chili

My son is enamored with a pet rat. The first thing I heard as he got off the bus his first day of school was that his classroom had a new pet, a hairless rat. Apparently they are also getting two hamsters next week. He is obsessed now. At the library he wanted all books on rats and he talks about it constantly. I think it's pretty cute. We have three dogs and three cats, but we haven't had any small pets since before he was born. Before kids my husband and I had dwarf hamsters and I grew up with gerbils. I haven't allowed my boys to have any small pets yet, since they are a little small to be able to understand being gentle. Having a classroom pet is the perfect compromise. My oldest son feels an attachment and responsibility for a small animal and I don't have to do the daily care etc. I love it. With last week being the first week of school I didn't do a lot of cooking, but this weekend it's back to the kitchen. Today I tried a new recipe for Summer Vegetable Chili from the June 2013 issue of the Food Network Magazine.

Owingsville, Kentucky

This recipe has 16 ingredients. It takes 40 minutes of total time, 25 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I only made a few modifications to the original recipe. First I always use canola oil instead of vegetable oil, I prefer it for heart health. I bought regular frozen corn since I have never seen fire-roasted at the stores near me. Additionally I purchased regular beans and tomatoes not low sodium since the store I went to only had one variety. I cooked the beans on high for the 20 minutes of cooking time, watching it closely to ensure that it did not burn. Using a dutch oven is a great way to make chili, it heats evenly and is big enough to make big batches. I found that I had to add more salt at the table, but that is more of a personal preference, if you like food with less salt it would be fine as written.

Country Roads Kentucky

The mushrooms in this recipe really made the dish. They allowed for the chili to have a lot of flavor. Plus my husband who isn't a big fan of vegetarian chili really liked this recipe. With the mushrooms it was definitely more male friendly. My two boys were skeptical, but after tasting it they ate their whole bowls. The recipe states that it only makes 4 servings, but after my family of 4 had a dinner sized portions there was more than enough for at least another meal.

For the recipe go to Summer Vegetable Chili.

Summer Vegetable Chili

Recipe Type: Main

Summary:

An easy vegetarian chili recipe that has great flavor from the addition of portobello mushrooms. Makes enough servings for multiple meals.

Preparation Time: 0h, 25m

Total Time: 0h, 40m

Yield: Serves 4

Healthy and Low-Fat Southwestern Vegetable and Chicken Soup

I have a horrible habit of trying to eat healthy and then falling off the wagon. Don't get me wrong the majority of the time I eat very healthy, but making big changes in my diet always seem to take a number of failures before they are successful. In college I ate a ton of restaurant food. There were always cheap places to eat and I rarely made food at home. Eventually it caught up with me when I realized that I never seemed to have any energy and I generally felt run down. I vowed to change my habits and I did until I started graduate school and then I was back to my old habits. After getting married I vowed again to start eating healthier, then I got pregnant and the smell of meat made me sick. To compensate I ate a ton of ice cream and peanut butter. After my first son was born I reformed and gave up pretty much any bad food while I breastfed. Then I became pregnant again and my bad food habits quickly came back. So over the years I have started and stopped a lot of healthy eating plans. Luckily since having my youngest and starting this blog my eating habits have leveled off. 99 percent of the time I eat healthy and the other 1 percent I remind myself that I'm human. Since my husband's dad had heart surgery last year I have been determined to make my husband healthier. He has lost 30 pounds in the last year and a lot of it has had to do with dietary changes. This week I made a new healthy recipe for Southwestern Vegetable and Chicken Soup from the February 2013 issue of Eating Well magazine.

This recipe has 16 ingredients. It takes 1 1/2 hours of total time, 1 hour of which is active and makes 8 servings. I did make a few changes to the recipe. First I made my own chicken stock from scratch. It really does taste better and is a great way to save money. Second, instead of diced canned tomatoes I used one fresh tomato. I am trying to use more fresh ingredients and rely less on canned goods. Plus the price of fresh tomatoes is lower than canned currently. Finally, I also used fresh spinach and I cooked my own beans.

I love that this recipe is high in vitamin C and only has 5 grams of fat and 199 calories. It has great flavor and the lime juice makes the soup delicious. I tasted the soup before adding the lime and the lime makes a tremendous difference. Make sure to salt at the end, especially if you are making your own stock or using low sodium store bought. This recipe could easily be modified to being vegetarian by omitting the chicken and using vegetable stock instead of chickens stock.

For the recipe go to Southwestern Vegetable and Chicken Soup.

