Everything But the Kitchen Sink Veggie Soup

While I was walking Louie this morning, I actually felt fall in the air--what a relief! After this brutally hot summer, the thought of backyard fires, the holidays, and wonderful seasonal foods gave me some inspiration. I was bad this weekend...oh so bad...but this soup will set me straight.

Everything But the Kitchen Sink Veggie Soup

¼ cup olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
Kosher salt
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 large potato, peeled and cubed
2 cups sliced carrots
3 cans chicken and/or vegetable stock
2 cans diced tomatoes
2 cup sweet corn
1 cup lima beans
1 cup black eye peas
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons salt
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
Shaved parmesan cheese

Heat olive oil in large stock pot. Add onions and sauté for 5 minutes, seasoning with salt; add garlic and cook additional 1 minute. Add potatoes and carrots, season once again with salt, and cook for 5 minutes.

Add stock, and bring to boil. Add tomatoes, corn, beans, pepper and salt. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 30-45 minutes, until vegetables are tender. Add fresh parsley. Serve with shaved parmesan cheese and good toasted bread.

Easy Chicken Enchiladas with Creamy Green Chile Sauce

If I had to choose my favorite food, which is like choosing my favorite pet-child, I would have to say Mexican. There’s just something about a spicy, cheesy dish that makes me very, very happy.

Easy Chicken Enchiladas with Creamy Green Chile Sauce

Creamy Green Chile Sauce

1 small can diced green chiles
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 oz. cream cheese
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
¾ teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon diced jalapenos
¼ cup milk
¼ cup heavy cream

Chicken Filling

2 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup diced yellow or white onions
2 ½ cups shredded cooked chicken
1 teaspoon cumin
½ cup chicken stock
Salt and pepper

8 white flour or wheat/multi-grain soft tortillas
1 ½ cup Mexican blend cheese (or more depending on preference)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray or oil.

Place sauce ingredients in blender and puree until smooth.

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and sauté until tender—about 5 minutes. Add cumin and sauté 1 minute more. Pour in stock, and cook until almost absorbed, 3-5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and remove from heat.

To assemble, place some of the chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla. Top with plenty of cheese. Roll tortillas, and place seam side down in baking dish. Pour sauce over tortillas. Top with additional cheese. Bake for 30 minutes or until bubbly. Top with fresh, chopped cilantro.

Pesto Roasted Potato Salad

We all have our favorite potato salad recipe. We’re fierce about it. We want it the way we want it. Some like a particular type of mayo, others like salad dressing. Or it's celery vs. no celery, mustard vs. vinegar, eggs vs. no eggs; sweeter vs. saltier. My preference has always been the classic style, with vinegar, onions, celery, lots of mayo—the good stuff of family reunions, holiday lunches and summer picnics.

Today is a new day, and I’m putting a fresh twist on potato salad. I don’t figure I can miss with pesto. It’s a no-brainer with pasta, so it must be meant for potatoes…roasted potatoes.

Pesto Roasted Potato Salad

2 lbs. potatoes
Kosher salt and black pepper
Olive oil
½ cup diced red bell pepper
½ cup diced purple onion
¼ cup pesto
Fresh parsley or basil
Grated parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, and oil a medium sheet pan. Cut potatoes into 1 inch pieces, and pour onto cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, and season well with salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Roast for 25 minutes or until tender. Let potatoes rest on cookie sheet.

In the meantime, dice bell pepper and onion. When potatoes are cool enough to remove easily from the sheet pan, pour into bowl. Add bell pepper, onion, and pesto. Gently fold together. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Top with chopped parsley or basil and grated parmesan cheese and a drizzle of olive oil. Serve cold, at room temperature, or warmed a bit—any way you like it.

Tomatoey Chicken and Prosciutto with Grits

My pantry is almost empty, and it’s one week until payday. We've all been there.

Tonight, leftover chicken is in the refrigerator—prosciutto is in the freezer. Red bell pepper, onion, canned tomatoes and a few other staples are all I have to work with. Oh, and stone-ground grits.

You know, I think this could be good. Yes, anything with grits is good.

Tomatoey Chicken and Prosciutto with Grits

2 cups water
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 cup stone-ground grits
1 tablespoon butter or healthy spread

4 tablespoons olive oil
½ cups diced purple onion
½ cup diced red bell pepper
Salt and black pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup dry white wine
1 can diced tomatoes
4 ounces prosciutto, chopped
1 lb. cooked chicken, chopped
2 tablespoons butter or healthy spread
Fresh chopped parsley

Combine water, stock, whole milk, salt and pepper in a medium saucepan. Bring to a low boil. Add grits, and stir. Cover, reduce heat, and cook for 30 minutes, stirring often. Adjust seasoning.

Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Add onions and bell pepper, and sauté for 4 minutes, seasoning with salt and pepper. Add garlic and cook additional 1 minute. Pour in wine and reduce for 2-3 minutes. Add tomatoes and prosciutto; cook for 2 minutes until sauce starts to thicken. Add chicken and toss to heat through. If mixture is too thick at this point, thin with chicken stock. Add butter and stir. Remove from heat and adjust seasoning.

Spoon grits into shallow bowls. Top with chicken mixture. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley.

Note: If you keep only skim milk as a staple in your refrigerator, you may occasionally buy whole milk to use in recipes. If you're like me, you may not use it all before the expiration date. Try this tip: Buy heavy whipping cream instead. It keeps three times as long, and you can use it, along with skim milk, to make whole milk.

