White Bean Chicken Chili

Welcome 2011! It has been a long time since I have been able to sit down and write a blog. One of my resolutions this year was to better organize my days, weeks, months to make sure things were getting accomplished both at home, work and my personal life. Being a working mother definitely takes a lot of organization and planning! Take each day as it comes.....that saying just won't work these days!

Here is a recipe that I found on the FoodNetwork website and of course I tweaked it! This has a nice smokey flavor with lots of spice. This recipe says it makes enough to serve 8, I would say more like 12. I think this is a recipe that can also be made in a crockpot over night!



White Bean Chicken Chili

INGREDIENTS
2 cups diced onions
2 cups diced celery
5 garlic cloves, chopped
½ cup vegetable oil
1 whole roasted chicken, chopped
8 cups of water
1 bay leaf
1 (4oz) can diced green chilies
½ teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon dry mustard
½ teaspoon basil
½ teaspoon old bay seasoning
¼ teaspoon cajun seasoning
1/3 can of a 7oz can chipotle in adobo, chopped
4 tablespoons chicken base
1 pickled jalapeno, chopped
3 cans cannelloni beans (white kidney beans)
2 cans butter beans
1 can great northern beans
2 packages of mushrooms, sliced
1 cup heavy cream
Sour cream (for topping)
Cilantro (optional for topping)
Cheddar Cheese (optional for topping)

DIRECTIONS:
Saute onion, celery, and garlic in oil until tender in a large stockpot, about 5-10 minutes. Add chicken, water, bay leaf, chilies, oregano, cumin, dry mustard, basil, Old Bay, Cajun seasoning, chicken base, jalapeno and mushrooms. Simmer for 1.5 hours. Add the drained beans and heavy cream - simmer 30 minutes or until the beans are tender and warm. Garnish with sour cream, cilantro and cheddar cheese.

Easy Cheesy Enchiladas

It's 4:30am and I don't think I got a lick of sleep last night between not getting comfortable, Mark snoring extremely loud, and the baby waking for her bottle. So the coffee pot is on and I'm going to take some time to watch some bad movie starring Ricki Lake and blog!

I often crave Mexican Food and the standard American style tacos don't always cut it for me. Don't get me wrong, I love the quick taco night with all the fixin's, but this recipe is just as quick and easy. I was entertaining some lovely ladies when I first tried this recipe a few months back. It is now one of my favorites! Unfortuntately, the recipe I found is no longer online so I can't give credit to the person that orginally gave me the idea. I adapted it to my own flavors from the original. I guessed at the recipe when I last made it, so exact measurents aren't perfect (but who likes to follow specific rules anyway!) It's cooking, enjoy being creative!



Easy Cheesy Enchiladas
* 12 Tortillas (love you Ali)
* 1 Roasted Chicken pulled apart and diced (approx 2 cups)
* 4 oz cream cheese (I use light cream cheese)
* 1/4 cup sour cream
* 1/3 cup cilantro, chopped
* 2 tsp. cumin
* 1 tbsp. cayenne pepper (add more or less, see below)
* 1/4 cup green chile salsa (any type of salsa will do)
* 1/2 cup shredded cheese (I used a prepacked mexican blend)
* Salt, for added flavor
* 1 can of green (or red) enchilada sauce

Start by mixing together the cream cheese and sour cream until soft and blended in a large bowl. Stir in the salsa and cilantro. Once well blended, add in the remainder of the ingredients. I always taste the mix before filling the taco shells. The cream cheese and sour cream will reduce the amount of heat from the cayenne. If you taste it and it doesn't have enough kick for you, add more until it has the heat that you like. I sometimes will add in some hot sauce for extra kick.

In the bottom of a large glass pan (9 X 13) pour a thin layer of the enchilada sauce. This will help to make sure the enchiladas don't dry out. Place a generous amount of mixture onto the tortilla and roll up, place seam side down in the pan. Add more enchilada sauce on top and a sprinkle with a thin layer of cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes until cheese is melted and starts to slightly brown.

Next recipe is a vegetarian recipe!