Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili
Vegetarian Chili, sweet potato
Sweet potato and black bean chili | Source: iStock

This chili from Ambitious Kitchen is so delicious, you won’t even mind that you’re eating the same dish all week. The spicy chili is packed with as much flavor as nutrition â€" one serving of sweet potatoes alone has 400% of your daily vitamin needs along with tons of fiber and potassium.

How to stretch it for the week:
Monday: Serve cold chili on top of kale salad.

Tuesday: Add a few spoonfuls to your morning omelet.

Wednesday: Cook up a side of chicken breast or fish for some extra mid-week protein.

Thursday: Try it on top of brown rice or quinoa.

Friday: Toss some in whole-wheat tortillas for tacos, along with a sprinkle of cheese and sour cream.

Bonus: Toss some avocado on top, because we all know avocado makes everything magically tastier.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium-large sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 Habanero, seeded and diced
2 tablespoons chili powder
4 teaspoons ground cumin
¼ teaspoon salt
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed
1 (15-ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed
2 cups water
2 (14-ounce) can diced tomatoes
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
Directions: Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add in sweet potatoes and onion; cook, stirring often until onion begins to soften. Add garlic, chili powder, cumin, diced habanero, and salt; cook for 1 minute. Add in water and bring to a simmer. Cover and reduce heat to maintain simmer, cook until sweet potato is tender, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add beans and tomatoes; increase heat to medium and return to a simmer, stirring often. Cover and simmer about 5 to 10 minutes more. Remove from heat, place into bowls, and sprinkle with cilantro."

Uncle Wiley's Chicken Salad,

Ingredients
4 c
poached chicken (diced)
1 c
celery (finely chopped)
1 c
pecans (chopped)
1 c
Craisins
1 1/2 c
white seedless grapes (cut in fourths)
1 c
white raisins
4 oz
sour cream
1 c
Kraft mayonnaise
salt and black pepper, to taste
Directions Step-By-Step
1
Poach chicken (boneless skinless) breast. This takes the longest amount of time. I often cook my chicken the day before and store it in a Ziploc bag in the fridge. When you are ready to make the salad you dice the chicken.
2
In a large bowl mix all of the ingredients; salt and pepper to taste. You may need a little more mayonnaise.
3
I serve it with crackers, or it makes a great sandwich with lettuce and tomatoes.

http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/salad/chicken-salad/uncle-wileys-chicken-salad.html?p=1

This is good just to snack on...

We called hamburger, tomatoes, and macaroni Chop Suey...it sounded exotic but it was a nice comfort dish

Hi Livykat1 - Welcome to the food and cooking discussion! We hope to see you in some of the other forums as well.

Now this is a good one if people staying over. I have done a small one if know not wanting
to cook dinner. Just put in my little clock pot.
Slow Cooked Breakfast casserole.
12 Eggs
1 cup half and half
1 1/2 red pepper cut up small
1 cup fresh spinach
4 oz mushrooms sliced
1/2 pint grape tomatoes. cut in half
1/2 cup cheddar cheese shredded
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese shredded
1 tsp tarragon
1 tsp marjoram
1 tsp yellow mustard
salt and pepper
Mix all in a bowl until eggs are frotthy
To assemble grease slow cooler with spray
Pour in egg mixture
cook on low for 3 hours on  high or  for 1 1/2 hour until egg cooked through

Jeanne, add a package of  cooked "screws" pasta to it and see how yummy it is.

Jeanne, it sounds good to me and add the pasta for a different "twist." 

Both those recipies sound good.  I had some good chicken salad not long ago that had grapes and pecans and sounds like Uncle Wiley's.  Very good.

Today I am just making Potato,Broccoli,cheese creamy soup.  Will just have it and some Toast for dinner. Ate a Home BQ sandwich for lunch.  Just got back from a 3 mile walk.  Finely sun out today but only in the low 60s

I bought some chicken breasts at Whole Foods yesterday.  Supposed to be no artificial stuff, etc.  The chicken from the regular super markets always seems tougher than the chicken in a restaurant.  I wonder if they partially cook their chicken in a pressure cooker.  I'm trying to decide what is the best way to cook this chicken.  I got a recipe the other day on Pinterest that sounds good.  Maybe will try that.  My husband is kind of a picky eater so can't fix anything that takes a lot spices or most vegetables.  He is hard to cook for, but he's worth the trouble.

Jean. Unless you are buying young fresh chicken then you have to always do this to it.
Wash good and soak for at least 2 hours in cold water where Salt and Sugar have been added.  Rinse off . Dry and then cook whichever way you are doing it.  Sometimes in stores you see chicken so big. Better to stay under 3 lbs weight.   I buy mine as fresh pieces in the Butcher shop. Never any frozen. Same with ground beef . Only thing I do buy frozen is Fish.  I also wash it good. Soak in milk and salt the same way.

Jeanne, why do you need to soak it?

Bubble.  Just always done it that way. Don't need to do 2 hours but that is a habit.  Could be that leaned it from my grandmother.  Have to remember in years past specially in Europe you would look at meat and other stuff.  No refridgeration. Would sit all day. Got the blood off I thought.  Now in France we believed that is why they always put creams of covering with liquid gravy over their dishes.  Herbs and stuff.  I still thinking of French cooking as that way today. Grew up being told not to eat it.  Things we remember for childhoods

Living in a farm dominated area, we can buy fresh even if the big chains attempt to sell us their products as better for whatever reason.

Salt is a preservative.

However, I never soaked my meat. I do rinse it out very thoroughly and discarded the neck, gizzards, etc. Pork also gets a rinse. Red meat does not.

French food is also fresh and farm based. The creams and gravies and spices are simply regional cooking.

