Versatile Chili Recipe

One of the things that I love most about cooking is how versatile and creative you can be. If you don't have a certain ingredient, you can just leave it out and usually your recipe will turn out OK. In this post, you can take any of the ingredients from each of the categories and combine them to make any time of chili you please. I would say that a given would be to always use crushed tomatoes or tomato paste, but you can do meatless chili, or carbless chili (no filler), or vegetable-less chili. I have included some sample recipes at the bottom, and two different cooking methods (stovetop or crock pot). I love making chili because it can be relatively healthy, it's super easy to make, and it freezes really nicely. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Tomatoes
- canned crushed tomatoes or tomato paste
- canned or fresh diced tomatoes

Meat
- ground beef
- ground turkey or chicken
- none

Filler
- beans (black, kidney, red, lima)
- chick peas
- tempeh (fermented soy patty similar to tofu)
- quinoa (pre-cooked)
- rice (pre-cooked)

Vegetables
- mushrooms
- peppers (green, red, yellow, hot)
- onions (cooking)
- carrots
- celery
- eggplant
- zucchini

Spices
- salt
- pepper
- chili powder
- basil
- cumin
- bay leaf (don't eat it)
- oregano
- onion salt
- celery salt
- garlic powder
- hot sauce

How to Cook:

Stovetop Method:

1. Brown the meat with a little bit of oil in a large pot until it is fully cooked over medium heat.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and stir.
3. Simmer over medium heat until the veggies are tender (approx. 20-30 minutes).

Crock Pot Method:

1. Brown the meat with a little bit of oil in a frying pan until it is fully cooked over medium heat.
2. Add all the ingredients, including the meat, into a crock pot and stir.
3. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Sample Recipes:

Jenna's Favourite Chili
- 2 packages ground turkey or chicken
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 1 can crushed tomatoes
- 1 can black beans
- 1 package sliced mushrooms
- 1 green pepper
- 1 red pepper
- 1 onion
- 1 cup diced carrots
- 1 cup diced celery
- salt
- pepper
- chili powder
- basil
- cumin
- bay leaf
- oregano
- garlic powder

Classic Chili
- crushed tomatoes
- ground beef
- beans
- mushrooms
- onions
- chili powder

Vegetarian Chili
- crushed tomatoes
- diced tomatoes
- beans
- quinoa
- tons of veggies
- spices

Healthy Carb-Free Chili
- crushed tomatoes
- diced tomatoes
- ground turkey or chicken
- tempeh
- tons of veggies
- spices

OMB Grilled Cheese (Onions, Mushrooms, Bacon)

This recipe is again inspired by soemthing I saw on Pinterest (this link). I didn't look too closely at the recipe (which is for BBQ and onion grilled cheese) when I looked at it, and I thought that the onions looked like bacon when I went grocery shopping, so I added bacon (best wife ever)! I also had some mushrooms on hand, so I added them as well. I call this recipe "OMB" Grilled Cheese because there are onions, mushrooms and bacon on it.

Jordan likes to tell everyone about the "most amazing grilled cheese he has ever had- dude you gotta try this". He no longer makes fun of Pinterest, but says that he enjoys the outcome of it. Anyways here is the recipe, hope you enjoy!

OMB Grilled Cheese

Ingredients:
-Bread
-Bacon
-Onions (cooking or red onions)
-Mushrooms
-Cheese
-Margarine or butter
-BBQ sauce
* I didn't provide quantities because it depends on how many you are making, and it doesn't really matter how much you use (sorry OCD people!)

Fry bacon on a frying pan over medium heat. Add sliced mushrooms and sliced onions and fry until cooked, flipping occasionally.

While you are waiting for it to cook, grate some mozzarella cheese. Spread margarine or butter on one side of each bread, and BBQ sauce on the other sides.

Preheat a panini press or separate frying pan on medium heat. Once the bacon and veggies are done cooking, put one piece of bread butter side down on the frying pan. Add some cheese, then the bacon/veggies, then more cheese, then another piece if bread butter side up. Fry it for a while until the cheese starts to melt. Flip it and fry the other side. Voila!

Oatmeal M&M Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

The hubby got home from work early and wanted to do something fun together, so we baked cookies! He looked in the cupboard of baking supplies and chose the m&ms and peanut butter chips and so I modified an oatmeal cookie recipe from my Company's Coming cook book. They turned out great! The recipe yields 5 dozen, and we ended up with 4 1/2 dozen, which means that I only ate the equivalent of 6 cookies in dough, or I made them a bit bigger... Let's go with the second option :)

Ingredients

1 cup butter or margarine
2 cups brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 cups rolled oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup m&ms
1 cup peanut butter chips

Mix butter and brown sugar together. Add in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla. Add in the dry ingredients and mix. Add the m&ms and peanut butter chips and mix. Form into small 1" balls and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350F for 10 minutes and let cool on a cookie rack. Makes approximately 5 dozen cookies.

