by Kami | Dec 1, 2017 | Recipes, Soups, Turkey
This rich, flavorful simple leftover turkey chili recipe will make you wish you had leftover turkey more often! Why is Thanksgiving only once a year?!?! Let’s face it. I think most of us love the holidays, but we all need a holiday to recover from the holidays. This was my first time hosting Thanksgiving at my home and actually LOVED every single minute. I felt like such a big girl! We moved to Austin, Texas a year ago and decided to stay in our new home for Thanksgiving. My brother and his amazing family live less than an hour away and joined us. With kids similar ages, it was truly magically. Lots of laughter, great food, late nights, and wonderful memories created. I’m also 20 weeks pregnant and after the week long of fun, cooking, baking, cleaning and standing on my feet for pretty much 24/7 the entire 7 day Thanksgiving break, my poor hips and back feel like they’re broken. My fellow moms out there TOTALLY understand that life still continues even when Mom Boss is slightly out of commission. SO my family still needs to eat dinner despite me wanting to spend my following week living in a spa and massage therapist office. This SUPER easy and enjoyable leftover turkey chili recipe was a lifesaver. Remember how this was my first time hosting Thanksgiving? Well, of course I needed to smoke the largest turkey I could find even though we only had 4 adults and 5 small children. Makes sense, right? Well, shockingly I had lots of leftover turkey (super juicy and tender) BUT tons of leftover...
by Camila | Oct 4, 2017 | Recipes, Soups
I don’t mean to brag, but I make some killer soup. Growing up, my mom always always made soup. I lived in Brazil so we don’t have a whole lot of cold days, but we do have some, and whenever the temperature dropped, we knew it: soup on the menu! And it was always awesome. Broth from scratch, lots of veggies, meat, beans, pasta or another grain. Soup is simple to make, and yet, potentially phenomenal if done right! To me, the secret to a good soup is to get a good sofrito going on. Sofrito, Mirepoix, doesn’t matter what you call it, please add it to your cooking habits! You make a sofrito by cooking the base vegetables of your dish first to build a strong flavor foundation. Ok, easy: a tablespoon of oil in the pan, heat it over medium-heat, add chopped onions and cook until they sweat, then add chopped celery, carrots, garlic, parsley, what have you! Cook them until caramelized or you can stop before that, just cook them enough to release some of those wonderful flavors in those vegetables. Sauteeing vegetables makes them release this nutty, deeper umami flavor that shows through the whole dish and brings your cooking to a whole new level! The same with searing meat before cooking it in a stew or braised dish, the searing of the meat will release flavors that wouldn’t happen unless there had been some browning action in some hot fat such as oil or butter. When the vegetables are sauteed, heat is added to the carbohydrates and that breaks sugar particles, releasing a bunch...
by Lisa | Sep 5, 2017 | Pork, Recipes, Soups
Get ready for this recipe for green chile stew! It will soon become your go-to cold night remedy! My first trip to New Mexico was to check out the grad school I eventually ended up attending. The trip was full of fun, excitement, and trying not to be too intimidated by all the super smart professors! We got to hike and see a lot of the beautiful NM desert. We also got to try lots of delicious food. One thing NM is known for is its green chile. We eat it on everything out here. Pizza, burgers, eggs, tacos, and even some desserts, you name it and I’m sure there is a green chile version! Hatch green chile is well known in the US, but what most people don’t realize is that almost every little town in NM grows their own chiles, and they all claim to be the best! We even have some green chiles growing in our garden right now. After living in NM for several years, you come to realize that chile from different parts of the state have different tastes. Late August and September is one of the best times to be in NM; not only do you get lots of rain from the monsoons, but it’s chile harvesting and roasting time. Most grocery stores and many road side stands will sell chile by the 20-30lb bag and roast them on the spot for you. If you’ve never smelled 30lbs of chiles roasting you are missing out. If they made a candle that smelled like it I’d use it year round. Anyways, since living in...
