Wasabi Guinness Chilli

As previously posted, cooking with beer is amazing. It really enhances the flavor of every dish you can think of. From veggies to dessert, it is YUMMY. I enjoy experimenting with chili, I make it often and never make it the same way twice. Found this awesome recipe from AllRecipes.com that I used to inspire my chili dish for cooking club at the end of last year. It was so so so so so so good. I can't stop raving about it. Secret Ingredient? Not the beer (though that was great), not the wasabi powder, (thought that made it kickin!) It was COFFEE!!!  All the crazy ingredients together make for a flavorful, exotic meal with a lot of kick. I dare you to use it for any chili kick-off you compete in.

I know that picture isn't that classy, but trust me...this dish was FANTASTIC.

Ingredients:
1-2 cups of diced onion
4-6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 lb of ground beef, extra lean
1 lb of spicy Italian sausage (remove from casing)
1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes, undrained
1 bottle (12 oz) of Guiness (or other dark beer)
1 cup of brewed coffee (I used some fancy Jack Daniels brew)
1 can beef broth
1/2 cup hot sauce
1/4 cup chili powder (or more)
1.5 tbsp wasabi powder
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp ground cumin
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp coriander (or ground coriander)
1 tsp salt
1 can kidney beans, dark red
1 can kidney beans, light red
1 or 2  chile peppers or 1 jalapeno peppers, chopped (don't rub your eyes!)


Directions:
Cook onions, garlic, beef, and sausage over medium heat until browned and tender.
Pour tomatoes, beer, coffee, broth, and hot sauce.
Add chili powder, wasabi powder, paprika, cayenne, cumin, sugar, oregano, coriander, and salt.
Stir in beans & peppers, bring to a boil.
Then reduce heat, cover and simmer.
Cook for 2 to 3 hours.

Serve with cornbread & biscuits!

What do you think? Comments? Suggestions? I would love to know that you visited my blog. Please leave me a message letting me know you were here! Did you try out a recipe? Let me know! I would love to hear from you :-)

Buffalo Chicken Chili

Friends of ours make an awesome Buffalo Chicken Pasta dish and an equally delicious Buffalo Chicken Dip. I stumbled upon this Buffalo Chicken Chili dish from Rachael Ray via another blogger. It's in her top 10 list. So I was excited to try another Buffalo Chicken-Themed dish. My husband loves Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches and I love to make chili so this was the perfect meeting of the two. It turned out great. It was very hot, so you might want to use less hot sauce. Makes about 4 to 6 servings. 

Nutritional Information (Based on 6 Servings w/ about 5 to 6 chips)

Calories: 275    Fat: 7.7   WW Points: 5.5     Points +: 6.5

Ingredients:
2 tsp olive oil
1 tbs butter
1.5 lb chicken breast, cooked & shredded
1 cup carrot, grated
1 cup onion, diced
1 cup celery, diced
5 tsp garlic, minced (or 5 cloves)
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp bay leaves
salt & pepper
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup hot sauce (you might want to use less...)
15 oz. can of tomato sauce
15 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup fat free mayo
20 to 30 tortilla chips
1/4 cup parsley leaves
1/4 cup blue cheese
ranch dressing


Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Heat olive oil and the butter in a large pot over medium-high heat,
Once the butter is melted add the carrot, onion, celery, garlic, paprika, and bay leaves. 
Cook for about 3 to 4 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add in the chicken and cook until lightly brown. 
Add the chicken broth, hot sauce, tomato sauce, mayo, and crushed tomatoes, then bring to a boil.
Simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes until liquid has evaporated and chili has thickened. 
Meanwhile, place a lot of tortilla chips on several greased cookie sheets, top with blue cheese and cook in oven for 4 to 5 minutes until cheese is melted.
Top with chopped parsley.
Then place in each serving of chili when it is finished cooking. 
Serve with ranch dressing and additional tortilla chips. 