Dessert Pizza

Our wonderful neighbors invited us over for pizza the other night and I was on for dessert, so I decided to make pizza for dessert as well! I combined a couple recipes I saw on Pinterest to make my own version. It was pretty good, quick and easy, and quite sweet, but that's the point right? When I made it the icing became a little runny after a while and the colour from the m&ms started to run, so I would recommend serving it immediately or maybe putting it in the fridge would help.

Ingredients
1 can Pilsbury pizza dough
1 package strawberries, washed and sliced
1 cup icing sugar
1/2 package cream cheese
1 tbsp milk
1/4 cup m&ms
Chocolate sauce

Roll out the pizza dough onto a pan and bake according to instructions (400F for 10-15 minutes) or until the crust is fully cooked. Beat together the icing sugar, cream cheese and milk to make the icing. Spread it onto the cooled crust. Put the strawberries and m&ms on the pizza, and drizzle with chocolate sauce. Serve immediately.

Candy Cane Brownie Cheesecake

I was on for dessert with my family for Christmas dinner, so I wanted to make something festive, delicious, and less work than pies! I saw a few recipes for candy cane cheesecake on Pinterest, but they either didn't have a link or required crushed cookies, sour cream or heavy cream, which I didn't have. So I combined a few recipes to make this one my own!

The cheesecake part isn't very thick, so if you wanted to make it a bit bigger you could change the portions to 3 packages cream cheese, 3/4 cup sugar, and 3 eggs. It is quite sweet and rich, so you really only need a small piece.

Ingredients

Crust:
-1 package brownie mix

-1 egg

-2 tbsp water

Filling:

-2 packages (8oz/250g each) cream cheese

-½ cup white sugar

-1 tsp peppermint extract

-2 eggs

-1 cup crushed candy canes

-Chocolate sauce or whipped cream to top

Mix together brownie mix, egg, and water. Spread into a greased 9” springform pan and bake at 350F for 20 minutes.

Beat cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add in the sugar and peppermint extract and beat. Add the eggs one at a time and beat. Stir in ½ cup of the candy cane pieces. Pour over the brownie crust and bake for 35-40 minutes at 350F. Top with chocolate sauce or whipped cream, and candy cane pieces. Enjoy!

Christmas Cookies 2012

I have been quite the busy beaver this past week! With classes finished done, no exams, and just assignments and marking to work on, I have had lots of time to do some Christmas baking! I did 3 rounds of baking and made 7 different kinds of cookies, which I will share with you here! I tested them all, and they are delicious, so don't worry!

1) Red Velvet Cookies with Cream Cheese Icing

I found this recipe on Pinterest, and the link for it can be found here.

Makes about 4 dozen
For the cookies:
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon red food coloring

For the cream cheese frosting:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons butter, softened
4 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 325 and line a baking sheet with parchment. Whisk together the flour, salt and cocoa powder together in a medium bowl. In a large bowl beat the butter and powdered sugar together until light and fluffy. Add in the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Add the food coloring and mix until the color is even and no streaks remain. Working in batches add the flour mixture and stir until incorporated. Roll dough into 1-inch round balls and place onto the prepared baking sheet. Make an indent into each ball using the end of a wooden spoon. Bake for 12 minutes and let cool on a rack.

To make the filling, beat all the ingredients together in a medium bowl until smooth and spreadable. Transfer to a pastry bag filled with a small round tip. Pipe the filling into the center of each cooled cookie. Feed to Santa immediately and store the rest in an airtight container.


2) Shortbread

Ingredients

2 cups flour

1 cup butter (don't substitute margarine)

¼ cup sugar

Sprinkles (optional)

Mix all ingredients until smooth. Pat into a 9x9" (approx.) cake pan, top with sprinkles, and bake at 325ºC for 30 minutes until edges just start to change colour. 

3) Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies (AKA Grinch Cookies)

I made these ones last year following the recipe that is listed on my blog here. It calls for sugar cookie mix, but I didn't feel like spending 3 dollars on it so I just added peppermint extract, green food colouring, and mint chocolate chips to the sugar cookie dough that I was making anyways. I think they were better the original way because they held their round shape, but maybe I should have just pressed them down with a fork? Still delicious though, I think these are the favourite of me and the hubby this year! 

4) Mini Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

I got this recipe from the package of mini kisses I had (found by the chocolate chips), which you can also find here. I didn't quite make them as mini as they were supposed to be, but that's OK! They still taste great :) You could also use the same recipe and make the balls a bit bigger and use full-size kisses.

