Bourbon, Lentil & Bacon Chili

There are few things better in this world, than bacon and Jim Beam. FEW. So when they come together and form something not only absolutely decadent and delicious, but somehow, healthy, it’s nothing short of a glorious miracle.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you…

I started doing some research on lentils and found that they’re a great substitute for beans, really, anywhere you need beans. Now, my family loves some refried beans, so we won’t be subbing anything out for good, but for chili, when the other ingredients can get pretty fatty and caloric, it’s nice to contrast that with something like lentils.

When compared to beans, say, black beans, because that’s what I was going to use in this recipe. For having such little fat and calories, lentils maintain a good amount of nutrients.

Also, like beans, they add significant volume to a meal, so if you’re short on ingredients or funds and need to stretch a meal, these are GREAT!

It was REALLY easy to get the Man to eat this, he wanted to give lentils a try and LOVES Jim Beam and, of course, bacon, so there wasn’t much arm twisting. He said he felt fuller off of less food and enjoyed the taste as well, so we’re sold on lentils!

So, let’s get started!

Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey
12 pieces (1pkg) of bacon, diced
3 c of COOKED lentils
1 sm yellow onion, chopped
1 head of garlic, minced
3 lbs of roma tomatoes, washed and chopped
3 c kidney beans, totally optional, I had some left so I used them up
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 tbsp chili powder
Jim Beam, about a cup
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Start by frying the bacon in a large heavy pot, when it’s got a sizzle and has started to release some fat, add the turkey. Cook, covered, over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the turkey is browned and the bacon is done.

Throw in the garlic and onion and let that get sexy for a few minutes until it’s fragrant and tender. Don’t stir too much, you want that crusty love to form on the bottom, because we’re going to deglaze with alcohol and then fill with liquid you don’t have to worry about the burn.

Reduce the heat just a little and add a cup of bourbon, slowly, getting all the bits off the bottom of the pan as you stir.

Add the tomatoes and bell peppers, cooking over medium heat, covered, stirring occasionally. When everything is heated and starting to bubble add the chili powder, kidney beans and lentils.

At this point you can transfer everything to a crock pot to simmer for the day. High or medium, you’re not going to over cook chili. You can also keep cooking stove top until your tomatoes break down to the consistency you want.

Salt and pepper to taste and you’re done!

Enjoy!

Meatball 101

I love pasta. Who doesn’t? And at any quality restaurant here in Scottsdale, a pasta addiction will break the bank. Fortunately, I figured out how to hack many of my favorite dishes as well as create my own. And what’s easier than a meatball?

Mainstream meatballs are often all beef, fatty beasts, riddled with Lord knows what if you’re buying the pre-cooked, freezer babies that are every college kids bff. (“I’ll boil the water, you microwave the balls, we’re getting fancy tonight!” –Said no one, ever.) But a good meatball? Well, that’s just a fine art.

Let’s get to the balls, shall we?

I use to make all turkey meatballs… But they’re a little plain for my taste, so whenever I find a good quality, spicy Italian sausage on sale, I grab a pound or two and make some meatballs. Turkey can usually be found for pretty cheap, although this new brand from Smart and Final has me a little creeped, because I can’t find shit about it online. “Where’s the turkey from?” “Idk, I just found it on the shelf!” Yum….?

Anyhoo, creep turkey aside…

I like my two kinds of meats, turkey’s for the bulk, the spicy sausage for the flavor. I use granulated onion and garlic, because once frozen, those two ingredients, diced and mixed into the balls, would be gross, I feel. Loss of moisture, transfers of moisture upon cooking, random moisture where there shouldn’t be moisture… What a gross word. So, granulated is the way to go.

Use whatever kind of Italian seasoning you want, a mix of oregano, basil and thyme kind of work universally for me. Basil can get overpowering as HELL, so go lightly.

I use eggs and breadcrumbs, just like in my turkey burgers, to keep things together. Turkey can tend to fall apart when cooked, so breadcrumbs and egg act like a glue when they’re cooked, to hold everything together. Meatloaf magic, your mom knows all about it…

There’s really no exact science to the ingredients. Usually one egg does the trick per two pounds of meat or so. A large handful of bread crumbs is usually sufficient as well, if your meatballs won’t form well and are sticking to your hands, which turkey tends to do, add more breadcrumbs until it’s easier to work with. Seasonings are really just to taste, but I use about a table spoon of each herb, a teaspoon or two of black pepper, granulated garlic and onion and just a pinch of salt.

