Sorry for being gone for so long. School and life has been kicking my butt, AGAIN. Seems like it happens every few months. But, I'm {hopefully} back. I have some new posts planned and I'm super excited.
My slow cooker is a very under-loved piece of kitchen equipment. But, for this month's Recipe Redux I was supposed to make a slow cooker dish. The slow cooker is a great piece of equipment if you are short on time.
Kaylee has told me before that she loves soup, stews and chilis. The weather turned chilly for a while so I decided to make this chili. But, of course, with my luck, the weather was a humid 90 degrees the day I made this! This recipe was still delicious.
This recipe is super flavorful and healthy. I add sweet potatoes to give it a bit of chunkiness and due to my stomach problems I don't add very many beans. If you love beans in your chili then you can add 1 or 2 more cans.
Sweet Potato Chili
1 onion, chopped
2 T minced garlic
1 sweet potato, chopped into 1 inch cubes
8 oz mushrooms, chopped
1 carrot, chopped small
1 rib celery, diced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp pizza seasoning
2 bay leaves
1/3 cup TVP
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
12 oz beer or 3/4 cup vegetable broth
1 can (28 oz) crushed or diced tomatoes
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
Directions
- Stir everything together in crockpot except beans
- Cook on low 6-8 hours or high 3-4 hours
- Add in beans during the last 30 minutes of cooking
My crazy weeks are done and I can focus again on y'all! Honestly, nothing exciting has happened over the past few weeks. This post might be a bit long due to the fact that I have a ton of recipes to share.
Let's start with the Superbowl. I never have enough friends to have a
party but I love the idea of Superbowl party food. So, I did a themed
dinner that night. It was delicious. I did Spinach artichoke dip, homemade tortilla chips, cauliflower buffalo bites, and portabello pizzas. The recipes for the dip and the buffalo bites are located below the picture.
SkinnyTaste: Buffalo Cauliflower
SkinnyTaste: Spinach and Artichoke Dip
Oh and I did some angel food cake cupcakes with team colored sugar on top.
Next up, the Korean New Year, Seollal. I made Bibimbap and chamchi-jeon (Korean tuna cakes) except I did them with crab because I was in a crabby mood. I didn't get a picture of any of it. It was actually gone too quick.
ZenKimchi Chamchi-Jeon
Oh and I just have to show you this! My father and mother in law sent this to Sunny last week.
Her own hanbok! Isn't she simply adorable???
Fast forward a few days to Valentine's Day. To Ken and
I this day has become just a day for the kids. And it's honestly all
about the candy. We exchange cards and he will buy my flowers but, it's
nothing major. This year I gave him a bag of Snickers with a reason
why I love him for every piece in it. He gave me a bag of Valentine's
Day 3 Musketeers. I think I've talked about 3 Musketeers before. Each
piece has under 1 gram of fat so, I can still have chocolate without
causing myself pain. This year he bought me a bag of Strawberry Dark Chocolate ones. They are amazing. I have dubbed them the "poor man's Russel Stover" because they taste so close to the high end strawberry cream chocolates. I eat one a night. I would highly recommend them. 7 pieces has 6 grams of fat and 180 calories. That means 1 has 0.86 grams of fat and 25.8 calories. Not too bad right? Healthiest candy I've found so far.
Florida kills me sometimes. The other morning I woke up and it was 34 degrees outside. 34!! I decided it was the type of day that called for chili. Well, by 2 pm it was around 65 degrees. Definitely not typical chili weather. But, despite that, I still made it. I was amazed at how it turned out. It was really good awesome! I took a few big risks with some of the ingredients. Kaylee and Mantha aren't normally fond of sweet potatoes (that's why there's only 1/2 of one in the recipe). If I had been making it for me I would have added a whole one. The soy crumbles aren't normally liked by non-vegetarians. But, even Ken raved about it. Note about the Crumbles. If you are seriously on a no-fat diet then you need to buy the BOCA soy crumbles. They are the only ones that have 0g of fat. I picked up a different brand and didn't pay attention so that is why there is extra fat in the recipe
Veggie Overload Chili
Serves 10 calories 136 fat 1.09 grams fiber 6 grams protein 12.2 grams
Ingredients
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 cup chili powder
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
2 bay leaves
12 oz Ground Crumbles Meatless (1 bag)
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
12 oz dark beer
.25 sweet potato, cubed
1 cup corn (fresh, frozen or canned)
16 oz mushrooms, quartered
42 oz Diced Tomatoes
16 oz tomato sauce
Directions
- Saute onions, sweet potato and garlic until golden.
- Add in the spices and cook for another 2 minutes
- Stir in tomato paste and meatless crumbles
- Next put in chocolate, beer,tomato sauce and tomatoes bring to a boil then reduced and simmer for 30 minutes
- After 30 minutes add the corn, and mushrooms.
- Bring back to a boil and simmer for another 15 minutes
I have a post in the works about regaining motivation. I kist my
motivation a few weeks ago while I wasn't blogging (hmmmm, I wonder if
there's a connection? I hadn't thought of it before now) I bought
myself a new pair of pants for the gym in order to get myself pumped.
I bought them at Target for $20. They are made by Champion and they are AH-MA-ZING. When I worked out in my other capris I kept having to adjust them every 10 minutes. The only time I had to adjust these was when I got out of the car and when I accidentally pushed them up. I have one problem with them though. They are made of 84% polyester and 16% spandex. I'm very paranoid about them getting snagged.
That's my February in a very big nutshell. How has your month been?
