Green chili chicken and dumplings

A family favorite!! We buy several jars of the mix whenever we can find it, because it isn't local to us. We usually find it at HEB when we go to Texas.

I never alter this recipe, so here is the  link! 

Leave out the biscuits or make your own low carb dumplings if you want low carb.

https://cookwell.net/blogs/green-chili-stew-recipes/green-chili-chicken-dumplings

Baked Chicken and Rice Soup

We visited our son in Tennessee this past summer and he took us to eat at a lovely place called Demos. At his urging, we ordered soup instead of salad with our meal. "It's the best soup ever!" he claimed.

The whole family got it and we all loved it! Such a simple soup, quite unlike what I usually make. I had to find the recipe, so I searched online. Apparently they do not share it, but many have tried to duplicate it! I found one that claims to be spot on, and altered it slightly. The original used canned broth and bouillon. I tried it this way, but the soup base made it way too strong and salty (besides being full of artificial crap). I now use homemade broth. You can concentrate it if you want a stronger flavor by cooking it down. Be careful - it's really easy to end up too salty! Add the salt after concentrating it. I did use a rotisserie chicken for the meat, skin included for flavor.

I can't guarantee this tastes exactly like Demos', since we can't compare. But I can promise you it is totally delicious comfort food!!

Baked Chicken and Rice Soup

• 2 quarts chicken broth (after concentrating, if you are)
• 1 can water
• 1 cup milk or cream 
• 1 cooked rotisserie chicken, bones removed and thinly sliced (leave skin for more flavor)
• pepper to taste
• garlic salt to taste
• fresh parsley, for garnish

• cooked rice

Put broth in a stock pot and add chicken. Boil until chicken is tender.

Add milk and heat through.

Spoon rice into bowls as desired. Ladle soup into bowls and sprinkle with fresh parsley.

Vegetable Beef Soup

I love soup. My favorite method for making soup is to make some broth, then throw in whatever veggies we have on hand, and barley. I love barley!!

My dear friend Jill made this soup once when we were visiting her and we loved it! My 15-year-old son asks for it from time to time, so this is one recipe I do follow (well - I closely follow it. Ha)

I will first post the original recipe as given to me by Jill, then the variations I did. I don't vary too far, because this is an amazing soup. I would love to give it a more special name, because it deserves it!

Jill's Vegetable Beef Soup

(Most all amounts are approximate!) 1 lb ground beef browned 1/2 cup red wine ( I use what may be on hand, Merlot usually) 3 - 4 bouillon cubes salt & pepper to taste Tony Cacheres Cajun spice to taste 1 med onion chopped 1 tsp chopped garlic (to taste or health need in my house!) 3 - 4 carrots chopped, or sliced 1/2 purple (or green if you prefer - I just love the color!) cabbage, chopped 3 med zucchini diced 3/4 cup tiny pasta (I like alphabets) 1 large can diced tomatoes 3 large stalks celery chopped 1/2 bag of fresh spinach, chopped 2 boxes beef broth

Here's the order I do things: Brown hamburger and use wine to deglaze the pan after transferring meat to soup pot. Empty 1 box of beef broth to pot and set on low heat. Saute' onion, garlic, celery and carrots in small amount of beef broth so they can actually brown a bit. Add to soup pot, then add chopped cabbage, zucchini, and diced tomatoes. Add remainder of beef broth (use a small bit to dissolve bouillon), season and bring to boil. Add pasta to boiling soup, stirring frequently. I usually have to add water after pasta has cooked. Season to taste. I add spinach last, let it just wilt and serve. I don't let it cook down much to preserve the antioxidant punch and the color of course! Wonderful with some french bread and butter.

VARIATIONS by me:

I don't use bouillon unless I have some all natural ones around, which usually I don't because it's hard to find.

Since we're eating clean at the moment, I left out the pasta. I did add some barley because I LOVE barley in soup. However, the store only had "quick barley". I will never use that again! It turned to mush.

I added 3 cloves of garlic because we love it and it's good for you. :)

I used fresh kale, chopped up, instead of spinach. I'm on a kale kick so it was in my fridge anyway, but I've started using kale in almost anything that calls for spinach or parsley! I used about 2 cups and stirred it in AFTER I turned off the burner, so as Jill said, it wilted but didn't really "cook".

My broth and beef just happened to be from an organic grass-fed cow this time around because we happened to have it, so I like to think of this batch as "super soup".

Daniel then told me he prefers the kind of beef soup with "beef strips" to the one with hamburger. I've made this before using cut up stewing beef - it's great either way!

**This is the ONLY way I can feed my gang a meal using only one pound of beef!

Wendy's Chili Clone - My Favorite Chili

Note: I originally posted this a couple of years ago. We have recently re-discovered it and have been making it almost every week. Two kids even requested it for their birthday dinners! Today I had to take one kid to the doctor, and we stopped at Wendy's for lunch. We decided to bring some of their chili home so we could comparison taste.

Everybody said they liked mine better. I don't think they were "just saying that" - they are brutally honest when I ask for honesty (on the other hand, I have taught them NOT to say anything rude about anything they are given to eat!). I think I would like to do it again as a blind taste test, though. I told them we would do that later this evening.

Some of the comments about the "real" Wendy's Chili were: "too sweet" "just tastes funny" and "something weird in the spices". There is definitely something in the spice mixture that tastes a little bit sweet. We didn't care for it (we never noticed it till we compared) so I won't try to figure out what it is.