Since I freeze mine, I use a cookie sheet with foil or wax paper so that I can freeze these bad boys then throw them into a bag.

Mix all your ingredients with your hands, but wash them first, please.

Form yo balls, plop them down, freeze them.

To reheat, just thaw them and either boil them in a tasty marinara or bake them in the oven, which is what I did in the photo above. Either way, they’re perfect, every time.

Class dismissed.

Tortilla Soup

While the rest of the nation is stuck in a cold snap, I’m over here complaining that it’s just under 60 outside today…

But, winter is winter and here I am with my spicy take on a toasty and tasty tortilla soup!

This is pretty easy if you want to go with canned ingredients. Or if you’re a freezer lady, like me, it’s all out of the freezer or fresh, so it’s still pretty easy… It is soup, after all.

I have chicken broth, black beans, onions, corn, bell peppers and chicken ready to go in the freezer. I went out and grabbed a couple Roma tomatoes and used a leftover can of green chiles I had bought for a dip and never used. (Seriously, canned food is lonely in my pantry. It hangs out with the lingering cans of tuna but even that canned fish I grew up knowing and loving is making it’s way out of my diet.)

So, let’s get some ingredients, which are approximate, because I freeze crap in bulk and don’t measure much as I take it out.

About 16oz of shredded chicken
32oz of chicken broth
2cups of black beans, rinsed and drained
3 roma tomatoes, diced
1cup green bell peppers, diced
1cup onions, diced
2cups of corn, diced
A few cloves of garlic

Directions:

Dump it all in the crock pot. Just throw that shit in there all willy nilly like. You’re in a hurry, aren’t you? That’s what a crock pot meal is for… So dump that shit, turn it on low if you’re not that hungry or turn it on high if it’s time to eat.

While you’re waiting, either open a bag of tortilla chips or bust out a stack of corn tortillas, preheat your oven to something hotter than the pavement in the summer and grab a pizza cutter. Slice up the tortillas, however you want and throw them on a baking sheet. Salt, season, oil, spit shine those bad boys, however you prefer and pop them into the oven until they’re crispy!

Serve it all together, maybe a little cheese on top, maybe not, that’s okay too, but tortilla that soup up and you’re done!

Enjoy, guero.

Tex-Mex Chili

The picture doesn’t do it justice. Like any chili, you have to TASTE it… So read on, then get your ass in the kitchen!

Like I said in my previous post… I’ve been busy… WE’VE been busy, all of us, so I wanted to make something that would feed us for days.

Chili is always my favorite thing to make, because it’s soooo hard to screw up and there’s endless ways to make it different, literally, every time. I don’t think I’ve ever made the same chili twice. Now, usually, I use turkey everything, except bacon and chorizo… This time, I used beef. I don’t know what possessed me to buy a pound of ground beef, but I did. I don’t even like the way it smells when I cook it, but added to chorizo, it all worked out just fine.

This is a FAT KID version of chili. I have healthier and alternative recipes too…

Chipotle Carnitas Chili
Simple Three Bean Chicken Chili

I take that back, apparently I only have two! Oops.

Let’s get cooking, shall we?

Oh, and it goes without saying, this is freezable, thawable, enjoyable. Moving on…

INGREDIENTS:

Kidney & Black Beans – You can use canned, I did for this one to save time. I usually cook my beans ahead of time and freeze them in can sized portions to use in recipes or refry for my son. For this, you’ll need 2 cans of beans, drained.
1 Can of Sweet Corn, drained
1-2 Yellow Onions, diced
3 Green Bell Peppers, diced
1lb Tomatillos, chopped
1lb Roma Tomatoes, chopped
1 Head of Garlic, diced
1lb Ground Beef
1/2 lb Pork Chorizo
1/2lb Bacon
Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce
New Mexico chile powder
Black pepper
Knorr Chipotle cubes (this adds the Chipotle favor, without the heat. If I wanted the heat, I’d use the chipotle in adobo that comes in the little pull tab cans.)
Thyme
Salt
One, lonely beer. Preferably Corona or another Mexican style beer, XX or Modelo will work.

DIRECTIONS:

Grab your crock pot, turn it on high and add the beans and corn.