To make 1 cup whole milk, use 1 ½ tablespoons heavy cream. Fill to 1 cup with skim milk.

Zesty Chipotle Beans with Peppers and Onions

I’m not into deprivation when it comes to eating. There’s just too much good food out there, and, well, so little time to eat it all.

To keep things in balance, I make “free food weekends” a priority in my life. That’s when all bets are off, and I get to enjoy the fattiest fats, the sweetest sweets…you get the idea.

So the weekend’s over, which means I’m walking the straight and narrow.

I sing the praises of beans often—they’re high in fiber, low in fat, among countless other health benefits. This recipe was adapted from a free food weekend favorite. I've replaced animal fat with beef stock, vegetable oil, and chipotle en adobo for a smoky spiciness.

This may even be good enough for Saturday.

Zesty Chipotle Beans with Peppers and Onions

1 bag of dried beans (any kind you prefer)
4 cups beef or chicken stock
1 cup chopped bell pepper (any color)
½ cup chopped onion
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
½ - 1 chipotle en adobo, minced
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1½ - 2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 tablespoon butter or healthy spread, such as Smart Balance

Prepare beans according to quick soak instructions on the back of the bag. After soaking, draining, and rinsing beans, return them to the pot. Cover beans with stock, and add bell pepper, onion, garlic, chipotle, black pepper and oil. Bring to boil, cover, reduce heat, and cook for 1½ hours, checking the pot, and stirring them occasionally (if liquid reduces too much during cooking, add more stock). Add salt. Cover once again, and simmer beans for an additional 30 minutes.

Add butter or Smart Balance, and adjust seasoning. These beans will thicken as they cool; seasonings and flavors will continue to blend, making them even yummier.

Spoon over stone-ground grits—it’s heavenly. I also like to ladle these warm, tender beans into a big bowl and enjoy with my favorite bread—or not—it’s really all about the beans.

Note: These beans have a kick, so if you don’t like fiery foods, reduce the amount of chipotle and/or black pepper. Some like it hot though, so if you do, you'll be just fine.

Cheap Chicken 101

I honestly don’t see how people feed a large family these days—or a small one for that matter. Food prices keep climbing higher and higher, making cheaper alternatives all the more important. I like to save a little money in the poultry department. I go straight for the least expensive option—a whole chicken—and butterfly it. It cooks in half the time and will even work for busy weeknights. Cook it on the grill for a delicious, no-fuss dinner.

Try this technique with your Thanksgiving turkey, roasting it in the oven. You'll never have a more tender, quick-cooked holiday bird.

I’m no expert by any means, but here’s how I do it. (Thank you, Gary, for being my handsome hand model).

Remove giblet packet from 3.5 - 4 pound chicken. Rinse chicken under cold water and pat dry with paper towels.

                           Line poultry shears along one side of backbone, and cut through.
                                  It may seem as though you won’t make it, but you will.

                                               Repeat along other side of backbone.

Turn the chicken over, and press hard on the upper part of the breasts. You'll hear the sternum pop. You can also cut around the sternum to help flatten the chicken (it's the small, flat, sort of diamond-shaped bone on the underside of the chicken, at the head end).

                                                                   TADA!!
                                        (Don't think too much about all this. Just do it.)

After chicken is butterflied, drizzle with olive oil and season well with kosher salt and black pepper. I use about 2 teaspoons salt per side. This may seem like a lot, but it's not. Rub seasonings into chicken well. At this point, you can go straight to the grill; however, if you have the time, place the chicken in the refrigerator for 1 - 3 hours--even overnight.

Heat grill to about 400 degrees. Place chicken, skin side down, over indirect heat. Grill, covered, for 30-35 minutes. Flip chicken and cook, still over indirect heat, for about 15 minutes or until chicken is done.

Let the chicken rest for about 20 minutes before carving.

Tip: When salting and peppering the chicken, add garlic powder or chili powder for some additional flavor.

Zesty, Slow Cooker Pork

Food talk around my office lately has been all about a succulent pork butt recipe—cooked low and slow. I was on-board, but there was one problem. The secret ingredient was Dr. Pepper. I’ve eliminated high fructose corn syrup, preservatives and artificial ingredients from my diet, so soda was out. My mission: to replicate this slow-cooked pork-a-licious dish. A high-quality, sweet wine seemed like a logical choice, along with good stock. Lots of garlic and a spicy jalapeno pepper kick provide the perfect balance.

Gary calls this dish "meat butter." It's so rich and tender, it seriously falls off the bone and literally melts in your mouth.

Zesty, Slow Cooker Pork

3 – 3.5 lb. pork butt (pork shoulder)
Kosher salt and black pepper
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, diced
½ cup sweet red wine, such as Port or Marsala
½ cup beef stock
½ - 1 diced jalapeno pepper
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon grated ginger

Preheat slow cooker on low. Season pork butt liberally with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a medium size skillet over medium heat. Brown pork butt on all sides (about 10 minutes). Remove meat and transfer to slow cooker. Drain all but about 1 tablespoon oil from skillet. Add onions and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, and cook for 1 minute. Add wine to deglaze pan, scraping off bits and stirring for about a minute. Add broth, Worcestershire sauce, jalapenos, and ginger. Season to taste. Transfer broth mixture to crock pot, pouring over pork butt. Cover, and cook for 8 hours on low (or 4-5 hours on high), adjusting seasoning as meat cooks if desired.

Tip: The pork butt will produce a good amount of fat as it cooks. When meat is done, carefully remove from slow cooker. With a slotted spoon, remove onions from broth. Use a fat separator to lighten up the broth.