by Kami | Apr 30, 2015 | Chicken, Gluten-Free, Recipes, Slow Cooker, Soups
I try not to play favorites. I really do. BUT it’s hard not to favor the spicy tender chicken with zucchini, summer squash, and sweet corn. No matter if I crank up the heat by adding 2 jalapenos or tone it down by omitting that awesome little green pepper, it’s a fav! When I think of slow cooker, I usually think ‘I need to get that baby prepared and cookin’ first thing in the morning or it won’t be done by dinnertime.’ Right? That’s the benefit and disadvantage of slow cookers. Well, good news to my fellow dinner-making procrastinators! You only need this to cook 2 to 3 hours on HIGH or 3 to 4 hours on LOW. Any longer and your zucchini will go from crispy-tender to yucky-mush. Remember how we said au revoir to miserable, overcooked asparagus? Let’s give our zucchini the same fighting chance! Yes… I know how ridiculous I am. Whenever my large family (I’m the youngest of 7) gets together, they can’t resist teasing me. Usually it has to do with healthy eating. My brother will sympathetically put a hand on my husband’s shoulder and ask if he needs a pizza. They chuckle as my ‘deprived’ 3 year old daughter spits out Root Beer because she doesn’t like the ‘sparkley’ drink. Oh, they like to mock. BUT guess who they want bringing the main dish when it’s potluck time? This girl! This Chicken Fiesta Soup or my Classic Spaghetti or my Baked Burritos are among the most requested. AND they’re health punked each and every time. To be fair, my sisters and sister-in-laws are pretty healthy eaters and big fans of my recipes. And when I say big...
by Kami | Apr 11, 2015 | Chicken, Gluten-Free, Recipes, Soups, Turkey
Although I’m loving the warm weather, I may have shed a tear that soup season is coming to a close. Wait… was that a tear or are my eyes non-stop watering from allergies? Either way… I had to squeeze in this chicken sausage and rice soup one last time. When it comes to soup, my husband is pretty picky. He likes hearty meals and feels most soups are well… girly food. It’s not that he doesn’t like the taste, he just rarely gets full off of soup. When he doesn’t like to eat something, he might as well triple-dog-dare me. Game on, honey, game on. I’ve played around with this recipe a few times. I found the additional spice from the crushed red pepper to be the cherry on top. He LOVED it! Direct quote, “okay, I think you finally made a man’s soup… I’m getting seconds.” A major part of healthy cooking is using quality ingredients. I can’t emphasize the importance of reading ingredients! Take two extra seconds, flip the package over, and read what ingredients are actually making up the food your purchasing. You’ll be surprised what junk is thrown in our foods. I like Pacific Natural broths. Especially the ‘cage free’ portion on the chicken broth. Thank you documentary, Food, Inc. I don’t know if I’m more scarred or informed after watching it. Either way, I think we all need to open our eyes a little more about what we’re putting in our bodies. Hence, my ‘reading all ingredients’ rule. Well, get ready for this fulfilling, satisfying, flavorful, rich, and yummy-in-your-tummy chicken sausage soup. It will be a winner!...
by Kami | Mar 12, 2015 | Chicken, Recipes, Soups
I’m not sure where you live, but our Utah weather is crazy. Last week, we had a foot of snow dump in the morning and by the afternoon it was melted. Since Utah can’t decide whether it’s winter or spring, I’m taking advantage of these last few cold days by spoiling myself with this creamy chicken noodle soup. I made it again tonight and literally want to drink the broth from a glass. It’s creamy, comforting, and heavenly. Am I the only one who consumed over soup recipes during cold weather? I’m a big believer in tweaking recipes to make them healthier. If you can’t taste a difference, why not make it healthier? Creamy soups 90% of the time call for heavy whipping cream. There are two types of fats: ones that cause health issues and ones that fight health issues. Heavy whipping cream is a low nutrition, artery-clogging fat which nominates it as a bad fat. Coconut milk’s fatty acids, on the other hand, aid in weight loss, lower cholesterol, reduce heart disease, improve skin and hair… blah, blah, blah. You get the picture. You won’t be able to taste a difference, but your body will thank you for substituting heavy whipping cream with coconut milk. If you want to try out coconut milk in a couple more recipes, check out my Healthy Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana or my Yellow Coconut Chicken Curry. You won’t regret it. I don’t purchase everything organic because it can start getting pretty pricey. However, there are some things that must be an organic purchase. Carrots are one of them. I was...
