Lean, mean cooking machine

I've been cooking and baking, and it feels so good!

I made this beef and beer chili yesterday. I liked it so much I had it for breakast this morning (well, that and there was almost no bread left in the house).

Speaking of bread, I made a loaf of light whole wheat bread from my Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day cookbook. It stuck to the peel before it went into the oven, so it's this weird bendy shape, but it smells delish. I may use some for french toast tomorrow morning.

And I made cornbread to go with the chili. It's just the basic recipe from the side of my cornmeal container, but it's oh-so good. As a matter of fact, I'm off to have a square with butter and honey :)

Lean, mean cooking machine

For a good chunk of last year, I got into a groove where I spent Sundays cooking for the rest of the week. It made it easy to grab a container of yummy, home-cooked food instead of slaving over the stove after a long day at work. I got out of this groove, however, and I missed those Sundays in the kitchen. Though the dinners J made for me lately were really nice.

Armed with my new spices, and some new recipes to match, and a strong desire to utilize every utensil in my kitchen, I got to work today. Behold:


An old favorite, crock pot chicken. I love this recipe, because you can do all sort of things with the chicken: tacos, served over rice, as part of a casserole, the sky is the limit



No bean chili (J hates beans of all kinds, unless they're green). Currently simmering on the stove



Cardamom granola bars. Breakfast for the week--score!




Cardamom mango bread pudding. Dessert for the week--double score!! It turned out better than I thought, since we didn't have any white bread lying around. Double-protein multi-grain bread works fine


A bowl full of yumminess: dried cranberries, and 3 kinds of chocolate chips (white, milk, and semisweet)


And the resulting cranberry chocolate chip cookies, specifically requested by J

If you happen to want any of these recipes, let me know in the comments and I'll be happy to share

Bon apetit!