White Chicken Chili

My tonsils are enlarged, my glands are swollen and I feel like crap today.

The usual fix for a "cold" (or whatever it is I'm coming down with) is chicken noodle soup, am I right? Well I'm not a big fan and I just don't feel like eating noodles today so instead I am making White Chicken Chili!

Being a recent college graduate with 3 part-time jobs didn't seem like the dream post-grad experience to me at first, but working in a bakery and cafe has its advantages! The baker/cook shared her white chicken chili recipe with me so I thought I would give it a try. The only problem is...she only told me the basic ingredients so it is up to me to guestimate the amounts and make this recipe my own.

Here's what I started with:

• 1 48 oz. jar of Great Northern Beans
• 1 can of tomatoes (unsalted and pre-chopped)
• 1 onion
• cumin
  
• coriander
• 4 medium chicken breasts
• crock pot

Here's the steps I took:

1. Dump a little bit of the liquid from the jar of beans in the sink. Dump the rest of the beans and juice in the crock pot.
2. Dice the onions and dump into the crock pot
3. Dump the can on tomatoes (with or without the extra liquid)
4. Grill up the chicken breast. When they have cooled off the grill for a few minutes cut them up into your desired size slices and dump 'em in!
5. Add the cumin seasoning (I put in a little more than a teaspoon)
6. If you have coriander balls (un-crushed) like I did and don't know how to use them...do what I did! I went to Google and it seemed like most people said just to buy the powder coriander. But, what you can do is roast the coriander balls in the oven on 350 degrees for about 20 minutes and then crush them. Apparently, according to a Google search, the coriander tastes better after roasting and also crushes easier.
7. I crushed the coriander by putting it in a plastic bag and crushing/beating on it with a rolling pin.
8. Now add the coriander to the crock pot. I lovvveeeed the smell so I added 2 overflowing teaspoons.
9. The only thing left to do is let it simmer until the onions are cooked and you are ready to enjoy!

Healthy, tasty and hopefully the cure for my cold!

All that dumping was totally worth it :)

My Re-do of Sweet and Spicy Wings

This afternoon a friend of mine on twitter mentioned she was making sweet and spicy wings following the recipe on http://www.kitchendaily.com The recipe is as followed:

Ingredients

• WINGS:
• 2 cups canola oil
• 2 pounds chicken wings
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• SAUCE:
• 1/2 cup sweet chili sauce
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup orange juice
• 6 stalks celery
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• dash of Tabasco or hot sauce
• 1/2 an orange, cut into segments
• Accompaniment: 1 bunch chopped chives and 1 cup sour cream

Directions

Fry the wings in the oil until they are golden. Move them around while they are frying so they do not stick to the pan. Don't try to fry them all at once. Do them in batches. They should take about 6 to 8 minutes for each batch to fry. Once done remove them to a plate covered with a couple of layers of paper towels to drain the oil. Season with salt and pepper.

To make sauce, combine all ingredients in a medium sauté pan on medium heat and reduce by half, stirring often. Adjust heat to your liking with hot sauce. Add wings to the pan and simmer for 15 minutes, turning wings to coat them with sauce. Finish with chopped chives. Serve with sour cream.

Read more: http://www.kitchendaily.com/recipe/sweet-and-spicy-wings-142883#ixzz10UPkWOYU

Unfortunately, I could not do the recipe exactly how it read because of the cleanse I'm on. I CAN, however, have GRILLED chicken so I am using this recipe as an inspiration for two different recipes I made up to try.

Here are the two sauces I stirred up to marinate the chicken:

Soy-Based
Mix:

• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• spoon full of brown sugar
• hot sauce (however hot ya like it)

Chili Oil-Based
Mix:

• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup chili oil
• spoon full or brown sugar
• pepper
• hot sauce (however hot ya like it)

Then I put one breast of chicken into one plastic bag with the soy-based marinade and one breast of chicken into a plastic bag with the chili oil-based marinade and let them soak for about an hour.

How did they turn out?!?

Chili Oil-Based: Spicy, closest tasting to the sweet and spicy wings (I would imagine, sweeter but has a kick at the end and I liked the taste the pepper added.

Soy-Based: Warmer tasting, almost smokey tasting

Personally, I liked the soy-based chicken better!!

The Cleanse

My mom and I have just started the Advocare cleanse. This is a 10 day metabolic cleanse that includes herbal cleanse tablets, fiber drinks and probiotic restore ultra dietary supplements. This also means that I cannot have the following things:

-Coffee
-Soda Pop
-Bread (or anything close to it)
-Sweets
-Cereal
-Fatty/red meats

I know there is more I am leaving out but basically my diet for these 10 days will be vegetables, fruits, lean protein, oatmeal, green tea, lots of water, and soy crisps with almond butter.

The reason we are doing this is to hopefully lose a few unwanted pounds but most of all we want to get used to making good food choices.

So far, I am on my fourth day and have lost 1 pound. Most of all I miss my espresso but I am trying to drink more tea in its place.

Also, the best part is that I am forced to cook and try new recipes so I don't get bored with food. Look for more posts to come about how the cleanse is going and what I'm cooking up!

Welcome to Culinary Couples Therapy!

My name is Rebecca am I'm just trying to figure out my relationship with food!

I first started to take notice of my relationship with food when I was a freshmen in college...after I gained the good ol' "freshmen 15".

Since then, I have gained a few, lost a few, etc. Now, I want to simply document my ups and downs and do my best to understand food, understand my relationship with food and best of all, have fun with food!