A Good Day for a Chili Cook-off

In my part of the world, I woke up to snow. A nice bowl of chili is great for dinner on a blustery day like today. Most people combine big chunks of ground chuck and some kidney beans to make chili. That would all be good if today hadn’t been declared Meatless Monday by Paul McCartney. I have a chili recipe that would make Paul sing. I am not even sure where I got this recipe. I am not very environmentally friendly when it comes to recipes. If I see one I like, I print it off. I have a rather large stack of recipes to be tested. At least when I try one if I don’t like it I will recycle the paper. No recycling bin for this recipe. It is a keeper.

Healthy Black Bean Chili

          2 tablespoons olive oil

          1 large yellow onion, chopped

          1 large bell pepper, chopped ( the recipe called for a yellow pepper, I had a red one and used it)

          5 cloves garlic, minced

          2 teaspoons chili powder

          1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

          1 teaspoon dried oregano

          1/2 teaspoon salt

          1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

          4 cups cooked black beans

          2 (14 ounce) cans diced tomatoes

          2 cups mild salsa

          2 cups vegetable or chicken broth

          2 cups cooked wheat berries

          Juice of one lime

         

Heat oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, bell pepper, garlic, and spices. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 5 minutes. Add beans, tomatoes, salsa, and broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 25 minutes. Stir in cooked wheat berries and heat through.

Remove from heat. Stir in lime juice. Garnish with your choice of sour cream, avocado, cilantro, and tortilla chips.

Have my taste buds been altered?

You know how people who give up sugar say that after a few weeks of no treats fruit tastes so much sweeter. Well, I have been wondering if eating whole grains has caused my taste buds to just expect the wholesome taste in my goodies. Last week, I made some Multigrain Snickerdoodles from a recipe in the King Arthur’s Whole Grain Cooking. I actually made them the previous week also, but I didn’t leave them in the fridge long enough and while baking spread too thin. My family ate and loved them anyhow, but they were not presentable to share with friends. Last week, I followed the instructions to leave them in the fridge overnight and they turned out perfect. They looked so good that I shared them with a couple neighbors. When my neighbor thanked me for them the next day, I told her that they were made with whole grains. She said, “Oh, I knew that.” Now I am perplexed. Did she know that because they obviously tasted that way, or did she know that because I have a reputation of whole grain baking? Either way, these cookies will definitely be in my cookie jar again!

Multigrain Snickerdoodles

Dough
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon orange juice
2 large eggs
1 cup whole barley flour
3/4 cup hard white wheat flour
1 1/3 cup oat flour

Coating
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Cream butter, sugar, baking powder, salt and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat in the orange juice and eggs. Add the flours and beat until well combined. Refrigerate the dough, covered, overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets.

Combine sugar and cinnamon in a gallon size Ziploc bag. Drop the dough by tablespoons, 6 pieces at a time, into the bag. Zip the bag closed trapping some air inside. Shake gently to coat the balls with the sugar mixture. Place them on prepared baking sheets and flatten to about 1/2 inch thick, using the flat bottom of a drinking glass.

Bake the cookies, reversing the pans midway through (top to bottom, bottom to top), until they are beginning to brown around the edges, 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool. Place them in an airtight container once they are cool. 

My Two Sense

1. If you haven’t seen the GQ Glee pictures, you must have been in a coma the past couple of days. So much talk about if they crossed the line. I just want to know why the girls are scantily clad sex kittens and the boy gets to be fully clothed and playing the drums? When are women going to unite and say enough is enough! We say we want equal rights, but then allow our value to be determined by our looks and sex appeal.


2. It was so exciting to see all the miners reunited with their families last week. Well, one wife decided to stay home when she realized her hubby not only had one but two mistresses. Now it is reported that this "gentleman" is going to receive $100,000 to work for one of the how-to-cheat websites. When are we going to stop rewarding bad behavior?

Take that Oprah!

Oprah devotes a whole show to it. Hoda and Kathie Lee talk about it every Monday. And so I thought I would join in the craze. I can’t guarantee that I will actually do it weekly like the Today Show, but you never know I might just have Favorite Things Fridays. I don’t enjoy celebrity status, but I am a real housewife from Utah with a list of my own favorite things. You won’t find me promoting a $50 t-shirt or a $200 bag that is designed to carry your coat when not in use because frankly I don't have the money for those things.

Being environmentally conscience, one of my favorite things is my reusable produce bags. Millions and millions of the plastic produce bags are used daily in the United States and most are probably just thrown in the trash. I purchased my bags from reusit.com for $3.45 each, and they make a great companion to my canvas shopping bags. The web site actually offers a variety of reusable items. So Go Green!

