Green Chili Cornbread

This is a long time favorite, okay since college favorite!  It is Cliff's favorite cornbread and I have not made it enough lately because I was avoiding corn for a while.  I have come to believe corn in moderation won't mess with my stomach so I was happy to make this cornbread at Cliff's request.  We ate it with our Four-Bean Vegetarian Chili the other night. 

 I really enjoy this with a little butter

Cliff really enjoys it with a load of butter

Green Chili Cornbread

4 Tbsp. butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup creamed corn

1/4 cup green chili (a little more if you like)

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup flour (I use a little wheat flour or oat flour for 1/2 of the flour)

Preheat oven to 375.  Grease and 8 inch square pan.  Melt butter and transfer to a large mixing bowl;  stir in sugar.  Quickly add egg and beat until well blended.  Add green chili and creamed corn.  In separate bowl combine buttermilk with baking soda then stir into egg mixture.  Stir in cornmeal, flour, and salt until a few lumps remain.  Pour batter into prepared pan. 
Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Happy Monday to all.  Hope you enjoyed the weekend!

Vegetarian Chili

Over the past year I have made an effort to have meatless meals several times a week.  I also have vegetarian friends so it is nice to try new things when I am cooking for them.  A couple weeks ago we had our good friends Kourt and Keith over for dinner (Kourt is a vegetarian), so I got to try a new chili recipe I found.  I will definitely make it again because it turned out really good.

 It has 4 kinds of beans.

 I had to take a picture when I saw how much butter Cliff put on his corn bread

 Awesome friends

 It was very yummy topped with sour cream and cheese.  Recipe for cornbread coming soon

 They were kind enough to bring over this delicious cheesecake.  We had coffee with it:)

Then we went to the pavilion to hear Florence from outside her concert, it worked and it was free!  It also poured on us, we just toughed it out with a couple umbrellas and rain jackets.  It was a lot of fun.

Four-Bean Vegetarian Chili

1 medium onion

1 green bell-pepper, diced

1 carrot, diced small (optional I just added it because I had it)

1 stick celery, diced small (optional)

2 Tbsp. Olive oil

1 can black beans, drained

1 can great northern beans, drained

1 can white kidney beans, drained

1 can fire roasted tomatoes in juice

2 Tbsp. tomato paste

2 cups vegetable broth (you could use beef or chicken broth if you don't care about meatless)

2 Tbsp. chili powder

2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

Pepper and taco seasoning to taste as needed

In a large pot saute the onion, bell pepper, celery and carrot in olive oil over medium heat.  Add seasonings and when they start to get tender pour in your broth.  Add drained beans and tomatoes in juice to the pot.  Give everything a good stir and bring to simmer.  Let simmer at least 15 minutes, longer if you can.  I let mine simmer for about an hour.  You could also do this in a crock pot if you wanted dinner to be ready when you got home from work.  Serve with cornbread.  Enjoy!

I got recipe from Daily Garnish.  I only made a few adjustments  

 The Lord is my light and my salvation—
    whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
    of whom shall I be afraid?

Psalm 27:1

Simple Pasta Skillet for 2

Last night I was craving something with vegetables, I was out of town this weekend and came home to slim pickins in the fridge.  I went to the store on my way home from work and knew dinner needed to be simple.  I make a dish called Lazy Lasagna (will be posting that soon) and it has cottage cheese and spaghetti sauce.  I decided to make a faster version of that, with lots of extra veggies.  It was very simple to throw together, so keep it in mind for a quick healthy meal.

This was just what I was craving!

 When it was all combined, I topped it with mozzarella and basil

 Extra bonus:  this is meatless!

Simple Veggie Pasta Skillet

(serves 2, or make it for one and have leftovers!)

1 heaping cup favorite pasta (I used multi-color rotini)

2 cups frozen mixed veggies

1 Tbsp. Olive oil

1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed (optional, I had it so I used it)

3/4 cup spaghetti sauce

2/3 cup cottage cheese

3/4 cup mozzarella

Basil and Italian seasoning to taste

Boil water for pasta and cook according to directions on box.  While water is heating, warm a large skillet over medium heat.  Add olive oil and veggies and cook until tender, and slightly browned (about 7 minutes and turn heat up at end to brown them).  Add spinach and sauce and stir to combine.  Turn heat to medium-low and add cottage cheese and drained cooked pasta.  Once that is combined and heated though, top with mozz, basil and Italian seasoning.  Take off heat and serve once the cheese is melted.  

Enjoy!

This has been my recent dessert of choice.  Homemade peanut butter topped with mini and normal sized chocolate chips!  So yummy :)

Morning Change Up

I have a lot of recipes to blog so get excited.  As you know I have been really off and on with blogging over the past couple of months.  I have had a lot going on and decided there was no need to have extra pressure to blog.  Over that time I have kind of stockpiled the things I have been cooking, so now I have lots to blog about.  I plan to blog one recipe a post to keep it simple. 
      Back to my morning change up!  If you didn't know, I drink a smoothie almost every morning.  I take Metamucil and flax (to help my stomach) I prefer to blend them in a smoothie rather than drink them in water.  This has been working for about 4 months, but last week I felt the need to change it up.  I have been craving pumpkin (and had some leftover pumpkin in my fridge) so I made pumpkin pancakes!  They turned out so yummy, plus they are moist and filling.  The best part is how easy they are to make-check it out.

 

 Topped with peanut butter, bananas, mini chocolate chips and cinnamon sugar

About 5-6 minutes on the griddle total.

A great way to start the day!

Easy Pumpkin Pancakes (for 1)
1/3 cup just add water pancake mix (I used Kodiak mix)
1/3 cup water
1 tsp. Nopalina Flax
2 Tbsp. pumpkin puree (approximate measurement, it is the plain pumpkin)
Sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon

Basically I made the mix according to the package, adding the pumpkin, flax, and spices before I stirred it all together.  Lightly oil a griddle and cook until bubbles start to pop (about 4-5 minutes) then flip.  Top with your favorite toppings.
*I like to keep my weekday breakfasts on the healthy side so I didn't use syrup.  I topped mine with peanut butter, bananas, a few mini chocolate chips and a sprinkles of cinnamon sugar.  I am not one to skip out on syrup but these were really good without it:)  Hope you enjoy them as much as me.
Other topping/batter ideas:  These would be really good with walnuts or pecans, topped with butter and syrup for a weekend breakfast.  Also they would be good topped with granola.