Fall Recipes: Scottish Scones & White Chicken Chili

With fall in the air and cool afternoon breezes, it’s time for some fall food! Wait…..  I live in Florida!!!! It is never cool here, but it was a nice thought even if it was just for a moment!

There is something to be said for fall food, even if it is 80 degrees outside 11 months out of the year. Football and chili just seem to go hand in hand, and there’s always room for desert!

On that note, here are two of my favorite fall foods.

Scottish Scones & White Chicken Chili.

The scones are out of this world, and satisfy any sweet tooth. The White Chicken Chili is exploding with flavor and warms you from the inside out.  I prefer to use all Organic ingredients, but it’s not required.

The recipe for these amazing Scottish Scones comes from my friend Darby, who’s an incredible baker!

Scottish Scones 

Ingredients: 

2- 1/2 c. Flour (All Purpose)

5-1/3 T. Butter, cold & cut into chunks

4 tsp. Baking Powder

2 T. Sugar plus

1/4 tsp. Salt

2 Eggs, beaten

3/4 c. Heaving Cream

1/2 – 1 c. Chocolate Chips

For The Topping:

4 T. Sugar

Heavy Cream

(***You can sub out the chocolate chips for grated orange rind, and dried cranberries***)

Recipe:

Mix dry ingredients in bowl. Cut in butter, until crumbly. Add eggs, cream & chocolate chips.

Mix gently with fork, until mostly mixed.

Spoon mixture into a scone pan (sections) or an iron skillet with the “triangles” that has been sprayed with non stick spray. (I use coconut spray from Trader Joe’s)

With a basting brush, baste tops of scones with cream (lightly) then sprinkle with sugar.

Bake @ 400 degrees for 12-14 min or until golden on top.

Let cool for about 10 min before removing from the pan.

Serve warm. YUMMO!

Now that we have dessert taken care of, let’s move on to dinner! Doesn’t everyone have dessert BEFORE dinner? This is my personal recipe that I have tweaked many times. Oh and I tend to be one of those “scratch cooks” so bear with me!

White Chicken Chili

Ingredients:

4 Organic Chicken Breasts

1 small Onion, chopped

1/4 c. Flour

3-4 cloves Garlic, minced

4-5 T. Butter

1/2 c Milk

4 cans White Navy Beans, drained

2 cans Green Chilies

12 c. Chicken Broth (3 cartons)

* Ground Cumin, to taste

* Chili Powder, to taste

* Paprika, to taste

* Sea Salt, to taste

* Pepper, to taste

1/2 – 1 c. Half & Half

Monterey Jack Cheese, shredded

Fresh Cilantro, chopped

Recipe: 

Boil chicken breasts about 20-30 min or until tender and no longer pink on the inside. Drain and shred or chop chicken. Set aside.

Meanwhile, in a  large stock pot, saute on low/med heat chopped onion & minced garlic in butter. As the butter is melting, add flour and stir well. As you are stirring slowly, pour in milk. Keep stirring until mixture is thick & creamy. Add Navy Beans, green chilies and chicken broth. Add shredded chicken and **spices. Add half & half & cook over low/medium heat, stirring occasionally.

** This is where the “to taste” comes into play. I have followed different recipes for White Chicken Chili, and they almost always come out bland UNTIL I started just adding more spices to taste. To add the spices to your heart’s content. I use a lot of cumin, with a tad less chili powder. 

Serve hot and top with Monterey Jack Cheese and cilantro.

Enjoy!

(Homemade corn bread pairs nicely with the White Chicken Chili)

Have Your Cake And Eat It Too!

 

I think I may have stumbled upon something I can really sink my sweet tooth into. Living healthy often consumes me, and while I know that balance is good, I find that too much sugar is not. Living in a house of three rambunctious boys is challenging to say the least and any added sweet treats are hard to come by. It truly is a treat when there is ice cream cake or cookies in the house! It is my daily mission to provide healthy choices for my family so when I was introduced to The Wonder Mill recently and started grinding my own wheat, I discovered a whole new world! Home-made bread was one thing, but realizing one can use any of the varieties of hard red wheat, hard white wheat, or soft white wheat to make just about anything that requires flour, was like opening Pandora’s box.

I poured over blogs and recipe sites in search of a healthy chocolate chip cookie. Seriously, was there such a thing as a “healthy” chocolate chip cookie? I finally settled on this one from a Veggies By Candlelight. The recipe seemed straight forward and simple so I dove in, and literally after I mixed the dough. YUMMMM!  I used their recipe but not the exact instructions since I am “one of those cooks”. You know, the cook that doesn’t typically follow or use a recipe, but adds spices and such to taste. Yep, I’m that kind! Go ahead and roll your eyes now, I know you want to!

Okay back to the cookies…… After a good mixin’ (insert southern drawl) with my new favorite kitchen appliance The Universal Bosch Mixer, I was ready to scoop, drop and bake. HA, that could be a song! After baking 22 min and a nice cool down on my handy-dandy cookie cooling racks that I’ve never used, we had the most glorious round chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever seen. Mind you I’m not a baker, and when I’ve attempted to bake cookies in the past, they usually come out looking like flat flying saucers! SCORE for this chic! Now to taste these little beauties. The moment of truth has arrived.

As nervous as I was, I just knew we had to have struck gold. My first sinking bite was pure bliss! Not only had I achieved baking a perfectly round plump cookie, but the burst of flavor was exquisite! I forgot to mention that instead of using regular sugar, I used Organic Sucanat in place of regular sugar. This gave the cookies a rich bold taste. My moment of quiet cookie bliss lasted all but few seconds as my rambunctious crew of boys came barreling into the kitchen to taste the new cookie creation. Being a mom, I decided they didn’t really need to know what kind of cookie this was, other than the simple chocolate chip kind. Never mind that I used healthier sugar and freshly ground hard red wheat flour to boot! No one had a clue! Mission accomplished.

Yes, you CAN have your cake and eat it too…… or cookies for that matter! The possibilities are endless!