My Best Salad Yet

When we had our dearest WV pals over to dinner Saturday night for Alli's Angel Chicken Pasta, I invented my favorite salad to date. Keep in mind that I just sort of dumped all of this together, so I am estimating on measurements here.

Salad:
1 box baby spinach
1 box baby romaine
1 bag Great Value Dried Mixed Berries (cranberries, blueberries, cherries)
Crumbled Feta Cheese (I used some with herbs mixed in)
1 box grape tomatoes, sliced in half, length-wise
Chopped Walnuts

Dressing:
1/2 cup Red Wine Vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp garlic salt
1 Tbsp Italian herbs

As I mentioned, you might need to tweak amounts of things, particularly the dressing, to see what else it needs. Taste it out before serving!

Sarah's White Chili

I made this one off of Sarah's recipe blog the other night and my little soup night crowd thought it was great!  Jeremy said it was "the bomb" so you know its pretty good.  :)  You'll notice lots of soup and chili recipes on here since its been so cold lately and these recipes are just too easy and tasty!

1 can Great Northern Beans
1 can Garbonzo Beans
1 can white Kidney Beans
1-8oz package Heavy Whipping Cream
2-3 large chicken breasts
1 pkg McCormick White Chili Seasoning
1 small white or yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup frozen corn
1 can green chili's, chopped
Chopped Jalapeno peppers (amount depends on how spicy you want your chili)
1 large spoonful of Sour Cream

First boil your chicken until almost cooked all the way. Save your water which is now broth and us it as your base. While your chicken is boiling, in a seperate pan, saute your onion and garlic in butter.

Once your chicken is cooked, chop it up and add it back to your broth. Add your whipping cream and your saute'd onions and garlic to your broth along with the seasoning packet.

Next add your green chilis and decide how much jalepenos you want your chili. I used canned whole jalapenos and chopped three. Three peppers made this a medium "heat".

Your corn and any other seasonings can also go into the chili at this time. I added a heaping spoonful of Sour Cream for flavor.

Let it simmer for at least an hour.
 
The only changes I made were that I used Navy beans intead of white kidney beans (couldn't find any), added 3 potatoes (because I had some), used 5 chicken breasts (mine shrank a lot when I boiled them), and used one can of corn (since that was what I had). Served with sweet, jalapeno cornbread.  Delicious!

Butternut Squash and Turkey Chili

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound ground turkey breast
1 pound butternut squash - peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch dice
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 (4.5 ounce) can chopped green chilies
2 (14.5 ounce) cans petite diced tomatoes
1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans with liquid
1 (15.5 ounce) can white hominy, drained
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 tablespoon oregano
1 teaspoon garlic salt

Directions

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic; cook and stir for 3 minutes, then add the turkey, and stir until crumbly and no longer pink.

2. Add the butternut squash, chicken broth, green chilies, tomatoes, kidney beans, hominy, and tomato sauce; season with chili powder, cumin, and garlic salt. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the squash is tender, about 20 minutes.

3. Serve with tortilla chips and sour cream. 

*I forgot step 3 when I served it and it was fine! I used black beans instead of kidney beans, and white corn instead of hominy. Everyone loved it!

A Blog About Cooking!

Who'd have guessed it? Not me! I am not one of those multi-talented people who has time to do a 365 Blog (where you post a picture and blurb about it everyday for a year) but I thought this would be fun to share recipes. Who doesn't need some extra good ones right? Thanks Sarah, for a fun idea! I will only be posting recipes that I made without having first tasted them elsewhere, just to keep things interesting!

Eat up, peeps!