Tidings of Comfort and Varying Degrees of Joy

And just when you thought you were done with those fun holiday tunes, I bet you are now humming "tidings of comfort and joy" due to my clever blog title.

With the weather people promising inches and inches of that horrible white stuff, I hunkered down and bought enough supplies to last us through the next several days. Because I don't drive in it. Normally I am kind of an aggressive driver, but throw in a few flakes or black ice threats, and I become THAT driver - the one who goes about 10mph on an interstate.

I digress. So, even though the snow was a non-event (maybe an inch here in the "snow belt"?) I decided to make a delish-looking chili for lunch, and a crock pot request for dinner. Selfishly, I knew going into it that my family was not going to partake in the chili, but that's kind of OK. Because I kinda love it.

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili
Source: Taste of Home Heartwarming Soups, Fall 2011

Ingredients:

• 3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp chili powder
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained (used no-salt added)
• 1 can diced tomatoes, not drained (used no-salt added)
• 1/4 c. brewed coffee (used Starbucks Bold - woot woot!)
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1/2 tsp salt (skip)
• 1/4 tsp pepper (skip)
• 1/2 c. shredded reduced fat cheese

Directions:

• In a nonstick Dutch oven coated with cooking spray, saute sweet potatoes and onion in oil until crisp-tender. Add the chili powder, garlic, cumin and cayenne, cook 1 min longer. Stir in the beans, tomatoes, coffee, honey, salt and pepper.
• Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30-35 mins or until sweet potatoes are tender. Sprinkle with 1 tbsp cheese.

Yield: 8 servings (1 c chili with 1 tbsp cheese)
Per serving: 252 cals; 4g fat (1g sat); 5mg choles; 554mg sodium; 47mg carbs; 9g fiber; 10g protein

Reviews:
I am the sole reviewer of this. I love this chili. So good. So chock full of healthy items like black beans, canned tomatoes and sweet potatoes! The only complaint I have is that chopping up sweet potatoes is a pain. But yum - delish. I have a sneaking suspicion I will be eating this chili every single day for lunch over the next several days.

All mine!

Ranking:
Four Forks

And for dinner, the kid requested "tacos" earlier this week, so of course I obliged.
Thai Chicken Tacos
Source: Clean Eating, Jan/Feb 2012

I do not feel like typing this one out. There are just a ton of ingredients and frankly peeps, it isn't worth it. Basically - this is a peanut butter chicken that cooks in a slow cooker for 6-7 hours. The tacos include the chicken mixture topped with a tomato-cucumber salad and shredded red cabbage.

Here's my issue with chicken and slow cookers - I always feel like it comes out too mushy. This was the case with our dinner tonight. And I followed the timing to a tee to try and make sure the mush-chicken-thing didn't happen. The flavor was just OK - nothing too special, and it def did not have much of a kick to it. The hubs was actually a bigger fan of this dish than I was - he even added the tomato-cucumber salad AND red cabbage to his tacos. The kid ate about half a serving.

Ranking:
Two Forks