Veggilicious Fall Chili

I'm getting ready to leave for Washington DC for the long weekend and want to leave B with food so he doesn't try to survive on granola and taqueria tacos (not that he would mind).

Last week, I doubled an enchilada recipe and stuck half in the freezer, so all he has to do is let it defrost, then smother it with salsa and cheese and stick it in the oven (are you listening, honey?). Tonight, I made a huge pot of chili - perfect for this blustery fall weather!

Veggilicious Fall Chili
Ingredients

• 1T olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1T chili powder
• 1T cumin
• 1 1/2t oregano
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 zucchini, diced
• 1 yellow squash, diced
• 28oz can crushed or diced tomatoes
• 1T chipotle peppers*
• 13oz can black beans
• 13oz can pinto beans
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1 large handful chard, chopped
• Sour cream & cilantro, for garnish

Method

1. Heat olive oil in a nonstick skillet. Add onion and garlic, cook until soft.
2. Add chili powder, cumin, and oregano. Cook for 1 minute.
3. Add bell pepper, zucchini, and yellow squash. Cook for just a few minutes.
4. Add tomatoes, chipotle peppers, beans, corn,  and chard. Stir to combine.
5. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 20-30 minutes.
6. Garnish with sour cream and cilantro. Enjoy!

*I buy those cans of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and run them through my food processor. Then, I freeze them and chip off 1T pieces as I need them (1T equals 1 pepper!). I guess if I were really fancy, I would just freeze them in 1T pieces (maybe in an ice cube tray?), but I'm not that fancy.

I also made my own bread tonight!

I have always been so intimidated by bread, but Jenna's post a week or so ago inspired me.

It was so easy! A lot like making pizza dough, but with more waiting.

I did yoga while the rolls rose.

And after dinner, I cooked up some of those frozen Apricot Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookie dough balls I made a few weeks ago.

Not bad for a Tuesday.

Fabulous Friday!

Note: I totally wrote this post last night and then got so caught up watching the season 2 finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Netflix that I forgot to post it (I am a total nerd, I know)! Anyhow, here's a rundown of my fabulous Friday!

To quote my husband (which I do frequently), "today was a nice-ass day!"

Indeed, it was.

We woke up around 7, made breakfast (Bob's Red Mill 10-Grain Hot Cereal with mashed banana and maple cinnamon almond butter), and morning beverages (coffee for me, tea for him), then snuggled in our PJs and watched this week's Top Chef!

Does anyone else love Top Chef as much as we do? We have been totally addicted for multiple seasons. I'm not sure who I have pegged for the finals yet, but I do know that I do not like Angelo. He rubs me the wrong way. Any other opinions?

After getting our foodie fix, we went for a short hike at St. Joseph's Hill. This hike is always a super excuse for Brian to convince me to get lunch at his favorite cafe, The Purple Onion. 

We had a yummy lunch (B got the Norcal Nicoise Salad with seared Ahi tuna and I got a Thai Turkey Sandwich with basil and thai mayo - just a little, on the side!) and then headed home to putter around and pretend to get a lot of stuff done, when in reality I just laid out by the pool for a while. But hey, it's summer!

For dinner, I made a pasta bake, in an attempt to eat down the fridge before we leave on Sunday. 

Meg's Veggie Pasta Bake
Ingredients

• 3 cups veggies (I used 2 cups bell peppers, 1 cup yellow onion)
• 16oz dried pasta
• 2 jars pasta sauce
• several handfuls fresh spinach
• shredded cheese (I like mozzarella)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Dump your veggies in the bottom of a 9x13" baking dish (I usually put my baking dish on top of a cookie sheet to avoid spillage on the bottom of my oven)
3. Top with pasta (I used a combo of spinach pasta and enriched pasta because I was trying to use up some leftovers).
4. Top pasta with spinach and pour pasta sauce over top
5. Cover with tinfoil and bake for 35-45 minutes. Stir at 20 minutes and then again at 10 minutes.
6. Remove foil and top with cheese. Crank up the heat to 500 (or turn on your broiler). Cook for another few minutes until cheese is bubbly.

Brian had just gotten back from mountain biking with his dad. I think he liked it...

What a goober!

For dessert I enjoyed a handful of dark chocolate, dried cherry, almond, cashew, and pistachio trail mix. The perfect small bite!

 

My Life-Saver: TJ's Melange a Trois

I always try to have a bag or two of these frozen peppers in my freezer. Makes getting dinner on the table on a busy night (or a night when you don't have much in the way of groceries), so much easier! And they are super cheap - it costs less to buy one of these bags than it does to buy a fresh bell pepper!

What is your favorite time-saver in the kitchen? Bottled pasta sauce? Precut carrots? Frozen corn?

Meet Bob

Oh hey guys, meet Bob.

Bob is our Weber grill that we received almost a year ago as a wedding gift from a thoughtful friend who didn't know Brian has never grilled anything before and is terrified of setting our porch on fire.

Bob has been through a lot, sitting on our back porch unused for almost 12 months. Poor Bob.

Bob during rainy season

Now, something you have to understand is that I am a big BBQ fan. My family owns a grocery store and my dad is a butcher. I grew up with some serious BBQ going on. I was determined this week that not another summer day was going to go by without firing up the grill. I even made sure we had one of these:

But this is not just a post about inanimate objects around my apartment though. Oh no. This is a post about the best Teriyaki marinade of my life. And about how Brian finally conquered the BBQ.

That's my man!

Kebabs were on the menu. I started with 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts and this delicious marinade:

The Mighty Marinade
adapted from b*spoke

1/2 cup water
2T packed brown sugar
6T low sodium soy sauce (I used a little less)
2 T lemon juice
3T vegetable oil
1/4t coarsely ground pepper
1t garlic powder

1. Combine all ingredients in a shallow baking dish or large ziplock bag.
2. Cut your chicken (or beef, pork, shrimp, tofu, tempeh, etc) into 1-2 inch pieces
3. Add to marinade, making sure meat is completely covered
4. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour

Once my meat was good and marinaded (??), I skewered it with pineapple chunks, mushrooms, red onion, and red bell pepper (if you are using wooden skewers, soak them in water for at least 30 minutes prior to assembling your kebabs!).

Then we threw those puppies on the grill, turning them 2-3 times for about 10 minutes total. In the meantime, I was whipping up Emily's yummy goat cheese and red potato salad (scroll down to the comments for her full recipe) and a green salad.

Nothing caught fire and the kebabs were deeeelish! Brian said it was the yummiest marinade in the world (he maybe exaggerates sometimes).

And, even better, B is now totally 100% on board for future grilling! Whoohoo!

What is your favorite thing to grill? Who does the grilling in your house?
Me? I like just about everything on the grill! And even though B and I don't necessarily follow typical gender roles around the house (he does the laundry, I declog shower drains), I prefer that he grills. It just seems... right.