I did look up the ingredients for Wendy's Chili, though:

Water, Chili Base (tomatoes, salt, citric acid, calcium chloride), Ground Beef, Vegetable Mix (onions, celery, green peppers), Chili Beans (beans, water, sugar, corn syrup, salt, natural flavorings, onion powder, calcium chloride), Kidney Beans (kidney beans, water, sugar, corn syrup, salt, natural flavorings, onion powder, calcium chloride, disodium EDTA [preservative]), Chili Seasoning (sugar, salt, modified corn starch, chili pepper, onion powder, spices, dextrose, garlic powder, citric acid, disodium inosinate & guanylate, xanthan gum, autolyzed yeast extract, soybean oil, caramel color, extractives of paprika, malic acid, red 40, natural and artificial flavor, silicon dioxide [anticaking agent]).

My beans, by the way, contained just beans, water, and salt.

So there you have it! This is one of the easiest things in the world to make, and makes us happy! I hope you enjoy it too. :)

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Originally posted 11/1/09:

My favorite chili in the world can be found at Wendy's (as in Old Fashioned Hamburgers). So when I found a clone recipe in the book A Treasury of Top Secret Recipes, I was thrilled! However, when I made it I was disappointed. It was decent chili, don't get me wrong. But - having worked at Wendy's all through high school and through much of college - I knew it was NOT a true clone of Wendy's chili. It was close, though, so I set out to tweak it till I got it right.

This is what I've come up with. Your method may vary - but in my opinion it is a pretty darn good copy of the original!

*walks away humming...."single cheese, double cheese, triple all the way"....*

2 pounds ground beef
1 - 29 ounce can tomato sauce
1 - 15 ounce cans kidney beans (with liquid)
1 - 15 ounce cans pinto beans (with liquid)
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 cans mild tomatoes with green chilies, with liquid
1 - 15 oz can of water (use to rinse out all the cans and dump it in the pot)
2 teaspoons cumin powder
3 Tablespoons chili powder
1-1/2 teaspoons black pepper
2 teaspoons salt


Brown the ground beef and drain the fat. Crumble into small pieces.
In a large pot, combine the cooked beef with all the remaining ingredients. Bring to a simmer over low heat. Cook, stirring every 15 minutes, for 2 to 3 hours.

For spicier chili, adjust the heat level with black pepper, cayenne pepper or use a spicier tomato/chili.

Serve with grated cheese and fresh diced onion if desired.

**Now if only I could learn to make the liquid chili seasoning! :)

Chicken Coconut Soup

While in Austin last spring, we ate at a Thai place and I had Tom Yum soup for the first time. Mmmmm!! I was in heaven! The other day I got a hankering for it and ordered some from my local Thai restaurant. Let's just say their version was nothing like the first one I tried. I guess there are different recipes, as with anything else you find. But it was very disappointing, and I ended up throwing out half a container of soup.

So I asked my friend Google to find me a recipe. I found lots - most of which called for ingredients I couldn't find, or don't care for. So I decided to take the one that sounded best and mess with it (of course!)

Here is my version. Out of respect for any Thai people reading this, I am not calling it Tom Yum! It turned out AWESOME. I am beaming! And no one else in the family will like it so that means it's MINEALLMINE! :)

Ingredients

• 2 cans (14 oz.) coconut milk
• 2 cans (14 oz.) reduced-sodium chicken broth (I use fresh homemade)
  
• 12 quarter-size slices fresh ginger, peeled
  
• 2 stalks fresh lemongrass, cut in 1-in. pieces
• 4 ribs celery from the inner heart of the stalk, including leaves, chopped fine
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped fine
• 2 chili peppers, chopped fine
• 1/4 head cabbage, shredded (I would use Bok Choy if I had any)
  
• 6 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• 4 green onions, chopped
  
• 1 pound boned, skinned chicken breast or thighs, cut into 1-in. chunks (I used leftover picked from the carcass of the broth-making bird)
• 2 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 1 Tsp. sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper (or to taste)
  
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro

Preparation

In a medium saucepan, combine coconut milk, broth, ginger, and lemongrass and bring to boil over high heat. Add chicken, vegetables, lime juice, salt and pepper. Reduce heat and simmer until chicken is firm and opaque, 5 to 10 minutes. Discard lemongrass. Garnish servings with basil and cilantro.

Zucchini Garlic Soup

I love a good soup! Hot or cold, smooth or chunky, the creamier the better. The cool fall weather last week inspired me to make some kind if soup. I had found this recipe shortly after Dad died. It's the perfect recipe to adapt to his needs, so if you want vegan just replace the butter with oil of your choice and add some soy milk or mashed potato to thicken it a bit.

I made it the day before I ate it and it really did help the flavors come together! I had it both hot and cold and both were wonderful. This is on my keeper list. No one else in the family got the chance to approve it, though. Between lunches and midnight snacks (and the fact it's not really their thing anyway) I ate it all myself!

Zucchini Garlic Soup

4 tablespoons butter
1 white onion, diced
8-9 large cloves of garlic, minced or crushed
4 medium zucchini, sliced, unpeeled (you want to leave the peel for some awesome color!)
4 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
3/4 teaspoon powdered ginger

1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 Tsp salt, freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Melt the butter in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the garlic and onions and cook on medium low heat for about 10 minutes, or until the onion is soft and translucent. Take care not to burn the garlic!

Add the zucchini and cook until soft, about 10 more minutes. Add the broth and bring to a simmer. Simmer at a low heat for about 45 minutes.

Let cool slightly, then blend with an immersion blender until creamy, or you can use a regular blender, just be very careful! I love my stick blender. :)

Add seasonings and stir.

It's very good fresh and warm, but amazing the next day, either hot or cold!