WIAW (4) & White Bean Chicken Chili

What I noticed when I looked back on my last month of posts, is that April must be bean month over here. First, there was Stone Soup, then Hummus and now, White Bean Chicken Chili. I guess it goes without saying that I eat a lot of beans? (so much so that Lisa sent me this recipe, which I will be trying soon!) I do eat a lot of beans, because they are cheap and easy, last a while, you can make a big pot of them, they are good and they are an excellent source of protein. Since I eat little meat, I use beans as my main protein source.

I have made chili before and subbed chicken instead of beef, but this time I wanted to also ditch the tomatoes and see how it went. The results are in; it was fabulous. So here is the recipe. Note, I often toss in a "little of this, little of that" so try this, and if it needs something, feel free to throw a little of your spice to the mix!

White Bean Chicken Chili 

Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 Yellow Onion, diced
- 1 stalk celery, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp flour
- 4 cups chicken/veggie stock
- 12-16 oz chicken breast, cubed
- 2 cups dry beans -- I used Navy (1 1/2 cups) & Black Eyed Peas (1/2 cup) (Soak these for a couple of hours or overnight)
- 1/2 cup lentils  -- I used red ones (just for fun!)
- 1 Serrano pepper (the green one about the size of your index finger), minced
- 1 can or frozen bag of corn

A pinch or two each:
- cumin
- oregano
- fennel
- red pepper flakes
- salt and pepper

Put olive oil in pan. Sweat onions, celery and carrots for about 5-7 minutes. Add garlic and chicken. Cook until chicken is done, about 10 minutes. Add flour, stir until mixture thickens, about 3-5 minutes. Add chicken stock.

Add remaining ingredients. Cook for about 2 hours, until beans are soft. Mixture should be slightly thick. Mine turned out Pretty. Darn. Spicy. I used the packets of red pepper flakes you get from a pizza place. 4 of them. But I like spice so it's all good. You may want to skip that part (and the Serrano) if you don't like things spicy! (idea for this recipe taken from here) **Makes approximately ten 3/4 cup servings. Each serving = 220 calories.

And now, What I ate Wednesday, hosted by Jenn at Peas and Crayons. 

 Breakfast: Oatmeal w/ pumpkin & sesame seeds & strawberries / coffee x 3 / gummy vitamins

 Lunch: Quinoa pasta with broccoli, mushrooms and green beans

Snack: coconut water / brownie bite / orange / chocolate treat / celery w/ hummus / apple (not pictured)

 Dinner: White Bean Chicken Chili / beets / cottage cheese (straight from the tub; yes, that's how I roll) 

As you can see, I eat a lot of snacks! I guess I like single servings of...a little bit of everything! I don't normally eat that much chocolate, but since I made those brownie bites, I have to keep making sure they still taste good, right? I am totally giving them away tomorrow. For real. I have no self control!

Also, I added a RECIPE page so that everything will be in one place. It's just a baby right now, but given time, it will grow. Check it out if you feel like beans. Or baking.

What did you have for breakfast today? Do you eat a lot of snacks? What is your favorite bean?

WIAW (3) & Stone Soup

Do you remember the book Stone Soup? If you haven't read it, the premise is that a bunch of travelers, who have only a large pot, arrive in a village and ask for food. The villagers state that they do not have any to spare. However, as time goes by, each villager adds their small item (veggies, spices, herbs) to the boiling pot of water with a stone in it, and it eventually becomes soup. In the end, everyone shares the soup.

I think this story is supposed to teach children to share, and that together they will have something wonderful. However, I don't want to dwell on that. What I like is that they just throw whatever any passing stranger happens to have handy right into the pot. One of my favorite things to make is soup, and although once in a blue moon I follow a recipe, generally I just throw whatever I have right into the pot. And Voila, I have stone soup. Sometimes it's vegetarian, sometimes it's not, and sometimes it has rice, or barley or quinoa. It almost always has beans. It is a cheap and easy way to have meals throughout the week. I usually make a big pot on Sunday and eat it for several days.

Today's stone soup recipe is just a guideline. If you have the ingredients, great. If not, you can substitute any bean, rice, pasta or meat you want. The key is the base. I usually do the base the same way and then where it goes from there is a surprise to everyone. (I apologize in advance for the crappy iPhone photos this week)

Stone Soup

Ingredients for base:
1 tbsp (roughly) olive oil (or any oil you like, or butter)
1 yellow onion, diced (Want an easy way to dice an onion? Go HERE)
2 or 3 or infinity number of garlic cloves, minced
3 stalks celery, diced
2 carrots, diced

Ingredients for soup: 
- 2 cups (dry) mixed beans
- 4 cups (you may need more) water or chicken stock**
- 1 can of corn

Optional: 
- 1 cup cooked or uncooked quinoa/barley/rice/pasta
- 1 large chicken breast, diced or shredded (or more, or a sausage..)
- Any other veggies you have on hand. Watch out for broccoli though; it tends to overpower the others.

