BBQ Chicken Chili - a fall favorite

While cooking this recipe, playing with new ingredients, I was reminded of how much I love this season. Fall. Warm comfort foods, healthy colorful veggies, and cold weather. Living in southern Az I cherish the cold weather like a friend. Its also a very busy season. I spent most of my fall in different hospital rooms so I am living up every last second until December comes and its officially winter. 

With the busy season, to keep my sanity at least slightly intact, I have a plan. The foods I begin to rely upon are things that reheat well if I make a large amount of servings, make ahead meals, freezer meals, and my favorite one pot meals that let me get out of washing a ton of dishes. 

So in honor of easy fall foods for our busy fall season, here is a bowl of chili. I have never used bbq sauce in chili before so this was really adventurous for me. I know I probably have been overlooking this easy addition for years but I live in a desert - its just not cold enough to eat chili very often. Give me a break. And Yes I have like a dozen other chili recipes on my blog but this one - this is the only one with bbq sauce and you must try it. It's crazy good! 


BBQ Chicken Chili
source: SkinnyTaste

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 red onion, approx 1 cup, diced
1 zucchini, diced
1 red pepper, approx 1 cup, diced
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons smoked paprika
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
pinch of red pepper flakes
1 - 1 1/2 lbs raw boneless skinless chicken breast or thighs
(I used breast meat but both would be good)
1 can of white (northern or cannellini) beans, low sodium, drained and rinsed
1 can of black beans, low sodium, drained and rinsed
1 can of kidney beans, low sodium, drained and rinsed
4 cups of chicken stock or broth, store bought or homemade
2 14.5 oz cans of fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 cup of your favorite bbq sauce (my favorite is = jack daniels honey smokehouse bbq sauce)

Easy 5 step instructions

1. Saute the onion, zucchini, red pepper, and jalapeño in the oil for 5 minutes or until the veggies have softened in a large pot. 
2.  Add in all the seasonings and garlic and continue sautéing for another 3-5 minutes. 
3. Add in everything else. Cover the pot. Cook for 20 minutes over medium low heat
4. Remove the lid and the chicken. (Chicken should be fully cooked by now) Shred the chicken with two forks, and return the chicken back to the pot. Continue cooking for an additional 10 minutes. 
5. Serve immediately or cool completely to refrigerate for another night. It tastes good with shredded cheese, diced avocado, and cilantro on top of each stomach warming bowl. 

Happy fall to ya & holiday planning
Stephanie

1 can of pumpkin

As previously mentioned, half of September, and the entire month of October was beyond hard. Our little guy was born 6 weeks early due to some complications and since then had several surgeries and is fighting like a champ to overcome all his present challenges and diagnoses. So I didn't get to do my normal fall stuff until November. But not letting my favorite season pass by too quickly I bought like 10 or 15 cans of pumpkin puree. Seriously. I had some catch up to do! My goal for this fall was to make my own puree using a pumpkin - but yeah. But to be real, with having a newborn in the house, and neither one of us sleeping thru the night yet, thats not happening this year. 

So playing catch up, because thats what it feels like, heres what I did with my first can of pumpkin puree.  Enjoy! 

1. Breakfast: Double Chocolate Pumpkin Donuts. Healthy. So good you'll want the entire batch. 

2. Breakfast/After-noon Snack: Pumpkin - Yellow Squash Bread. I used a favorite nutty zucchini bread recipe and used grated squash and pumpkin puree to create a new fall favorite. I will be sharing this recipe soon. 

3. Breakfast: Pumpkin Pie French Toast. Fall flavors developed and showing off with an easy recipe by one of my favorite bloggers. 

happy fall to ya

Stephanie

P.S. Heres what I am planning on making with my next can(s) of pumpkin puree - just in case you need some ideas too :)

1. Starbucks  Pumpkin Scones Copycat Recipe
2. Pumpkin Gingerbread
3. Healthy Whole Wheat & Oat Pumpkin Pancakes

One Pot Spanish Chicken & Potatoes over Rice

I have always thought that milk and cookies go together. Macaroni & cheese goes well with hot dogs or sausages of any kind. Peanut butter isn't the same without jelly. And in this dish chicken and potatoes over rice definitely are a match in food heaven. Seems like a mismatch having two starches but this food.... it works. Comfort food people. Delicious comfort food. 

Having a new baby in the house while cooking and blogging has made me a desperately creative person. Usually that means I am not doing any extensive cooking unless my hubby is home to help. Last night I tried it on my own and it was um interesting. Did some juggling with the camera and the baby. Did some running back and forth between the stove and the pack and play. This dinner, though, this one pot, chicken & potatoes wonder, totally is worth all the effort. So if I can do it with a two month old - you totally got this! A one pot recipe made for ideally easy cleanup too.

