This is what I made for dinner tonight.  I used the following recipe for white bean chili from Paula Deen, but I made changes (as usual).  Below is the recipe I did....

Ingredients

• 1 can cannelloni beans - undrained
• 1 can great northern beans - drained 
• 1 cup non salted chicken stock
• 1 packet chicken flavor boost
• 3 cubes of garlic (Dorot frozen garlic)
• 3/4 cup diced onion
• 1 4oz can chopped green chiles (in mexican aisle)
• 11/2  pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, finely chopped - about 1/2 inch
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano

Put chicken and onions in pot and stir around as it cooks. Once the chicken is all cooked, then add everything else.  Let it cook on low for about 20 minutes - stirring every so often.

I served it with low fat corn bread from work.  Thanks to Salvador and Sergio at work for making this for me.  It was fresh and ready when I got off work at 2p today. 

As you can see, I put the corn bread in the bowl then the chili over it.  It was best to get corn bread and chili in one bite.  The sweet from the corn bread and slight crack in the bite with the heat of the chilis and the creaminess of the beans....SO GOOD!!!!

But we decided it really wasn't a chili...more like a "sili"...soup and chili. Delicious "sili".

These are the roasted vegetables I made for supper tonight.  I used brussel sprouts and I tried sunchokes for the first time.  No one really liked them (except me) - and at $5 per pound....not really worth it for everyone to pick out.  But the brussel sprouts went over well as usual.

Now this was a big hit and the first time I have made this.  I put fresh green beans on a non-stick pan with 3 cubes of garlic (those cubes of garlic I have mentioned in the past made by Dorot) and just a bit of butter.  I let them all cook over medium heat and stir occasionally.  Then I added some panko crumbs in the last 5 minutes of cooking. With a few twists of fresh sea salt at the end it was amazing.

This is the flank steak I marinaded since yesterday afternoon.  I marinaded in Wildfire's Backyard Marinade.  I grilled it and let it sit for a few minutes before we cut into it.  It was delicious.  But everyone agreed they like skirt steak better than flank steak.

Tonight we ate at Red Robin.  I had a great salad.... similar to one I had explained in a previous post that I had gotten at Continental.  It is just the perfect balance of stuff.....blue cheese, hard boiled egg, grilled chicken, chopped tomatoes, avocado, bacon, and black olives.  I had it with salsa ranch dressing on the side.  It was a nice, spicy dressing that I just had to dip a tiny part of each bite in. Yum!!

I am making flank steak for dinner tomorrow night, but I already put it in the fridge with a whole bottle of Wildfire Backyard Marinade.  All I do is put the whole piece of steak in a large ziplock bag and pour the sauce over the whole thing.  I moved it around to make sure the marinade gets all around the meat.  Tomorrow morning I will move it around again, and then probably when get I home from work....around 3p.  I plan to grill it with roasted vegis.....great supper in store of us tomorrow!!

I made vegetable soup for dinner tonight.....and guess what?!?!  Everyone ate it!!  Due to everyone each having their "thing" I also made turkey sausage in a bowl on the side to increase the protein for those that wanted that and a bowl of pasta for those that wanted that.  I put them on the table and each person could add to their soup bowl whatever they wanted.

The soup was pretty simple.  I had about 8 cups of beef broth and stock....a combo due to the broth being cheaper, but the stock adding more flavor.  I went half broth/half stock.  To that I added carrots, shreds of cabbage, dark kidney beans (about half a can), sliced zucchini, and a whole can of fire roasted crushed tomatoes. For seasoning, I added about 1t fresh ground pepper, same amount of salt, 1T red wine vinegar, 3 bay leaves and 3 cubes of basil and 3 cubes of garlic.  When I say cubes, I like Dorot products.  The grocery store I work at carries it as does Trader Joe's.  It is in the frozen section and had a red cover.  It is a great product to keep in your freezer.

I kept the soup on the stove on low flame for about 1 hour. This helped the flavor to become more concentrated and yummy. I went back and stirred it every so often to make sure nothing got too overcooked in the bottom of the pan.

A new thing I did this time that I always had heard of but never did was to add parmesan cheese rinds.  I asked the cheese guy at work to save me some.  He gave them to me for no charge.  I put 3 rinds in the soup while it cooked.  I took them out when the soup was done cooking and served shaved parmesan cheese on the side.

This was a great, healthy supper!!

Back to reality...but wait one moment

Now I'll get back to posting about the food back at home, but not before sharing a few things.

If you are lucky enough to have a partner at your side, I want to briefly say how important it is to get away with them.  Let's face it, every Super Mom has to have a Super Partner just to keep up with her.  And nothing stays Super (capital intended) if you don't work at it, and getting away with just the two of you helps keep this Super.  I don't mean you have to go to Toronto, just an overnight at a local hotel. These days there are SO many websites that allow for you to stay at hotels for less than $40.  And you don't have to do Super things when you do this overnight (no pressure).  Just being alone with no kids to listen for and nothing but the silence and the two of you is precious.

Not only do Super Moms need Super Partners, but they also need Super Family and Super Friends.  I think one trait of a Super Mom is a woman who has learned to create a special village around her family.  If you don't have others on which you can depend and lean on, the Super runs out very quickly.  You are not strong if you take care of everything yourself, you are strong if you let others take care of things as well.

Ok....just one more thing and I will get back to talking about food and all the great stuff that goes along with that.  But in that line of thought....I just wanted to touch upon the importance of eating meals together, as a family.  I know how hard it is in this day and age to do that....believe me!  With three kids, we are always running around.  But something happens around the dinner table that is just impossible to put into words. Don't get me wrong....it's not always nirvana around our dinner table.  There is fighting, farting and sometimes some crying that goes on there, but we still always come back to the table - and that is what counts.  I think that is the thing I like the best about food - it brings us to the table.

OK.....done....stay tuned for this week in food.