In a large, non stick pot, start browning the beef and chorizo, together. Drain off most of the excess fat and ditch it, we’re using bacon fat for the veggies. Add that meat to the crock pot and stir. In the same pot, cook the bacon. While it’s cooking, mince the garlic. When the bacon is almost finished, add the garlic and cook until it’s a  little brown. Drain the bacon fat into another little dish, crumble the bacon and add it, and the garlic to the crock pot and stir.

Then, with your diced veggies, start with the bell peppers first, then the onions, cooking them until they’re soft, in enough bacon grease to keep them from sticking to the pan… You want the heat around medium-medium-high, enough to blacken the veggies while you’re cooking them, just a little. It’s okay if you have a little mess in the bottom of your pan, you’re cooking it off, later.

Once the onions and peppers are done, add them to the crock pot. Then add the chopped tomatoes to the pot… Cook them, over medium heat until they start to fall apart a little, which should take like 5 minutes. You can cover them to help them along as well.

During this 5 minute break… Bust out that cerveza, crack the top and drink about 1/3. Make sure it’s ice cold though, for maximum refreshment in that hot ass kitchen, girl.

Now, add those tomatoes to the crock pot… Have a mess in your original cooking pot? Throw it back on the burner and add the beer. Whisk like crazy until the bottom of the pot is clean, simmer just a minute or two and add that mess to the crock pot.

Season to taste, as it’s getting’ sexy in the crock pot, using a big healthy squeeze of Sweet Baby Rays. This gives it a little smoky sweetness amid all the delicious hearty chili flavor.

Cook it in there, really, as long as you want… You’ll want to use the biggest crock pot, ever, or adjust your ingredients to fit in yours. I think mines about 5quarts and concoction came right to the top, I left the crock pot on high, half uncovered (sue me) for about an hour, stirring frequently, to try to cook off some excess liquid. It worked well!

You can serve it with chips, bread, in a bread bowl, with a fox or in a box. It’s really, really, really good. It’s one of the first batches of chili that I actually didn’t GET to freeze any of… It all got eaten!

Enjoy!

Sweet Baby Ray’s Pulled Pork Sammies

Looks yummy, right?

There are few meals, more comforting, than barbeque anything, to me, a self professed “fat kid”… I love it. And I love Sweet Baby Ray's sauce. I also make Sweet Baby Ray's Chicken with it as well as add it to some of my chili, like my Simple Three Bean Chicken Chili.

This meal is super quick, or can be cooked in your crock pot all day. I used meat I had leftover in my freezer, from when I made Pork Loin. I shredded half of the loin and froze that half in two portions. One for chili and one for this! So yes, that $9 piece of meat made 3 meals, some with leftovers. So these sammies, cost Mama $.80 each, including the bread and the sauce. I made fries with it, and the potatoes were 3lbs for a dollar, I used half of those, so the fries were $.50. I fed my family of 3, dinner on this night for $3.70. And we were STUFFED.

I rule.

INGREDIENTS:

Approx. 1lb Pork loin, cooked and shredded
Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce
Buns of your choice. I like to use bread, but we had buns that were taking up precious space in my freezer. They had to GO!
Sides of your choice. I’m venturing into the world of home made potato salad soon… Stay tuned… smh.

DIRECTIONS:

Assuming your pork is cooked and shredded, you can make this meal quickly by just heating the pork and the sauce in a sauce pan until ready to serve. I like to sauté a little onion in the pan before I add the pork, so there’s a little grilled onion effect in there too. It’s amazing.

If your pork isn’t cooked and you’ve got, say half a loin, frozen… Just throw it in the crock pot with a little water, cover in some Baby Ray’s, start on high and finish on low. Take it out, shred it and put it back in for about 30 minutes. Done!

Mmmm…. Great food for all this chilly weather we’ve been having! Scottsdale got cold, overnight, I swear. BUT, I’m a pretty big fan of space heaters (Yes, I exercise extreme caution when using them, with a toddler in the house.) and we haven’t had to turn on our heater, YET. It’s stayed about 76 in the house just by heating the rooms we’re in. We’ll see how this power bill comes out, but I have hiiiiiiiigh hopes for a loooooow bill! Yea, buddy!

Enjoy!!

Crock Pot Chipotle Carnitas Chili

 

As promised, here’s the chili recipe I mentioned in my last post, you can find it here.