A Suggestion for a Meatless Monday for Al Gore

I haven’t heard if Mr. Gore has joined the Meatless Monday campaign. I have been thinking about a meal that might be tempting for him to join. I make a Spinach Lasagna that my husband loves. In order to post this recipe for A.G., I actually had to figure out the exact quantities in this recipe. My daughter gets a little annoyed with me when she asks for a recipe, and I am not sure of the exact instructions. Sometimes I just cook, and the process is in my head. The other problem with that method is sometimes a dish turns out better than usual, and I don’t know what I did different. But enough about my life, I need to convince my planet saving friend to give up meat for a day, and I hope this recipe will do it. I spent extra time measuring and jotting down the amounts when I made this, and so I hope Al will give it a try!

Spinach Lasagna

Sauce

Saute the following:

small onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

Then add and simmer for about 15 minutes:

1 quart tomatoes, chopped

3 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce

1 tablespoon parsley flakes

1 tablespoon dried basil

Cheese Mixture

Combine the following:

24 ounces cottage cheese

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

9 uncooked lasagna noodles (whole wheat works great)*

8 cups loosely packed chopped spinach

4 cups grated mozzarella or Italian blend cheese

In a 9x13 casserole dish, layer the following:

a little bit of sauce to cover the bottom of the pan, 3 noodles, 1/2 the cheese mixture, 1/2 the spinach, 1/3 of the sauce, 1/3 of the cheese, 3 noodles, 1/2 cheese mixture, 1/2 spinach, 1/3 of the sauce, 1/3 of the cheese, 3 noodles, cover noodles with remaining sauce and cheese.

Bake covered for 1 hour at 375 degrees.

It is best if you let it sit for at least 1 hour before cutting.



* I have used these whole wheat noodles in this recipe and my family didn't detect a difference in the taste from the regular noodles. One of the things I have hated about making lasagna is cooking the noodles before layering all the ingredients. This recipe works great to let the noodles cook during baking, and they actually absorb the taste of the sauce.

The View from Here

That is the view of part of my 6 mile run yesterday. Running this hill is always a challenge. It is only 1.6 miles to the end of the street, but every inch of the way it feels like my quads and calves are on fire. I have to tell myself to keep going because once I start walking part of the way, it is easy to stop and walk again. I have this little trick I do in my head as I am running a hard stretch. I pick a tree, light pole, or traffic sign up ahead and picture myself tied to that tree by a bungee cord. This seems weird, but as I do it, I can almost feel myself being pulled toward the tree. If I look at the entire street and focus on all I must climb to get to the end, I could easily give up.

Life is similar to jogging. Sometimes we are on an easy down hill path that feels like we could go forever. Sometimes we are just plugging along and doing the day to day mundane things like the flat trail without much of a view. And then there are the times in our lives when every step feels hard, and we have to convince ourselves not to give up and if we just keep moving that we can make it to the end. Sometimes we have to get through each day dealing with just one small step and not allow ourselves to become overwhelmed by the big picture, and then pray that somehow we can feel someone pulling us along.

For Those Who Don’t Have Time to Read

Are you someone who loves to read, but doesn’t have the time? Do you wish that you liked to read, but find yourself just waiting for the movie to come out? Do you think all books should have cliff notes? Or do you hate to read an entire book when it’s just a small percentage of the book you end up enjoying? Well if you said yes to any of these questions, then this post is for you. Often times when I am reading a book, I will keep track of the lines in the book that caused an aha moment. Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand had several.

     “The world is full of small ignorances. We must all do our best to ignore them and thereby keep them small.”

     “It was never a good idea to confide in people. They always remembered, and when they came up to you in the street, years later, you could see the information was still firmly attached to your face and present in the way they said your name and the pressure of their hand clasping yours.”

     “Don’t worry about it. I don’t have space in my head to put up with harmless old gits trying to make me feel bad. I’ve learned to tell the difference between the people who can really hurt you and those who just want to look down their noses.”

      "'Oh, it’s simple Pragmatism, Dad. It’s called the real world. If we refused to do business with the morally questionable, the deal volume would drop in half and the good guys like us would end up poor. Then where would we all be?'
     'On a nice dry spit of land known as the moral high ground?' suggested the Major.”

     “I think we wake up every day with high intentions and by dusk we have routinely fallen short. Sometimes I think God created the darkness just so he didn’t have to look at us all the time.”