I made bbq pulled chicken sammies over the weekend and had LOTS of leftover chicken – which led me to a search of what I could make with that – and I found a winner of a recipe!

I have my new blogger friend Julia @ The Roasted Root for the inspiration for this chili (Hi Julia!) I was on Tastespotting the other day and saw this recipe that looked amazing. She had the same dilemma I had – leftover chicken to use up!

Her recipe is here, I did make a few changes to mine – but hers I’m sure is just as wonderful!

The outcome was so fantastic. I think the fire roasted tomatoes made it taste kind of smokey, the kind of sweetness from the bbq sauce + the spice from the red pepper flakes – YUM!

SO thanks Julia for some pretty awesome lunches for myself this week! You could certainly sprinkle some cheese on top, sour cream and green onions and have a great fall meal! It was in the 30′s when I left work tonight – perfect for a warm dish like this!

What’s your favorite thing you’ve made from leftovers?

Make this!

Earlier this week, I made a few things with soy chorizo. It was so good, but by the end of the week, I still had half a tube left and wasn’t sure if I could freeze it, so I decided to make a soup with it! I just used things I had leftover at the end of the week, and you can do the same thing.

Ingredients I used:

1/2 tube of Soy chorizo
1 chicken breast (mine was frozen)
3 large carrots. sliced
2 baby green peppers
1 jalapeno – seeds removed, and chopped
2 stalks celery, diced
2 stalks green onions (white and green part) chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 can black beans, rinsed
1/2 cup uncooked macaroni
fresh cilantro
6 cups water with 6 tsp. chicken broth

Directions:

In a large pot add the chorizo and cook for several minutes, breaking up the pieces. Next I took the green pepper and jalapeno pepper and added 6 cups of water with 6 tsp. chicken stock mix into a blender and blended that altogether.

I poured that liquid mixture into the pot with the chorizo. Next I added the frozen chicken breast, it was pretty big, so I just added the one. Bring the broth to a boil, then simmer for about 20 minutes until the chicken is done. I took the chicken out of the broth, shredded it with 2 forks, then added it back to the broth.

The vegetables come next WITH the 1/2 cup of elbow macaroni, add the rest of the veggies into the pot and cook on low for another 20 minutes or so until the veggies are tender and the pasta is done.

I actually didn’t put any other seasonings into it because the seasonings from the soy chorizo gave the broth such great flavor I didn’t think it needed anything else!

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On another note, I wanted to let you know of my blogger friend Amie of The Healthy Apple. She and Silvana Nardone have launched a new online magazine called Easy Eats. If you have to follow a gluten free or restricted diet, this magazine is for you! Check it out when you get a moment.

If you are wondering why I went to the Expo, no, I am not gluten intolerant or have any food allergies, but I am working on a project with someone who is (which I will talk about soon). So I got a VIP pass to the event. I met some great people and saw great cooking demos!

Bob’s red mill had dozens of different gluten free products like mixes and flours.

There were several local bakeries represented that offered all sorts of desserts that were gluten free.

It’s amazing how many people are affected by Gluten and how much better they feel when they adjust their diet. I saw many families with kids who were happy to let their little ones sample foods that were safe for them to eat.

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Now on to today’s recipe. It’s for meatballs, but you could use it to make a healthier metball sandwich (not to get off on a tanget, but I was glad “saucy balls” did NOT make it on Americas next restaurant!). Or you can make this ahead of time for pasta, just cook the pasta when you get home and your sauce and meatballs are all ready. If you get a meatball sandwich at a traditional Italian restaurant, it’s got tons of bread, cheese, meat, sauce on buttered garlic bread. My version is @ 450 calories, and you can make it yourself.

1 egg
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup chopped onion, (Biz, my sister, if you are reading this, you can omit the onions!)
1 pound ground sirloin
1 pound ground turkey (I have also used ground chicken too)
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes (with Italian spices is even better!)
6-8 hoagie style rolls

In a large bowl, beat the egg with salt, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes and garlic. Add the chopped onion, beef, turkey bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese and mix well. Shape mixture into 1 inch balls. I have a melon baller that size that works perfect for shaping them. Brown the meatballs in a skillet, drain any fat and put the meatballs in the bottom of the crock pot. Add the crushed tomatoes and extra Italian seasoning on top and cook all day on low. Take 3-4 meatballs and add it to the hoagie roll, add some sauce and you have an awesome meal that won’t make you fat!!
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And here is my daughter Claire – playing catcher for Softball! She did great!

How was your weekend?

I attempted to make this sauce in the fall. I thought how nice would it be to make pasta sauce in the crock pot, simmering all day, how wonderful it would taste. All I would have to do is just make the pasta when I got home from work and that would be it.

When I walked in the door that fall night hoping to walk into my kitchen with the smells of wonderful sauce….I made one fatal error….I forgot to turn the crock pot on! I was so disappointed!!

So, when I attempted this again the other night, I made SURE that the crock pot was turned on before I left for work.

Ingredients:

3/4 pound ground sirloin*
1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
6 fresh roma tomatoes
1 green pepper
1/2 white onion
4-6 cloves of garlic
oregano
basil
salt and pepper to taste

In the bottom of the crock pot, place the ground sirloin. In a blender, I mixed the rest of the ingredients until smooth. Pour over the meat, add the seasonings and cook on low all day.

*you want to use a lean type of meat, so its not swimming in fat all day. Sirloin is 5% fat, so that’s what I used.

When you get home, the meat will just need to be broken up with a potato masher. It’s super easy and this time it worked out fantastically. The only thing I would add is tomato paste, but it still came out great without it.

Have you made pasta sauce in a crock pot before? What’s your recipe?

I’ve been getting a lot of use out of my crock pot this fall! Yesterday I decided to make ahead enchiladas by cooking the chicken first WITH the enchilada sauce (I just used the packet kind of enchilada sauce) so that when I got home from work, all I had to do was shred the chicken, put the chicken in tortillas, fold them up and then pour the sauce over all of that, add a little cheese, bake for 20 minutes at 350 and you are done!

Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 packet enchilada sauce – made according to directions (you add 2 cups water and 1 small can of tomato paste)
1 package of tortillas

Place chicken in the bottom of the crock pot, pour the sauce over, then cook on low all day.

When I got home, I just took out the chicken, it shreds super easily.

Next, take a little chicken, put it in a tortilla shell fold up, and place face down in a 9 x 13 pan. Since my 9 x 13 pan broke a few weeks ago, I just used a round casserole dish and stacked them on top of each other.
Pour the reserved sauce from the crock pot over the tortillas, sprinkle with cheese and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Now, I made them plain on purpose and then anyone (my kids) could add whatever they wanted so everyone is happy. You could add black beans, olives, sour cream, onions, lettuce, etc…

There were only 2 left after dinner! So great and easy and it took no time to put together to have such a great meal during the work/school week!

Have a great day everyone!!!