Cooking

Okay so its summer (if you couldn't tell by the MS heat) and all the fruits and vegetables are now in season and better than ever! Candace and I are trying to eat healthier foods in order to lose weight, so that means more of the delicious fruits and veggies!  Recently we came across a wonderful recipe by Rachel Ray on her show "30 Minute Meals."  We loved it so much that I thought I would share our version of her creation.

You will need:

1 lb or so chicken breast

(you can substitute anything from pork loin, shrimp, steak)

1 onion

1 bell pepper

2 stalks celery

2-3 cloves garlic

pinch of thyme

1 can Fire Roasted Tomatoes

2 Chipotle peppers in Adobo

1 tsp of Adobo sauce

1 Mexican Beer or 1 1/2 cup of chicken stock

Begin by tossing chicken in mixture of flour, salt, pepper, and paprika.  Brown chicken  in just enough Extra Virgin Olive Oil to cover bottom of pan. BTW you will need a large pot and meal is best if you cook everything in the same pot.  When chicken is brown, remove from pot.  Add a little more Olive Oil if needed and all veggies after chopping (onion, bell pepper, celery, garlic, and thyme).  Allow the veggies to sweat just until the onion is translucent.  Next add the beer/chicken stock, tomatoes, chipotle peppers, and adobo sauce. (Depending on the heat level desired, you can remove seeds from chipotle peppers as most of the heat is in the seeds.)  Let simmer until everything is heated through, and then enjoy.  We made some brown rice and put our tex mex "stoup" over the rice. 

I hope you all enjoy the recipe.  Try it  - its really amazing!  My Dad is really picky and he really liked it!