I buy smaller amounts of meat because unless I am cooking for the freezer, I don't need large amounts for a single person.

Angel.  Remember now I am talking about how things were back 65-70 years ago.  Although things are not perfect today.  Look how many things are now being recalled.  The salt and sugar will make the meat far more tender also.

salt makes the meat tough! but it does kill some germs...

I found a chicken casserole on the Internet.  Probably be too bland for many of you but we thought it was good.  I cut up the two skinless chicken breasts and browned them.  Added the pieces to a sauce made of one can cream of chicken and one cup reduced fat sour cream.  Topped the casserole with one and half pkg of Ritz cracker crumbs with some melted butter on top.  Baked it in my toaster oven for 25 minutes.  It came out nice and brown and I served it with a good Romain lettuce salad and noodles.  We have plenty left over for another meal.

We got some delicious fresh tomatoes at Whole Foods for 99 cents a lb.  Most of their fresh vegetables are reasonably priced.  They have some nice looking meats there also.

Jean, you are right. I would have left off the soup, I'm allergic to processed or preserved foods; also left off the melted butter and cracker crumbs. I probably would have added spices to that sour cream as well...   I remember you mentioning that Hubby was a picky eater so that sounds good for you both.

I use more spices because I am allergic to so many things in foods. I prefer fresh spices but will settle for dried. I am a fan of ethnic stores in some ways because of their varied spices, fish sauces or different hot sauces offered for sale.

When I am making large amounts of chicken in the slow cooker for freezing later meals, I have a simple formula. No matter the type of chicken pieces or whole chicken, I rinse off the meat, discard liver, gizzards, etc and place in slow cooker. I fill one-third full with water and then add one-third cup of either lemon juice, orange or apple juice,  applicable spices depending on the type of juice used and then cook overnight. In the morning, I discard bones, skin,  and either shred the meat in one or two cup freezer bags or use small pieces for single servings.

Sometimes I will take 12 pounds of ground meat, brown it with just a touch of rosemary spice and then after it's cooled, I bag it into one or two cup freezer bags. If you peeked into my freezer, there are one or two cup freezer bags of different  types of meat, rice, chopped onions, green, red or orange peppers and small bags of frozen vegetables. I can select one or two or three types, add a few spices and microwave or cook a different meal each night for the price of a few hours preparation, once or twice a month.

FlaJean - I love BLAND! Your chicken recipe sounds good, and I plan to make it soon.  I don't have a toaster over, so I assume the regular oven will be okay. 

Bubble. Now I was always told not to salt meat before putting it on to grill or fry . That does toughen it but putting it in Brine will do the opposite. Sort of works like a tenderizer.

Marilyne, I normally would have used the oven but bought a Breville toaster oven when we moved here and I really like it.  It saves me having to use the big oven in hot weather.

I often watch Cooks.com (Sunday afternoon on PBS here in NC) and they often brine meat.  Salt does toughen if overused but brining tenderizes.  I just never think that far ahead.  I do rinse my beef or pork roasts and definitely chicken but I don't buy chicken very often.  In Kansas, where I grew up, chicken was soaked in milk before frying.  It supposedly tenderizes the meat and moisturizes it but I've read in cooking forums that is an old wives tale and doesn't make it any more tender than if you don't cook it.  However, if that is the way you or your family have always done it then just keep on doing it....as Joan L. says, "Whatever floats your boat!"   

I've never enjoyed cooking so haven't watched many cooking shows.  But I'll have to find out about the brining the chicken.

I remember my mother using milk when she fried chicken. She would rinse off the meat, cut it into pieces and then dip it first into a bowl of milk and then into beaten eggs before finally rolling the piece into a large pan of crushed bread crumbs.

I use chicken and pork more than beef as most commercial beef isn't to my liking. You can lose up to half in melted grease, just cooking it! I am grateful to friends who keep me supplied with game meat. It loses less than a third to melted fat in cooking, is so much healthier and not filled with chemical, at least not purposely!

I know many that are not able or willing to use game meat so I usually just say hamburger or the type of cut rather than the type of meat used.

I'm not sure about using the milk for chicken but I do recall my mother dipping liver in milk before the flour.    I never really knew if it was just to help the flour cling better or ?    I  still do it with liver.     We had avoided liver for years after the cholesterol threat.     Since Al was sick in the winter and lost so much weight,  I decided to throw caution to the winds and cook him some liver.     We both enjoyed it.    I found a good meat market that sells the frozen liver, thin sliced and separated so that you can take off just one slice without thawing the whole package.     That was always a problem with frozen liver for me.   

The meals you have been talking about here sounded good but I've been reading the posts quickly and not getting into the conversation so much.     Probably that's a great relief to some of you.        I do tend to get carried away sometimes!

MaryC, I always enjoy hearing from you.  It is nice that Al feels like eating again and that sounds like his health is improving.  I hope that is the case.  As for liver....I'll let you and Al have my portion.    But, I have always liked chicken liver patá¾½e.   No rhyme or reason to that, is there?   

I'm thawing two of those little meat loaves today for our dinner.  I have good romaine lettuce I got from Whole Foods and will have mashed potatoes and a salad.  I cut my romaine lettuce and soak in some ice water and it makes a nice crisp salad.

Maryc, I like liver and didn't know you can buy it frozen in slices.

Now I like Calf Liver Best but very hard to find. Most butchers don't have it. I did find on store that had it frozen. Seperate slices. quite thin.  It is really good. When I soak it in milk I leave it for about 30 min. Then wipe it dry. dip in a little flour, salt, pepper and garlic mix I use. May do that today

Jeanne, and at the last minute I add a  little red wine.  Makes it more juicy!

Now Bubble, that is a nice twist to cooking liver...I'll remember that.