Recipe: Easy White Chicken Chili

It has not been a good chili season so far aboard our boat. I find that recipes just do not turn out well for me, however much my husband praises the dishes. Truth is, I think I'm a pickier eater than he being that he ate raw cookie dough for breakfast the other morning. "Why did you do that?" I asked. "Because I was hungry," he said.

Then, I found this white chicken chili from a super great blog, Gimme Some Oven. Using salsa verde for the kick, this was an easy and oh-so-good recipe that I'll be making many times this season. I used the two cans of white beans that I had on hand, and they were great (butter beans and navy beans). Suggested by my sister-in-law, the Archer Farms salsa verde (sold at Target) was a perfect fit with this chili. Leftovers were great over plain rice. Enjoy!

White Chicken Chili
Adapted from recipe at Gimme Some Oven 

Ingredients
2 cups chicken broth
4 cups cooked shredded chicken
2 (15-oz) cans white beans, drained (navy beans and butter beans did well)
3 cups salsa verde (rec. the Archer Farms brand at Target)
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. cornstartch

1. Marinate chicken in 1 cup, or so, of salsa verde until ready to cook. Suggested, a few hours.

2. Bake marinated chicken at 350 degrees until internal temperature is 160 degrees. Approximately, 25-30 minutes.

3. Shread cooked chicken.

4. Add cornstartch to chicken broth and mix well.

5. Add chicken broth mix, chicken, beans, remaining salsa verde and cumin to a saucepan, and stir. Heat until the chili mixture boils and cover. Turn down heat and let simmer for at least five minutes.

6. Top with any desired toppings and enjoy!

Recipe: Blue Cheese Burgers on the Grill

We anchored out this past weekend, and prior to leaving the dock I was in charge of making sure meals were planned and ingredients were on-hand. Our liveaboard life consists of us working during the week and sailing on the weekends (as time and weather allows) so we have wonderful access to good food. I can stop into our local store to find organic meat and produce and purchase this for our getaways. Each week, I look at our local store's flyer to see what's on sale and then plan our meals around those items. This week, grass-fed organic ground beef was on sale so I thought, why not burgers as we hardly ever make them. It was a good choice - we grilled some blue cheese burgers after sailing all day and finding a good place to anchor. They went nicely with some white wine and a sunset : )

Blue Cheese Burgers on the Grill

Adapted from Rachael Ray's Big Blue Burger Recipe

Ingredients

1 lb. grass-fed organic ground beef

4 tbsp. blue cheese crumbles

1 tbsp. worcestershire sauce

2 tbsp. parsley flakes (fresh, if you have it)

4 hamburger buns

1 tomato, sliced into four slices (preferablly locally grown)

1. Mix together ground beef, worcestershire sauce and parsley. Form into 4 separate round portions.

2. Indent each portion with your index finger, and place 1 tbsp. of blue cheese into each space.

3. Cover the blue cheese with the burger and form into patties. They don't have to be perfect : )

4. Grill until done, and serve on buns with a slice of tomato (and we suggest ketchup and mustard).

I wish I could show you a picture, but we ate the burgers too quickly. Trust me, they're good.