Tasty Tuesday, bring on the yum!

Today is going to be a whirlwind of finalizing homeschooling portfolios and nailing down an end-of-year evaluation with kid #1's evaluator (a mother of 10, who is super awesome with managing to be flexible with the times available for evaluations), laundry blitz, emergency trips to the dry cleaner where I will need to beg and plead for things to be cleaned in time for my husband's trip to his grandmother's funeral, and then an impromptu trip to the grocery store to load up on the week's necessities with all four kids in tow.*  This, of course, means I have to think fast about the coming week's meal plan and take quick (read: inaccurate and pretty sloppy) inventory of our food situation so I know what to buy within our budget.

Even still, I insist on making a dinner without the invasion of processed foods.  Some days, these feel impossibly incongruous, but I can't fall back on ordering out/driving thru/invading the freezer section of the grocery store.  It's better for our health and our budget to keep the ingredients simple and pure.

Believe it or not, some things can be put together quickly if things are already prepared.  For example, we buy dry beans and soak them in water and raw cider vinegar (they won't give you gas that way!) because it's more economical and I know exactly how the beans go from dried to ready-to-use.  I'm not SUCH a food snob that I won't use canned beans in a pinch, so this will obviously be a recipe that can be altered and substituted to suit individual tastes.  And I love using homemade yogurt when recipes call for sour cream.  It's addictive to make your own yogurt, especially since it's so much cheaper to do it and it buys so much peace of mind!

Because preparation takes about 10 minutes (if you don't include time spent preparing the ingredients like beans and peppers and yogurt, of course), chili is a great way to make sure a well-rounded meal makes it to the table.  And if you remember in time (unlike yours truly today, derp derp derp), it can be tossed in the crock pot and forgotten until dinner time.

So, without further ado:

WHITE CHILI - makes 7 servings


                      Photo source

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 medium onion, chopped

1 tablespoon fresh garlic, minced

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 cups (or 2 cans, 15-1/2 ounces each) great northern beans, rinsed and drained

2 cups chicken broth

4-6 fire roasted green chiles, skinned and chopped (or 2 cans, 4 ounces each, chopped green chilies)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

Optional additions: corn, red peppers, fried onions, whatever makes you happy

In a large saucepan, saute the chicken, onion and garlic powder in oil until chicken is no longer pink.

Add the beans, broth, chilies and seasonings. Bring to a boil. 

Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 30minutes.  Stir occasionally. 

Remove from heat and stir in the sour cream or yogurt.  

Optional: add a half cup of cream.  I like mine thick, so I omit that.

Enjoy!

*I feel like a complete pansy complaining about taking my four kids to the grocery store, especially in the possible company of moms of 5, 6, 7, 10, 15 kids, but on days like today, it may as well be 15 kids.