This chili is freezable, of course, done in the crock pot and will stay good, long past when you’d think it’s gone bad…

I used canned beans for this, because I needed to make it quickly. But normally, I would have used the frozen beans I have, in the amounts you would get in a can, instead.

 

 

 

 

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 of your leftover roast from the post I mentioned above. Or 1-1.5lb of pork cooked as mentioned in that post.
1 cube of chipotle marinade, again, in the above post.
8-10 Roma tomatoes, diced roughly
2 cups red bell pepper, diced
2 cups celery, diced
2 cups white onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, diced
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 cans kidney beans, rinsed and drained
3 tbs chile powder
1 tsp red chile flakes
1 tbs cumin
1 tbs thyme
salt to taste


DIRECTIONS:

In your crock pot, on high, put the meat, tomatoes, marinade and beans. In a large stock pot, heat a little olive oil and start your garlic on medium-high heat. After about a minute, add the onion and celery and cook until they start to get soft. Add the bell peppers, cooking for about 3 minutes to soften the peppers, then add the mixture to the crock pot along with seasonings.

Cook, stirring occasionally, until it resembles something irresistibly delicious. About 3 hours.

I’ll post a recipe to some absolutely amazing biscuits that go with this all too well, very soon. I’m WAY busy getting ready for Halloween, struggling with my usually smooth freezer meal day and having what’s turning out to be freezer meal week and dealing with a teething, oddly pooping toddler and having to put the brakes on potty training completely right now. Not to mention, he’s out grown half his clothes in the last week alone, can destroy a house like nobodies business these days and insists on riding the dog, EVERYWHERE…. I feel a “life” post coming on soon….

Enjoy this chili, or whatever you end up making. If you read this far, thank you. I, for one, have typed this one eyed and dirty handed while whipping up a batch of pasta sauce for the freezer out of 7lbs of tomatoes, peppers and onions. I’m TIRED. Idk how you Pinterest bishes kill 46 meals in one day… You must repeat meals on the regular or have school aged children because my toddler hates everything I do in the kitchen and rains on my cooking parade whenever possible.

Good night!

Crock Pot Carnitas Tacos & Chipotle Marinade

I promised a follow up to the pork loin recipe with more ideas for these massive pork loins I’ve been finding on sale and hopefully, you have found some AMAZING deals as well!

These carnitas tacos are delicious, easy, they taste authentic, they freeze well so you can use the leftover meat in something else, like chili or soup. My next post will be the chili I made from the leftover meat from this recipe!

First, I have to say I made my own marinade for this recipe. It’s no secret. I usually use chipotle peppers in adobo sauce for most any red Mexican dish I made. They add a distinctive spice and the smokey adobo is unique and delicious. I hated buying a can of peppers in the sauce because I’d use one or two peppers, a little sauce, store it in the fridge for who knows how long and end up throwing it away.

So, I made my own!



Like I said, there’s no secret.

Go buy a can or two, or three, of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, throw it in a food processor with a little squeeze of lime juice and cumin, portion into an ice cube tray, lined in plastic wrap and freeze!

To use, just melt the cube in a little warm water or broth, add some vinegar, maybe some beer or tequila and marinate that meat!

Back to the carnitas.

INGREDIENTS:

3lbs Pork loin, thawed or frozen, again, this can be done with frozen meat, since it’s being shredded, the toughness of the meat doesn’t matter.
1cup Green bell pepper, diced. I keep mine frozen, which saves a ton of time.
1cup White onion, diced. Again, frozen for me.
1tbs Red pepper flakes
1/2tbs Rosemary
1tbs Thyme
1/2tbs Cumin
1/2tbs Ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

In a crock pot, combine above ingredients, with enough water to almost cover the meat. Start on high to get the heat going and lower to low after about an hour or two. Leave until cooked through.

Then, I cut mine in big chunks and set it aside to cool, shred and add back to the crock pot. I then cooked the meat until the liquid was absorbed. (I used a little liquid when I made the refried beans, my fiance said they were the best beans I’ve made so far… Just a little hint!)

What was left was tender, deliciously flavorful, spicy but not TOO spicy, carnitas. I made tacos out of it, then froze half for later! It’s an all day affair with your crock pot, this one… So it’s feasible to leave this cooking all day while you do your thing…

Enjoooooy and have a great weekend!!

Simple Three Bean Chicken Chili

This is a basic chili. I figured it’d be a good point to start my chili entries, since it’s so simple and easy to build on.