Ingredients:
-1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
-3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
-1/3 cup granulated sugar
-1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
-1 egg
-3 tbsp milk
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 package Chipits mini kisses

Cream together butter, peanut butter, white sugar and brown sugar. Beat in egg, milk and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually blend dry ingredients into creamed mixture. Shape dough into small (2cm) balls, and roll in extra granulated sugar. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 5-6 minutes at 350F. Remove from oven and immediately press one mini kiss into the middle. Makes about 9 dozen cookies (if you make them small enough haha).

5) Candy Cane Sugar Cookies

 

This is another repeat recipe from last year- they were so yummy and festive I just had to make them again! You can find the recipe in a previous post here.

6) Sugar Cookies

 

The classic Christmas cookie! I was so impressed by all the beautiful sugar cookies I am seeing on Pinterest that I had to make some of my own! I used the recipe in my binder, but I think that it is different from the one that is on my blog, which is much better! So use this one! I made the icing way too runny so the decorating part didn't turn out as well as I would have hoped. Thanks to my friend Felicia for coming over to make and decorate these cookies with me! 

7) Cake Batter Cookies

OK, this has to be one of the easiest recipes ever.... seen on Pinterest here. There are only 3 ingredients and you can use whatever kind of cake mix you want. I used the sprinkle/funfetti kind and they are super yummy!

Ingredients
-1 box cake mix
-2 eggs
-1/3 cup oil

Mix ingredients together, form into balls, and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 375F for 6-8 minutes. 

Here is the final product(s)! I didn't count how many cookies I made in total, but it was quite a lot! We will see how many survive the Williams and Jones Christmases :) Enjoy!

Christmas Pinterest Party!

A couple of weeks ago, I hosted my very own Christmas Pinterest Party (guess where I got the idea from...)! Here are the instructions I included on the Facebook invitations...

"You are invited to a Pinterest Party, Christmas edition!

Basically what will happen is everyone brings something they saw on Pinterest for us to all do together! Anything is fair game: crafts, recipes, hairstyles, nails, or you can even clean/reorganize my house! We will all go home with some yummy food and crafty projects to keep for yourself or give as Christmas gifts.

If you aren't on Pinterest, or have little to no crafty/domestic skills, don't worry about it, still come and have fun! You can bring a recipe or something that you didn't see on Pinterest, or you can just come to hang out or play with my kitten!

Please RSVP on here, and once you decide what pin to do, post the link on the wall. Also, if anyone needs any ingredients or baking/crafty supplies for their pin, just let me know, I have plenty!"

So a bunch of my girlfriends from school came over and we had lots of fun! Most people brought food that was already made, but I think it worked out better that way because we wouldn't have had time to make a craft/recipe from each person that came. We ended up making 2 recipes, and 3 crafts together. Here are instructions for some of the cool things we did!

Spinach Cranberry Cream Cheese Wraps

 I made this recipe before everyone arrived, based on two things I saw on Pinterest, this one for the display as a Christmas tree, and this one for the contents. Here is the recipe I used for the wraps (sorry I don't have amounts, it doesn't really matter anyways). I like how they looked so Christmas-y and were super easy to throw together.

Ingredients
-spinach tortillas
-baby spinach
-plain cream cheese
-craisins

Spread the tortillas with plain cream cheese. Top with craisins and spinach. Wrap up into pinwheels, and then cut into 1" slices. That's it! The original pin called for feta cheese and green onions, but I didn't have them so I left them out! I imagine it would taste good though. I was low on cream cheese so I didn't use very much, but more would probably taste better!

Pinterest vs Reality: Christmas Tree Wraps

 Apple Nachos

A lot of people were really confused about the concept of apple nachos, but they were really good! If you like apples and peanut butter, then you will like apple nachos!

Ingredients
-4 apples (I used 6 and it was too much)
-1 tsp lemon juice
-1/2 cup peanut butter
-1/2 cup chocolate chips

Slice the apples, and then put them in a large bowl of water with 1 tsp lemon juice so they don't get brown. Melt the peanut butter, and pour over the apple slices. Sprinkle the chocolate chips and voila! The original pin (here) added almonds, pecans, and coconut, but I didn't, and it was still delicious! You could also use caramel sauce instead of peanut butter and it would be yummy too.

Pinterest vs Reality: Apple Nachos

Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread (AKA Monkey Bread)

Erin brought this recipe that her mom used to make that is also all over Pinterest. And for good reason, it was delicious!