Chicken and Three Bean Chili Verde

There is something about fall that just screams for chili. It is comforting and warm even when the weather rages outside. My husband loves chili and has definite opinions about the right and wrong way for it to be prepared. When we first met I had been a vegetarian for a number of years and only knew how to make one type of meat chili. Let's just say that he wasn't impressed. Luckily for him I am a quick learner and I love trying new recipes. After a couple of years and a number of failed attempts I learned the right and wrong way to make a great bowl of chili. While I still like chili with lots of beans my husband insists on meat so I am always looking for recipes that compromise between the two. Last month I tried a new recipe for Chicken and Three Bean Chili Verde from the October issue of Southern Living magazine, which looked like a great compromise chili for my family.

This recipe has 18 ingredients. It takes a total of 45 minutes and makes 12 cups of chili. As I normally do I had to go to multiple stores to find poblano peppers. Some weeks they are easier to find and other weeks not available anywhere. For the chopped chicken I used leftover grilled chicken with a bbq rub. It was a perfect fit. Instead of using bouillon cubes and water I used homemade chicken stock. I am not a big fan of bouillon, I find it way too salty to use in recipes. I don't salt my homemade stock, instead I salt the recipe itself. Instead of tortilla chips I used gluten free corn chips since I am able to eat them. I did find that I had to use additional chicken stock after the chili had cooked. Otherwise the chili would have been way too thick. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

If you're looking for a recipe that can feed a crowd this would be it. This recipe had enough for a meal for my family of four plus leftovers for two more meals. My two boys really loved this recipe. They especially enjoyed the chicken and picked it out and ate it first. The flavor on this chili is delicious. It has a perfect blend of flavors and the chicken was tender. Definitely a recipe I would make again.

For the recipe go to Chicken and Three Bean Chili Verde.

Pork and Green Chile Stew

Anyone else have a hard to handle three-year-old? My youngest son this last week has been given new meaning to being a toddler. He is in the middle of a growth spurt and when he isn't eating he is having a complete melt down. Shopping with him in tow has become impossible and I am beginning to want to have a temper tantrum myself. The thing that has saved my sanity is cooking and baking. Cooking has always been my lifeline. As a teenager when everything was crazy in my life cooking was my way to relax and stay grounded. To this day it has the same effect on my well-being. I love to cook and bake and they are a great way for me to feel as if I am doing something worthwhile for my family. Recently, I tried a new recipe for Pork and Green Chile Stew from the September issue of Food and Wine magazine, which looked filling and delicious.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes a total of 45 minutes, 25 minutes of which is active and makes 6 servings. I had to go to multiple stores to find all the peppers needed, but that is normal for my area. I ended up buying Anaheim peppers, since I could not find decent poblanos. Since I was cooking for my kids I seeded all my serrano chiles, my kids can be pretty picky when it comes to spiciness. As I always try to do I served brown rice instead of white. I prefer using brown rice almost exclusively. In order for the stew to thicken completely I allowed it to cook for 50 minutes, instead of the 20 suggested by the recipe. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I really enjoyed this recipe. Over rice it is delicious, but it was also great heated up in a bowl and eaten more like a traditional stew the next day. The flavors from the chiles were delicious, I loved how rich the stew turned out and the pork literally melted in my mouth. My two kids loved the pork and picked it out of the peppers, which is normal for them. Overall, a great chile stew recipe that I would make again in the future.

For the recipe go to Pork and Green Chile Stew.

Taste of Home Roasted Poblano Beef Stew

From as far back as I can remember I have loved makings soups and stews. I love how easy they are to put together and how great the taste is once they're done. My youngest son has inherited my love of anything soup and will slurp up the last bits from his bowl. During the summer months I cut down on the number of stews I make due to 100 degree plus temps my very old kitchen assumes during this time period. However, if I find a recipe that looks different than other recipes I have tried, I jump on the opportunity. The June/July issue of Taste of Home magazine had a recipe for Roasted Poblano Beef Stew, which looked delicious and of my ordinary stew routine.

This recipe contains 13 ingredients, all of which I was easily able to find at my local grocery store. My oven broiler is broken, so I broiled the peppers in my toaster oven. The toaster oven always takes a lot longer than the recipe suggestions, so my total time was approximately twenty minutes. The total time for prep and cooking was about 3 and half hours. The potatoes that I found were very large, so I only used one instead of two. The additional potato would have made the stew too potato based and taken away from the delicious flavor of the beef. I skimmed my fat after initially browning the beef and was pleasantly surprised that I had no additional fat that needed skimming once the stew was finished cooking.

I made home-made French bread to accompany this stew and the combination was delicious. The poblano peppers in the stew created a delicious undertone and the beef was cooked perfectly. My two boys were skeptical of the soup the first day, but really enjoyed the leftovers, especially the beef. This is a great recipe regardless of the season and would make enough to feed a crowd or leftovers for multiple meals.

For the recipe go to Taste of Home Roasted Poblano Beef Stew.