Monday, October 28, 2013

A Fresh Start + A Recipe

Oh Happy Monday...

I can't complain too much about it being Monday since I had a 3 day weekend.   It was the perfect way to end my "recovery" (i.e. do sweet f-a) week.   I got back on the workout wagon yesterday morning with my swim group and then spent the afternoon setting myself up for a week of good eating.  I tackled another recipe from the Runner's World Magazine cookbook, I made a batch of my smoky chicken chili, a fritatta and my no-cheese-cheese sauce for some post workout mac and cheese that will likely be dinner on Tuesday night.

I hit the pool again this morning (thank goodness it's an easy week so I won't have to worry about drowning) and will do my first run since Scotia tomorrow night with my run group.  I'm also heading back to the gym.  Hopefully my legs will be recovered from the beat down my massage therapist put on them on Saturday.

As I said on instagram when I posted a pic of the chili, I am a bit of a freestyler when it comes to making chili.  Actually when it comes to making almost anything really.  I'll follow a recipe the first time around and then gradually start to tweak it every time I make it.  What can I say, I'm a tinkerer, so it's rare that I actually write things down when I make the changes.   I'm pretty sure this chili recipe is an amalgamation of a few different recipes with some things added and some things omitted.  The great thing about chili is that it's easy to adjust it to suit your tastes.  Don't like black beans?  Add kidney beans?  Or no beans.  It's your call.

Smoky Chicken Chili

2 tsp of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 of a large sweet onion, roughly chopped
1 red pepper, roughly chopped
1 yellow pepper, roughly chopped
1 orange pepper, roughly chopped
1 lb of extra lean ground chicken
1/2 of a 15 oz can of black beans with liquid
1 19 oz. can of whole tomatoes (you can also used diced)
2 TBSP of chili powder
1.5 TBSP of smoked paprika
2 tsp of ground cumin
1/8 tsp of finely chopped chipotle pepper with adobo (more if you like it spicy - I am a wuss)
salt & pepper to taste

Garnishes:
chopped cilantro
chopped avocado 

Saute garlic and onions in olive oil over low-medium heat.  Add ground chicken and cook until almost done.  Add spices (chili power, paprika, cumin) and stir to coat the meat.  Add the chopped peppers and stir to coat again.  Add black beans and tomatoes and mix well to break up tomatoes (if using whole ones).   Add chipotle pepper and mix in.  Bring to a boil.  Lower heat to low, cover and let simmer for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Garnish with cilantro and avocado.

This freezes really well so I usually try to make a big batch and portion it out into containers and freeze them.  That way I don't have an excuse to eat crap when I come home late from work and haven't planned dinner.



How was your weekend?  

What's your favourite chili recipe?


1 comment:

macnic said...

This looks good. I've never found a ground chicken chili recipe that I've enjoyed, to be honest. I have a chicken one (a "white chili") made with chicken breast and thigh pieces that I really like. Its a milk calendar recipe. Our weekend was busy (of course, when you have two little kids), but good and ended with dinner with the neighbours and me in bed by 10pm. Enjoy the return to the gym, run and swim this week!