Green & White Chili

White & Green Chili

I like green chili. I like white chili. So I did a mix, and it worked. Matter-oh-fact, it even worked for the toddler (which is a huge plus) AND it has lots of veggies. Score!

This might look like a weird recipe list, but it's how I measure/store things in my house. It's a very flexible recipe anyhow, so do your best, in the event that you're actually reading/making this.

• 1/2 cup onion, finely diced (or roughly one small onion)
• 1/2 cup green bell pepper (or roughly one large green bell pepper)
• 1-2 teaspoons (or finely diced cloves) of garlic

I keep onions & bell pepper pre-chopped in the freezer, at all the times. And have pre-chopped garlic in the fridge (by the jar). Toss these in a hot skillet (preferably an iron skillet), and saute just a bit, but don't go overboard. Keep your bell peppers bright green. If you want, cook the onions first, then add the peppers (I like my onions to turn brown).

• 1/2 cup of diced or shredded pre-cooked chicken or turkey (again, I keep this in the freezer, but you could even use canned for this recipe, in a pinch)
• 1 can or 1 cups worth of white beans (any white bean really, or lentils even)
• ~8 ice cubes worth of chicken bone broth (or basically just enough chicken broth, canned or homemade, to cover everything up nicely, but man is homemade chicken bone broth tasty. It's much darker than normal chicken broth, when I make it. )
• 1/2 cup of salsa verde (tomatillo and cilantro)
• Nice dose of cumin
• Nice dose of oregano  and/or thyme (fresh or dry). I usually just use Zahtar (which I always have on hand from the Mediterranean market, and it's the cheapest way to get lots of thyme, plus for some reason it just tastes better than normal dried thyme).

Cook all of this until it's good an hot.

• At the end, add a large handful of kale, finely diced (like parsley, basically). 
• Dice up some extra cilantro if you like too.

Cook that until it's just wilted then serve.

Top each bowl with some sour cream and/or cheese (I like Parmesan even though that's not traditional for chili, just b/c the flavor goes a long ways w/o adding too much. 2nd favorite's extra sharp cheddar. If I'm out of fresh cheese or sour cream, then I just add whole milk.

For me, almost every ingredient is already on hand, pre-prepped, in the fridge or freezer, and this is an incredibly easy and fast meal to prepare. You don't have to simmer for a long time, with this dish, so you can make the whole thing in one pot/pan (dutch oven or iron skillet). Winner, no matter how how you look at it.

Versatile Lasagna Rolls

Versatile Lasagna Rolls

This was a creation tailored around ingredients I had & wanted to ditch quickly (and luckily I had ricotta and lasagna noodles): Spinach, turkey, and mushrooms. Also, I wanted to make a big batch of something we could eat off of for a while. Voila, Lasagna Rolls (tweaked from this recipe)

Ingredients

• Your favorite marinara sauce (24 oz worth, size of a jar, roughly). I added fresh garlic, fresh oregano & parsley, mushrooms and finely chopped turkey to this. 
• 12 boiled lasagna noodles, cooled
• Some sort of shredded hard cheese (I didn't have parmesan or mozzarella, so used white cheddar)
• Cheese filling: 1 pint ricotta cheese, 1 small zip-lock bag full of fresh spinach finely diced, salt to taste, and a few tablespoons of sour cream to smooth things out a little (it was a bit too thick), but milk or water would be fine here too. Most recipes call for an egg, but I was out.

Put cheese filling on each lasagna noodle. Roll up. Smooth sauce on bottom of pan. Place noodle rolls on sauce. Cover in sauce. Sprinkle hard cheese on top. Bake at 375F for 25 minutes.

Most of this recipe is very versatile. My only advice is whatever you put in your sauce or filling, make it small, so it doesn't mess up your rolls. Super yummy!

The Holy Grail of Fresh Southern Style Green Beans (Thank You Paula Deen)

Southern Green Beans with Salt Pork and Onions

Her recipes normally scare me. I won't lie. And this one's no exception, but I TASTED them before seeing the recipe and, by God, they're the best fresh green beans.  This is adapted to how we made it for Thanksgiving (no added grease, no potatoes, fewer onions). Soooo good. This will be our new recipe for green beans at Thanksgiving from now on.

Take a 3lb bag of fresh green beans, and get to snappin'. Toss about 1/4 - 1/2 lb of salt pork in a large iron skillet and cook on medium until browned. Add enough chicken broth (preferably homemade) to fill up the pan by about 1/3". Add your green beans and simmer on low with a lid for about 20 minutes (you want it soft but still bright green, so just keep checking).

Very finely dice half an onion, add to beans, and cook for 5 more minutes. Sprinkle with garlic powder & black pepper (no more salt, trust me). If for some reason, once it's done, it doesn't taste salty enough, add it on the plate, but that salt pork is serious stuff. 

Summer Vegetable Gratin

Saute up a pan full of onions in olive oil and fresh thyme
until well caramelized. Helps to use an iron skillet. 

Slice up some squash (and/or zucchini)
and season with salt and pepper. 

Slice up some tomatoes and season with salt and pepper.
Let squash and tomatoes sit out for about 45 minutes
with seasoning on them, then blot the moisture away. 

Put onions on bottom. Then top with veggies. 

Fresh parm cheese and panko bread crumbs

Cover veggies with bread/cheese mixture

Bake at 375 until it starts looking good and brown.
Turn heat off.
Put freshly chopped basil on top.
Leave in oven for a few minutes to wilt the basil.
Serve immediately afterwards.
Doesn't make the best leftovers.