Sweet and Spicy Black Bean Chicken Chili

This recipe was pretty much a shot from the hip. I needed to come up with something using only the ingredients in my pantry. So, I had a little "Chopped" competition with myself! I love "Chopped," it's probably one of my favorite shows of all time. For those of you who don't know, "Chopped" is a show on Food Network where contestants get a basket of ingredients and must turn them into a delicious dish. So, in my "Chopped" competition with myself, my ingredients were chicken breast, black beans, sweet potatoes, half an onion, and canned diced tomatoes.... GO!

Sweet and Spicy Black Bean Chili

Yields: 9 servings
Serving Size: 1 cup
PointsPlus per Serving: 5 P+

Ingredients
2 cans black beans (15 oz each), drained and rinsed
1/2 cup chopped onion
1-2 cloves minced or crushed garlic (I used 2)
1 uncooked sweet potato, chopped (8.5oz or "medium")
2 cans diced tomatoes (14.5 oz each) 
1 3/4 pound uncooked boneless skinless chicken breast, cubed
1 tsp salt
2 TBS chili powder

Directions

Chop your sweet potato and onion. Mince or crush your garlic. Cube chicken breast into even pieces.

Spray a non-stick pot with cooking spray. Heat the pan on medium heat. Add the garlic, onion, and sweet potato. Cook until onion is translucent and sweet potato is tender.


Add chicken, salt, and chili powder. Cook until chicken is cooked through.


Add tomatoes (with their juice!) and drained/rinsed black beans.


Simmer 10 minutes until chili is heated through.


Serve with rice (additional points!) or as-is.


Enjoy!

 
 

Spicy Vegetable Soup

It is the week before Christmas! For me, that means it's cookie baking week! Cookies are, without a doubt, the hardest temptation for me to conquer. The best way to take on cookie baking week is to have a super low-point recipe on the side! (That cancels out all the cookie dough sneaking, or so I'm told!) ;)

Tonight I set out to make a low-point soup that I could eat in large quantities (I've just been really craving bulk since the cold temperatures started hitting). I mixed some of my favorite flavors together and came up with this handy little side dish...or full dinner for those of us who consumed approximately 8 points worth of cookies while baking tonight.

Spicy Vegetable Soup

Yields: Approximately five 2-cup servings OR ten 1-cup servings
Serving Size: I'll let you choose... 2 cups (huge bowl) or 1 cup (side dish)
PointsPlus per Serving: Using Recipe Builder, it's 2 P+ for a 2-cup bowl or 1 P+ for a 1-cup bowl. However, this recipe uses all 0-point ingredients. So, it's up to you how you count that. For those on Simply Filling, this recipe uses all Power Foods!

Ingredients
1 tsp minced garlic
3 medium carrots
1 medium green pepper
2 celery stalks
1 large onion
1 medium zucchini
1 medium yellow squash
10 oz cabbage (I used one of those bags meant for coleslaw because I was tired of chopping!)
28 oz diced tomatoes in their juice
4 cups vegetable broth
3 packed cups chopped raw baby spinach
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp ground corriander
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Chop all vegetables (this is the fun part...not).

Saute carrots and garlic first until carrots are soft. (I did this slowly while cutting up all the other veggies).

Add onion, celery, green pepper, zucchini, yellow squash, and all spices. Saute until onions are clear. 

Add cabbage and continue to saute the veggies for about 10 more minutes or until veggies are nearly cooked through.

Add diced tomatoes with their juice and the 4 cups of vegetable broth.

Reduce heat to low, cover, and let soup simmer for 30 minutes.

Uncover and bring soup to a boil. Add spinach.

Keep soup boiling until spinach is cooked through.

Serve Hot! Or...if you're feeling adventurous...add pasta and top the soup with mozzarella cheese (this will obviously change the PointsPlus value of the recipe).

Enjoy!

