White Bean & Chicken Chili / Soup

I’ve been gaining some weight lately.  I can’t really attribute it to the blog or anything in my life.  I just love to eat and have been doing a bit too much lately.  For those of you new to the blog, I’ve lost about 45 pounds in the last year and now I’m in good shape.  I need to maybe lose about 15 more pounds, but I’m mostly happy at this weight.  Everyone who comes into the restaurant who know me well tells me I should be done…I don’t believe them.  I unfortunately can be a perfectionist sometimes and I oftentimes just plain reject compliments.  Oh well, we all have our faults.

This week was fairly slow catering wise – we didn’t have any events for a change and of course it was a short week with the holiday.  The restaurant was fairly busy, but still below my goals.  It was a good week to catch up on things though and we continued to do some organization and deep cleaning.  It’s a funny business.  We are really slow in January, start to pickup up in February, will be pretty busy through May, super busy June, July and August, slow in September and October and then nuts for November and December.  It works out that we make a ton of money for a few months and think, wow lets go buy something or go on a trip, then we have a slow month and the extra money seems to disappear again.  It keeps us on our toes though and Nancy and I have a trip scheduled for San Fran later this month that we are really looking forward to.

We are known around town for our baking and I did have some fun taking pictures for our website this week of a few of the cakes we make.  We did a Red Velvet Cake, our Signature Carrot Cake along with a Pumpkin Spice and Vanilla Layer Cake.  Here are few pics for the fun of it!

So, back to eating too much!  I have and so tonight I decided to cook something simple out of Cooking Light.  I found this recipe in the recent issue and adapted it to meet my needs.

I thought it might be too spicy/hot at first glance, but it turned out perfect.  It reminded me more of a soup though than a traditional chili, but what do I know?  I can tell you though that Jacob never eats any chili I make and he said he really liked this one and in fact went back for seconds which is always the telltale sign that he likes it.

So give it a try and let me know how it goes. I think this might go well as a starter to some brisket or pulled pork or better yet as the main with some corn bread.

Also for those of you who cook a lot or have a food blog…how do you keep your caloric intake down? Especially those of you who bake!

White Bean Chili / Soup (serves 4)

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups less-sodium, chicken broth
• 5 teaspoons of Tabasco (if you desire a less spicy version lower to 2 teaspoons)
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless, chicken breast
• 2 tablespoons cornmeal
• 2 15 oz cans cannellini beans or other white beans, rinsed and drained
• Greek or Plain Yogurt
• 2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onions for garnish
• Lemon wedges from one lemon

Heat oil in a dutch oven over medium heat.  Add chopped onions, cook for five minutes until onions are softened, stirring often.  Add garlic and cook for one more minute, make sure to stir so as not to burn the garlic.

Add chicken broth, Tabasco, salt and the chicken to the dutch oven.  Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove chicken and place on a plate to cool.

Add the cornmeal and beans to the broth.  Using a whisk mix well.  Simmer for another 15 minutes with the lid off.  Mash about one quarter of the beans on the side of the pan.  Shred the chicken with your hands and add to the pan.  Simmer for another five minutes or until the chili thickens, stirring frequently.

Top each serving with yogurt, sprinkle with green onions and serve with lime wedges. Devour!