So not only does this dinner taste fabulous, there is so much fall veg going on here that you can feel like a super hero serving this to your family. Eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes.... come on. Heat your stomach up with this flavorful homemade from scratch sauce, only use one or two pans (if you make it with rice), and have dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes. 

Click here Pinch of Yum to go the recipe. Love this blog. The only changes I made were using a can of diced fire roasted tomatoes instead of whole tomatoes, using 1/2 tsp of cumin and 1/2 tsp of onion powder instead of all purpose seasoning, and using two potatoes instead of one. Because the second potato was crowding the pan I browned them first, put them to the side on a plate, then browned the chicken, then added the sauce in. Next time, I will add in a pinch of smoked paprika, and another can of tomatoes to stretch the meal farther. 

I served mine with white rice cooked with some chicken broth and salt. Was amazing. Can't wait to make it again - hopefully next time without the mini marathon & diaper change. It served 4. Took approx 20-25 minutes - could've been done in 18-20 minutes if I had been able to stay in the kitchen. 

Perfect fall food. 

Stephanie

Pumpkin Greek Yogurt Bread

This pumpkin bread, that I made for breakfast this morning, tastes like pumpkin pie. Totally serious. It made my house smell like one of those expensive candles too. It has all those familiar spices ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and that earthy mild wonderful pumpkin flavor. Yes, I would love some pie for breakfast. If I was still prego I could probably get away with it too. But now that I am trying to start fitting back into normal clothes - this healthy breakfast, brunch bread, after school snack bread that simply tastes like pie - is exactly what I need in my life. You do too. 

The recipe can't be simpler. I grabbed all the ingredients and started just mixing them one by one (wet ingredients first) in my mixer and within 5 minutes the batter was made. Treat your taste buds to some fall by clicking here which will take you to the original recipe which I followed almost exactly. I left out the pecans and added turbinado sugar to top of the batter after pouring it in the greased loaf pan. Since typing in-between feedings isn't the easiest I decided to not rehash a very well written recipe. My took 15 minutes longer to bake than his, so please watch your bread and adjust as needed. 

Enjoy your fall day! 
Stephanie

First Post-Baby Post + 3 favorite Fall Recipes

This is my first blog post in awhile because our little guy is finally here!! I should rephrase that. Our little guy who was born in September is finally home! He had an extended vacation after birth in the nicu, but he's doing great now. We are facing some long term health issues, but most of it is wait and see (fun not). But his resilience is amazing. I should be taking notes from him!! Born September 9th, 34 weeks, 6 lbs 2 oz if anyone is wanting some real details. I am pretty proud of him for packing on some weight so fast - it really helped his recovery to be a bit bigger at birth.   

That being said things are finally starting to look like life again. Sort of. So sleep deprived. Anyone else know what I am talking about? Hope so. Otherwise I have completely lost it and I should just start finding recipes for chocolate because nothing else good is going to happen next - besides me wanting to curl up and sleep in a corner. But it does mean I am cooking and baking again as much as humanly possible. Very happy to be back in my own kitchen. 

So life happens. Now on to food. Food is my what my normal blog topics are about. Fall is my favorite season. Can anyone believe it's November already? I can't believe I missed  October - that entire month I was in the hospital, driving to and from the hospital, driving to and from my son's school to drop him off at a friends house so I could get back to the hospital, sleeping on those horrible fold out bed couch things... You get the idea. I am sad I felt like I missed a whole month of cooking and baking with yummy fall things. So I desperately need to make up for lost time here. 

Here how I am kicking off my love of fall with 3 fall foods.

First, last Saturday morning I made these yummy things for breakfasts this week. Pumpkin is definitely a fall staple in my house: Whole Wheat Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oat Muffins - Long name for an easy to make and even easier to eat after school snack or breakfast.  

Second, this next week I am planning on making some of these chocolately- fall flavored veggie cookies. Yes veggie cookies. They are healthy with 3 different kinds of veg and quite tasty: Autumn Chocolate Chip Cookies

Third another breakfast staple with pumpkin we'll be eating is some delicious Three Grain Walnut Pumpkin Pancakes. I heart walnuts and I really think the earthy taste pairs perfectly with the slightly earthy slightly sweet mild pumpkin taste. This is an oldie but goodie recipe please ignore the bad black and white pictures. I think I was going through a phase. P.S. Don't wait for a weekend to make this one. Whip it up in just a couple minutes or make it the night before and cover it and throw it in the fridge for a hot breakfast the next morning in mere minutes! 

So thats my initial game plan to break out the pumpkin and fall flavors! Thanks for reading! Happy fall to ya. Stick around for some more great fall eats - after I just take a quick little nap. 

Steph