 

Sweet and Tangy Meatloaf

Meatloaf brings back loads of childhood memories for me. I was not raised in a house where meatloaf meant a sauced-up, overly breaded, flavorless hunks of meat. No...meatloaf meant filling the whole house with the most pleasant aromas of my youth. Tangy, sweet, and mouthwatering smells that would hit my nose and cause me to begin salivating when I stepped out of the shower, dressed down for the evening, and prepared myself for that special meal. Meatloaf meant daddy, special occasions, and celebrations. It meant I'd earned straight A's that quarter and been allowed to request my favorite meal. It meant exciting and important company was coming for dinner. It meant mashed potatoes and peas on the side, two of my favorite things.

This isn't my dad's memorable recipe; even he doesn't remember how he used to make it anymore. But I adore this recipe, and it is wonderfully similar to the one I enjoyed growing up. It's taken a couple of years, a few tweaks, and a few more adjustments to get it right, but I'm positive that this meatloaf will go down in my own children's memories as my father's did in mine. The best part -- it takes very little prep work and is a much healthier version of what I ate growing up. I hope it remains in your memories as it has in mine. And don't forget -- take a shower (or a bubble bath) while it's in the oven. I promise, the aroma when you step out of that steamy bathroom all relaxed and wound down will be better than any aromatherapy you've encountered thus far.

 Sweet and Tangy Meatloaf

Yields: 4 servings
Serving Size: 2 slices or 1/4 loaf
PointsPlus per Serving: 5 P+

Ingredients

1 pound 93/7 ground beef
1/4 cup skim milk
1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 large egg
1/2 TBS minced ginger root
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 TBS Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 cup BBQ Sauce (I generally use Sweet Baby Ray's)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all ingredients EXCEPT BBQ sauce in a medium mixing bowl.

Mix and Knead ingredients together until thoroughly combined.

Form into a loaf and place inside a loaf pan. (If you do not have a loaf pan, line any sized baking pan with foil, spray with spray oil, and place formed loaf on the foil - I've done it this way a million times before discovering that I owned a loaf pan!)

Coat loaf with the 1/4 cup of BBQ sauce.

Loosely cover pan with tin foil.

Bake at 350 for 60 minutes. (This is when you should be taking that shower or bubble bath ;) Tell your husband that the recipe requires it!)

Slice into 8 slices (that's four 2-slice servings) and Enjoy!

 

Smoked Salmon Pizza

If you've ever had the pleasure of visiting one of Wolfgang Puck's famous restaurants, you may have noticed a peculiar-sounding item on the menu - salmon pizza.

A couple of years ago, I had the salmon pizza at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant in Disney. It was, by far, my favorite pizza ever. Tonight, I decided to attempt to create a lower-point version of this amazing creation.

I apologize in advance for how bad some of the photos are - I don't currently have the budget for a nice camera, but I'll get one as soon as I can!

Side note: the pizza crust I made for this recipe was really good! Feel free to use it for your traditional pizzas as well ;)

Smoked Salmon Pizza on a Garlic Onion Crust
Yields: 4 servings
Serving Size: 2 slices
PointsPlus per serving: 5 PointsPlus

Ingredients

Crust
1 1/2 cups Bisquick HeartSmart Pancake and Biscuit Mix
1/3 cup hot water
1/3 cup minced onion
1/2 TBS minced garlic

Sauce
1/4 cup fat-free sour cream
1 TBS reduced-fat cream cheese
1/2 TBS fresh or dried dill (I used fresh)
1/8 tsp (or a pinch) lemon zest
1/4 tsp fresh lemon juice

Toppings
3 oz smoked salmon
1 TBS capers
3 TBS green onion

Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees

In bowl, combine bisquick, water, garlic, and onion.

Mix and knead dough with your hands until it forms a ball.

Roll dough out with rolling pin as flat as you can on top of a pizza sheet that has been prepared with spray olive oil.

Bake rolled-out crust at 450 until golden brown (about 12-15 minutes)

Meanwhile, combine sour cream, cream cheese, dill, lemon zest, and lemon juice in separate bowl.

Spread the sour cream mixture over the baked crust

Top  pizza with the smoked salmon, capers, and green onions.

Using a pizza cutter, slice into 8 wedges.

Enjoy!

P.S.,
Yes, I totally forgot to put green onions on the pizza before taking the picture.... but I did add the green onions before consuming it!