What do you think? Comments? Suggestions? I would love to know that you visited my blog. Please leave me a message letting me know you were here! Did you try out a recipe? Let me know! I would love to hear from you :-)

Chili Polenta Slices

I love learning about a new ingredient that i've never cooked with before. 

Introducing...Polenta! It comes in a tube, it's yellow, and it's boiled corn meal. It looks a lot like cheese, so I think it throws people off. I would pass it on a weekly basis when I was grocery shopping at Darrenkamp's. But didn't know what it was until recently. 


I had seen a recipe for barbecue chicken on top of polenta. I wanted to try a variation on it while on vacation. Well, I went to Walmart & Food Lion and neither of them had it. So I waited to come home to try it.  I went to Giant & Weis and couldn't find it there either. So I did what I should've done all along and went to Darrenkamp's to pick it up. It's located in the Pasta isle near the the tomato sauce and parmesan.



If you cut out the oil (maybe bake or using cooking spray instead) then this meal in incredibly low in fat & calories. It's even pretty healthy with the olive oil. There is about 35 calories and no fat in each slice of polenta. I used 98% fat free turkey chili and just a little bit of shredded cheese to keep the count down. 


Ingredients:
1 tube package of polenta
2 tbsp olive oil
1 can hormel turkey chili
1/2 block of jack cheese, shredded (I used Heluva Good Monterey Jack with Jalapeno)


Directions:
Open package of polenta (some water might leak out).
Dry off and cut into 1 cm slices.
Pour 1 tbsp of oil into a pan on low heat.

Place 4 to 6 slices in pan and cook for 5 to 6 minutes on each side or until they turn a crispy brown color. (do not burn). Lower heat if necessary.

Meanwhile, cook can of chili over medium-low heat for 5 to 10 minutes or until beans and chili are all heated through. 

After polenta is cooked put spoonfuls of chili on each fried slice.

Top with jack cheese.

What do you think? Comments? Suggestions? I would love to know that you visited my blog. Please leave me a message letting me know you were here! Did you try out a recipe? Let me know! I would love to hear from you :-)

On Fire Sam Adams Turkey Chili

Love Love Love Chili. I can remember when I was younger my father making chili in our kitchen and pouring in beer to the concoction. As a kid I didn't really understand what he was doing. I just figured it was my dad, being my dad. But now that I cook on my own I often add beer to my chili. We had a variety pack of Sam Adams left at our house from the Man-Meat-Night at our house this weekend. So I decided to add a bottle of Samuel Adams Winter Lager while simmering the chili. I also added A TON of spicy seasonings. Warning! This recipe is on fire! Be sure to serve with cornbread & rice to cool of your taste buds.

Ingredients:
1 pound lean ground turkey
1 can of dark red kidney beans
1 can of whole kernel corn
1 can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes with green chiles
1 bottle of Samuel Adams Winter Lager
1 tbsp of minced garlic
2 tablespoons of hot sauce
1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin
2 tbsp of chili powder
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp of red pepper flakes

Directions:
Brown ground turkey in skillet.
Mix in garlic, corn, diced tomatoes, kidney beans, and beer.
Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer.
Add all spices and mix well.
Simmer on low heat for 20 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated.
Serve with cornbread & rice!




What do you think? Comments? Suggestions? I would love to know that you visited my blog. Please leave me a message letting me know you were here! Did you try out a recipe? Let me know! I would love to hear from you :-)

Skinny Chili Cheese Fries

One of the bloggers I follow, Heather, made a youtube video on how to make Skinny Chili Cheese Fries and it's one of my favorite dishes to make. My husband really likes them too. There is something fun about making them, Heather's recipe is neat because of her secret ingredient. The best part is they are relatively healthy so I can feel good about myself. Our good friends, Jess & Drew just had a baby girl several days ago. Instead of bringing over a meal, we brought over the ingredients and made the meal while visiting with the baby. It was great. Here is the recipe we used to feed the four of us with some leftover. Delicious!