Ingredients
-2 package Pilsbury country biscuits
-3/4 cup white sugar
-1 tbsp cinnamon
-1/2 cup melted butter

-1/2 package (250g) cream cheese
-1/2 cup icing sugar
-1-2 tbsp milk

Cut the biscuits into quarters or bite-size pieces. Mix together the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl. Dip the biscuit pieces into 1/4 cup of melted butter, then into the sugar mixture, and put them into a greased bundt pan until it is half full. Pour the remaining 1/4 cup butter on top, and then add the rest of the biscuit pieces (dipped in butter/sugar mix). Mix together the leftover butter and sugar mixture and pour it over the top. Bake for 40-45 minutes at 350F (I recommend putting a spare cookie sheet under it in case the butter leaks).

While it is baking, beat together the cream cheese, icing sugar, and milk to make the icing. When it is finished baking, invert onto a serving plate, and spread the icing on top. It is eaten by pulling apart the pieces like monkeys (hence the name). It tastes amazing while it is still warm too!

Erin with her Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread

Sharpie Mugs

This project was really easy and would make a great Christmas present (actually, many of the girls made them for gifts so I could only post my own)! I chose to write our favourite Bible verse, Ephesians 3:17-24 on mine. What you do is you draw on plain coloured mugs (from the dollar store) with sharpies, and then bake them for 30 minutes at 350F. After it first came out of the oven, the writing wouldn't wipe off, but I put it through the dishwasher and it wipes off a little, so I would recommend hand washing them, or using it for a platter or something that would be more decoration. The link to the original pin is here.

 
Mod Podge Glass Pebble Magnets

This was the craft that I provided for the party. Very simple, cute, and cheap! Check out the tutorial from a previous post here.

Brie and Jaspreet with their magnets

Christmas Cards

Two of the girls were "pinspired" by all the wonderful Christmas cards on Pinterest, so we got out all the supplies and went mad! I don't have a specific tutorial for this, just let the creative juices flow!

Erin and Felicia with their cards

Hamburger Macaroni Soup

Here is a recipe I semi-made up loosely based on a soup that my Grandma made for us once, but I lost the recipe! I have no idea whether this is close or not, but my husband and I both enjoyed it! Feel free to substitute any vegetables that you like and to adjust the recipe as you desire. 

Ingredients

Ground beef

1 ½ cups elbow macaroni

1 can tomatoes

1 onion

1 green pepper

1 package or can mushrooms

1 cup chopped carrots

2 cups water

Spices (optional)
Grated cheese to top (optional)

Brown the ground beef in a large pot with a bit of oil. Add the chopped onions and other vegetables. Add the can of tomatoes, water, and macaroni. Simmer for about 20 minutes on medium-high heat or until the macaroni is cooked to your liking. Add salt, pepper, and spices if desired. Top with grated cheese and enjoy!

Puppy Chow!

Before you read any further, I must warn you that puppy chow is incredibly addictive, and really unhealthy. But it is super delicious. Consider yourself warned :) 

Ingredients

¼ cup peanut butter

1 cup chocolate chips

¼ cup butter

6 cups Crispix cereal

2 cups powdered sugar

Large paper bag

Directions

Melt the peanut butter, chocolate chips and butter together in a pot over medium heat.

Pour over the cereal in a large bowl and mix together. 

Pour the powdered sugar and cereal mixture into a large paper bag and shake. Enjoy!

No Bake Granola Bars

This is a great recipe for granola bars, found on Pinterest of course (orignal link here). This recipe is fairly versatile, and you could totally add whatever ingredients you would like to it. I modified the original recipe slightly, and it still turned out great! They might not look too good, but they taste delicious! I didn't calculate anything, but I'm sure that this recipe would be much cheaper than buying store-bought granola bars, plus there's no preservatives, etc.

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup honey
- 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 4 cups quick cooking oats (not rolled oats)
- 2 cups cereal (I used corn flakes, recipe said rice krispies)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups chocolate chips
- 1 cup raisins
- anything else you would like to add!

In a large bowl, stir the dry ingredients together, and set aside.

In a small pot, melt butter, honey and brown sugar together over medium high heat until it comes to a bubble. Reduce the heat and cook 2 minutes. Pour in vanilla and stir.

Pour over dry ingredients and mix well to moisten all ingredients.

Pour into a pan with parchment paper on the bottom. Cover the top with another sheet of parchment paper, and press with a rolling pin. (Try to press it together as much as you can so it doesn't break).

Cool to room temperature for two hours, and then cut into bars. Wrap in parchment or plastic wrap and store at room temperature.

Variations: try it with craisins and white chocolate chips, use peanut butter instead of butter, add in nuts, or different kinds of cereal.... the options really are endless, it's mostly just the butter/honey/sugar part that you have to stick to, have fun with it! :)

Pinterest vs. Reality

 Note: The original recipe said to sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of the granola bars after they're in the pan. I decided to just mix them in, and they melted immediately, but it tastes the same so it's up to you.