CEiMB - Confetti Chili

I'm enjoying yet another bowl of this wonderful chili as I write this post. This week's Craving Ellie in My Belly was chosen by Lauren of I'll Eat You. Lauren also selected this week's Tuesdays with Dorie pick. What are the odds of that happening?

I love a good chili when the weather turns chilly. I live in California, so my idea of cold is much different than others who live in truly cold climates, but I was happy to see that Lauren had picked a chili. I'm not a fan of beef, unless we're talking burgers, so I used lean ground turkey. The recipe in the book is slightly different from the one on the Food Network website, calling for corn and only two kinds of beans. I didn't have frozen corn, so I used three beans (pinto, kidney and garbanzo). I added some chipotle chili powder for extra kick, and I used diced tomatoes instead of crushed. All of the above worked fine except the last one. I think using crushed tomatoes would give this a chili-er consistency.

We were very happy with this one and I'll definitely make it again. And again. And again. So thanks, Lauren!

If you'd like the recipe, you can find it here.

CEiMB - Tuscan Vegetable Soup

This week was perfect for soup. We got a huge rain storm in the Bay area earlier this week, which is when I made this soup. I needed to bring a pot of soup to my P.E.O. meeting, and I was thrilled to see Lobster and Fishsticks chose this recipe for this week's Craving Ellie in My Belly.

I already had everything I needed to make this and came home a little early to make it before the meeting. I kept looking at the recipe, thinking "is this it?" It was so easy! I used fresh sage and rosemary from my garden, and doubled the recipe. After our meeting, this is all that was left (which was fortunate, since I'm a closet blogger and hadn't taken a photo!)

I went easy on the herbs and salt as I was afraid of overdoing it, and that was a big mistake. You may also consider grating some lemon rind into the soup, or finishing it with my favorite secret weapon, a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. It was even better the next day.

This is my new go-to vegetable soup recipe. If you'd like to give it a try, you'll find the recipe here.

CEiMB - Jambalaya, Sort Of

All's well that ends well - William Shakespeare

This week's Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe was picked by Anonymous New York who picked Ellie's jambalaya with shrimp and ham. I was excited to make this recipe even though I don't eat ham, and the last time I ate shrimp (a couple months ago) I ended up in the emergency room. But I had plans!

Plan A

Replace shrimp with chicken and ham with ? (I didn't say these were well developed plans)

Plan B

Replace shrimp with salmon and ham with smoked tofu (Thank God this one didn't pan out...what was I thinking?)

Plan C

Replace shrimp with salmon and ham with Soyrizo (meatless soy chorizo, I was surprised to find this at Safeway, where I had gone in a halfhearted attempt to find smoked tofu). Again, happy this one didn't get made but this was what I was going with until the salmon looked iffy and I settled on...

Plan D, or not a plan at all but basically what I made for dinner

Replace shrimp with kidney beans (what?) and replace the ham with Soyrizo

I accidently included some of the ingredients Ellie called for:

Red and green peppers (I used red and yellow)

Onion-YES!

Garlic-YES!

Paprika-(I used smoked Spanish paprika and skipped the cayenne)

Tomato paste, chicken broth, thyme, oregano, salt, pepper and bay leaf-YES!

White rice (I used brown, which I parboiled so dinner would be ready before midnight)

That's when I stopped reading 'cause I knew the wheels were already off and the bus was careening down the cliff.

Because I had opened my Soyrizo and discovered it was, um, very squishy for a mock-sausage. The instructions said to fry it hot and fast. So I fried it on medium and discovered...

(pause to take comforting bite of chocolate)

...that it goes from semi-liquid to burned in two minutes.

Even with all of the twists and turns, this meal was pretty good. Even the crispy Soyrizo was good. Who knew a burned soy product could taste good?!

Thanks to Anonymous New York for what must have been a great pick before I got my hands on it. You can find the real recipe here.