A few notes before we start: If you are using beans, I usually soak them overnight, or if you don't have the time or you decide to make this late, you can use hot water and soak for about 2 hours, OR don't soak them at all; you will just have to cook everything a little longer. You can also used canned beans if you prefer. Today I used dried mixed beans, which you can buy pre-packaged. It usually consists of pinto, kidney, black, white, navy, black eyed peas, lentils, and green and yellow split peas). If you are using canned beans, I would use 2-4 cans, depending on how much soup, or how many different types of beans you want.

For the water part, I usually use the bean soaking water and add a little more. You want all the ingredients to be covered with about an inch or two of extra liquid. It will cook down. If you are using canned beans, go ahead and just dump the entire can into the pot, juice and all (if you are using black beans beware, they make the water kind of grey).  You still may need to add more water. **I am currently using Trader Joes Savory Broth Chicken Flavor which comes in a concentrated liquid form. It also comes in veggie. Or you can use a few bullion cubes if you like. The sky's the limit. Most of them are 1 packet to 1 cup of water, so add accordingly. If you use liquid chicken broth, just use that in place of water.

Directions: 

- In a large soup pot, sweat the onion, carrots and celery for about 5 minutes. Then add the garlic and cook for another 5 minutes, until the onions become translucent. (a quick how to on sweating veggies)

- Add the chicken (I am usually lazy and want to "set it and forget it" so I add everything all at once. You could also add the chicken near the end, once the beans are done).

- Add the beans, corn and stock/water.

- Cook for about 3-5 hours. 

- If you are adding uncooked quinoa or other grains, add them about 30- 45 minutes before the soup is done.

You could also just dump everything in a crock pot in the morning and it would be done by dinner time! So there you have it, stone soup!

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This week's What I Ate Wednesday is the traveling alone version. When I am traveling alone, I tend to eat more healthy than if I am with someone else. Maybe because I don't go out to eat as much? Here is one of my travel meal days from Washington DC! Thanks to Jenn for hosting!

 Breakfast: Single serving cereal, Single serving milk, Banana

Lunch: Chipotle Chicken Bowl 

Dinner: 3x yogurt with strawberries / Peanut Butter Lara Bar

Snacks: 2x Apple

I ate a lot of that yogurt because I bought the big size and then was about to leave, so I decided to just finish it off for dinner (along with a lara bar). And you thought I ate weird stuff... Pshaw.

What weird thing do you eat when you are alone? Do you have a "go to" one pot meal that you throw together all the time?

WIAW (2) & Food Firsts (1)

I have a few different lists of goals. I have  a life list, which I have not put online, but it's been there for a while and I am slowly chipping things off and probably more rapidly adding things to it. It is a work in progress.

I also have a Project 52 list, which I made because of Karen's suggesting it. I also have not put this one online, as a lot of the things on my list are private, things I want to do for me. BUT. One of my goals for myself recently was to try a new recipe once a month. I have been pinning recipes, as well as just going and buying stuff and throwing it together on my own accord. I love doing that; it's like an experiment or a game. You win if it tastes good. You try again if it doesn't.

I have blown my goal out of the water. So far, I have probably made a new recipe at least once a week. Here is one I made recently that I liked! They are not too sweet, which I like, but if you have a sweet tooth, you may want to add a little sugar. Also, I will probably add more cinnamon next time! These make a great breakfast muffin or a nutritious snack. They have approximately 100 calories per muffin.

Low-fat Apple Oatmeal Muffins

Prep Time: 10 minutes / Cook Time: 20 minutes / Total Time: 30 minutes (adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients:

2 cups apple, peeled and shredded

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup quick oats

2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup fat-free milk (I used unsweetened Almond milk)

2 tbsp canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup plain fat-free yogurt

2 egg whites (I used one whole egg)

1. Combine wet and dry ingredients separately. 

2. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Stir. 

3. Put batter into lined or greased muffin tin. **NOTE: I used papers, and the muffins got stuck to the paper, so I ended up eating half muffin, half paper. I would suggest a greased tin or better papers than the ones I have! Darn it Martha!

I only filled mine about half full, since I would rather have more smaller muffins rather than less bigger ones. The recipe suggests 12 muffins, but I made 24 (obviously, if you only make 12, they will have approximately 200 calories per muffin instead!)

4. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. 

5. Eat three two one (see, I am glad I made them smaller!)

For more recipes I am thinking of trying, or to find me on Pinterest, go HERE. Also, since it is Wednesday, here's WIAW, part deux, hosted by Jenn at Peas and Crayons.

Breakfast: 

Steel Cut Oats with Apple / Pumpkin Seed / Sunflower Seed / Almond Milk

Spinach & Egg Muffin with Yellow Bell Pepper

Gummy Vitamins (yum)

Lunch/Dinner:

Mixed Bean Soup

Corned Beef

Chicken Breast

Snacks:

2 Apple Oat muffins

Strawberries with Cottage Cheese

Carrots and Hummus

Greenish Drink (Almond milk / Spinach / Frozen Peaches / Flax seed)

What I learned? I did not eat very much green stuff on this day! Also, I use the little light blue bowl a lot. Also, I need to work on my food photography. Katrina, over at Capture Your 365, suggests reading this article for some food photo tips.

Do you try new recipes often? Do you have a new favorite? Are you good at taking food photos?

WIAW (1) & Meal Budgeting

I have never done one of these before, but I always sometimes take photos of my food and so all I needed to do was get on the ball and take everything in one day and then remember to post them! (I didn't know it was green month, but oh well).

I know that some people get tired of food photos; everything looks so gross. So, my post is twofold. I have recently been doing a little meal planning. Not so much that I am changing any buying habits, but I made a goal to do a couple of things. 1) Try/Cook a new meal each month. This has actually turned out to be more like one a week**, but I didn't want to overload myself at first. And 2) Figure out how much this is costing me.

One of the reasons I decided to do this was that a friend of mine, who goes to Starbucks EVERY day, eats lunch out probably 3-5 days a week and eats dinner out probably 1-3 times a week, was saying how she wanted to get on track with her spending. She also wants to lose weight in time for a late summer wedding. She asked for my help.

So, on top of trying a few fun new recipes**, I decided to both price out some of my meals and do a calorie count for certain meals, so I could give her a good idea of what to make for herself. It's easy for me to tell her to just stop eating processed foods, but it's hard when you work long hours, don't really like to cook, and have kids. It's easy to buy things that you can nuke or throw in a pan. So, one step at a time. First, a few easy meals. Next, the world.

So, here, without further ado, is my first What I Ate Wednesday, hosted by Jenn at Peas and Crayons. And my first Meal Budgeting post, with both dollars and calories per meal sited. I tried to keep it short, so I wouldn't bore anyone to death. To me, crunching numbers is fun. I like to be aware and this helps me.

{Breakfast} 

Quinoa/Craisins/Sunflower&Pumpkin Seeds/Almond Milk (**adapted from THIS recipe) - $0.85 /254

 Coffee (x 5 with creamer) - $0.60 /100 

{total breakfast:$1.45 / 354}

 {Lunch} 

Brussels - $0.25 / 66

Greek Salad (goat cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, corn) - $1.04 / 201 

{total lunch: $1.29 / 247}

 {Dinner} 

Mac n Cheese (**adapted from THIS recipe) -$1.58 / 220  

Brussels - $0.25 / 66 

{total-$1.83 / 286}

{Snacks} 

Orange-$1.02 / 62

The whole bag of 1/2 cup Dried Apples - $0.72 / 220

12 Chocolate Covered Gummy Bears - $0.50 / 134 

{total-$2.24 / 416}

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TOTAL: $6.81 / 1303  

(note: these totals may be off. I am not a mathematician, nor a dietician, nor an excel mastermind. I apologize in advance for any rounding errors. Calorie info taken from Loseit) **this week I also made THESE. See, Pinterest isn't a waste of time after all. 

So, what did I learn? One, even though I hear that some people spend less than $200/month on groceries, clearly I am not one of them. Not with my snack habits the way they were today ($6.81 x 31 days = $211/mo) Two, eating out is expensive. Whether your habit is a latte ($5/day) or lunch out (easily $10/day), it not only can add up, but is more than an entire day's worth of home cooked food! Now, obviously I am not making gourmet meals over here, but even with a nice piece of fish ($2-$3 per serving) or meat or a fancy sauce or dessert, you can still spend less for an entire day than you can for one meal out!

Now, having said that, next week I am going to be traveling, so will be eating out a lot. Hey, you win some, you lose some. But today I am saving my money for next week's meat with fancy sauce and  dessert!

Have you ever broken down the cost of your food by the month/week/day? How much do you spend on groceries per month?Do you ever eat only one food group or one food as an entire meal (see above lunch)?