So, let’s get to making some chili!

INGREDIENTS:

1.5lb cooked, shredded chicken. I used leftover chicken from the night before, that we grilled by the pool. Deliciously charred dark meat and it’s skin, but only about two drum sticks worth of skin, not too much fatty mcfat.
1 can each of kidney beans, pinto beans, black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can of corn, drained
5 large tomatoes, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small white onion, diced
2 red bell peppers, diced
2 tbsp Sweet Baby Rays Sweet & Spicy bbq sauce
3 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp red pepper flakes
Salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary

 

DIRECTIONS:

I use bacon grease to cook the vegetables in the beginning. Just about a tablespoons worth or less. I keep it in the fridge, in a little Pyrex custard dish with a lid. Some people do this, some don’t, but my brother and I cook A LOT and were raised by a Southern grandmother, and we save our bacon/sausage grease for cooking. If you don’t like it, use olive oil.

In a large crock pot, combine: Chicken, tomatoes, beans, bbq sauce, chili powder, red pepper, and about a teaspoon of black pepper, thyme and rosemary. You will salt to taste at the very end, if at all due to the bacon grease.

Use about a tablespoon of bacon grease in a large pot heated over medium to sauté the garlic for about a minute before adding the onion and bell peppers. Sauté until the peppers are soft and the onion is translucent, but not caramelized and add to the crock pot.

Stir well and let it cook on high for about 4 or 5 hours. Stirring occasionally and taste testing, adjusting the taste after about 3 hours, when everything has blended well. Doing this too early, before the tomatoes break down and the acidity changes everything before the flavors have had a chance to make friends, will really eff up your process.

That is it.

This is the easiest of all my chili because it involves cooked meat. I doubled this batch and froze half and will no doubt have another entry when I thaw it out and switch it up!

Enjoy!

Red Pepper & Chicken Sausage Linguini

I have received SO many compliments on my homemade sauce. The baby has loved this since I started him on solid foods. It’s delicious and is, hands down, as healthy as you can get!

This sauce, freezes really well. So, make a huge batch and portion it out for things like spaghetti and meatballs, chicken parmesan, lasagna, or this!

So, let’s get started!

Ingredients:

(If you’re going to make a large batch to freeze, double your veggies, at LEAST. This makes enough for the 3 of us to eat and have leftovers for a day or 2. But, since everybody loves it, so it goes quickly! If you like a thicker sauce, that will “stick” to your noodles, add a small can of tomato paste. I would recommend adding it to the sauce you intend to use in lasagna so it holds together better, or if you are using small pasta, like a bowtie pasta.)
10 Roma tomatoes, you don’t have to use Roma tomatoes, they are just my favorite.
1 Large yellow onion
2 Large bell peppers
4 Cloves garlic
Thyme
Oregano
Rosemary
Basil
Pinch of Sea Salt & sugar
Olive Oil
Isernio’s Hot Italian Chicken Sausage, AMAZING brand, I’ve mentioned it before. Find it here.
1 Pkg Whole wheat linguini

Directions:
Chop all the veggies. I don’t peel my tomatoes, so I chop them smaller than everything else. In a LARGE skillet, brown the sausage over medium high heat. It’s okay if it sticks and burns a little. Since it’s chicken, it doesn’t really render much fat while cooking, but it all works out, trust me. Drizzle a good amount of olive oil into the pan and add the onion and garlic, cooking over medium heat until onion starts to become translucent.
Add the bell peppers and herbs, cooking over medium high heat until the peppers get a little soft. Add the tomatoes and cook simmer, covered, stirring occasionally for about 20 minutes. Uncover cook an additional 20 minutes or until the sauce reduces to your liking. Salt and sugar to taste. Don’t forget this part. Tomato sauce from the jar has a lot of salt, so if you taste this sauce without salt and sugar, you’ll be pretty shocked.

If you’re making a large batch and don’t have a big enough pan, or are busy and like to make use of your crock pot, you can always stop after your onions are cooked and add everything to a large crock pot. Cook on low as long as you’d like. It really can’t over-cook!
I hope this is as big of a hit for you as it is for me! It’s always good to have a pasta sauce recipe ready to go (and in the freezer) if you ever get unexpected guests for dinner. And, I’ve always found people just appreciate food that’s made from scratch, a little bit more…. And that makes me happy.

Enjoy!