Ingredients:

• 4 - 5 potatoes (go with a potato per person)
• 2 - 3 tsp of olive oil (you can go with 1 tsp per 2 potatoes)
• 2 cans of Turkey Hormel Chili (or another low fat/fat free can of chili)
• 1 can of chili packet seasoning
• 2 cups of shredded fat free cheddar cheese or 1/2 cup of cheese per person (you can use 2% or regular cheese, but fat free works because you don't have to melt it)
• salt & pepper (we went with kosher salt!)
• 10 - 12 ice cubes
• 2 1 gallon ziplock bags 
• 2 cookie trays/baking trays with ridges
• 2 very large sheets of Tinfoil

Directions:

1. Preheat ove to 450 degrees.
2. Slice each potato into 8 to 10 french fry wedges
3. Divide potatoes into each ziplock bag.
4. Add olive oil to each bag.
5. Split contents of chili among both bag, then seal bag & SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE! (see, told you it was a fun recipe!).
6. Make sure oil & chili seasoning is mixed up nicely and evenly among all the fries.
7. Take out fries and spread out among cookie sheets/baking sheets.
8. Now take all the ice cubes and spread them out intermittently among the french fries so they cover all areas of both cooking sheets.
9. Wrap up each tray with tinfoil cover tightly and seal edges.
10. Bake both trays in oven for 20 minutes. The ice cubes & tinfoil will STEAM the potatoes, so they cook without getting burnt!
11. Remove from oven, remove tinfoil, rotate potatoes to other side, sprinkle with salt & pepper.
12. Place bake in oven uncovered and cook to make them crispy.
13. Bake for another 20 minutes, could be 10 minutes, could be 30...watching to see how crispy you want them and that they don't burn.
14. Remove from oven, top with chili & cheese and enjoy!

I would love to know that you visited my blog or tried out a recipe. Leave me some love & encouragement!

Slow Cooker Turkey Chili

Chili is my specialty and I never make it the same way twice. This recipe was from my Freezer Pleasers book. But I didn't follow the exact recipe. I had to make enough to feed 12, plus have some leftovers for the week. I prepared it after lunch on Sunday and it was ready in time for small group that evening.


Ingredients: 

• 1 pound of lean ground turkey
• 1 can of red kidney beans, drained
• 1 can of pinto beans, drained
• 1 can of mexican chili beans
• 1 can of cannelloni beans, drained
• 3 cans of "fire-roasted" diced tomatoes, undrained
• 2 cans of whole kernel corn
• 1 cup of chopped onions
• 1 envelope of taco seasoning
• 1/2 cup of chipotle sauce
• 2 tablespoons of cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon of paprika
• 1 tablespoon of red pepper flakes
• 2 tablespoons of chili seasoning

Directions:

1. Cook ground turkey in skillet.
2. Add to large 5 qt. slow cooker.
3. Add all other ingredients, mix together.
4. Cook on high for 4 to 6 hours.
5. Serve with cornbread & rice.

I would love to know that you visited my blog or tried out a recipe. Leave me some love & encouragement!

Skinny Chili Cheese Fries

Finally! I've been trying to make this recipe for weeks and it just never worked out. I got the recipe from The WW Chick. She has a two-part video of how to make it on her blog (or you can get it from YouTube). They turned out great! I was surprised because I've never cooked anything with potatoes before. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it's true. I wouldn't even know how to make baked potatoes. I'd probably screw that up on my own. I don't really like potatoes anyway. But homemade chili cheese fries are fantastic! Heather (the ww chick) has a unique way of steaming them in the oven and then making them crispy. My husband really enjoyed them and you only really need 1 potato per person and a can of hormell chili.

Ingredients:

• 1 potato per person
• 1 can of hormell chili per 2 people
• 1/2 cup of cheese per person
• chilli packet
• salt & pepper
• 1 tablespoon of oil per potato

Directions:
Unfortunately, I really wouldn't do a good job of explaining this recipe. Have Heather explain it to you herself...Part 1 & Part 2.