Chili Corn Chip Pie

Yup, this is about as inspired in cooking I am right now.  It was hot today and I had roma tomatoes.  I made homemade pico de gallo with them which is great in warm weather.  Then I thought about what to use it for.  I have always wanted to make this, though it was going to be served in a "Fritos" bag.  This is the bowl version, therefore called a "pie".  This is what I came up with:

Turkey Pumpkin Chili

I saw this on Social Media and it was appealing to me, so I made it.  The pumpkin was what I liked about it and it seemed different.  Plus, I was in the mood for chili.  What I used (tailored to my liking):

Chili Cheese Dog Sliders

I will admit, one of my guilty pleasures is hot dogs.  I'm glad to see I can buy nitrate free wieners without antibiotics and preservatives now.  I feel slightly better about eating them.  This was a quick easy Friday night dinner made with my favorite potato buns. (I don't like to cook on Fridays very often).

Frijoles Charros (Mexican Cowboy Beans)

I saw this and I immediately wanted to make it, so it became dinner tonight.  I've been craving "pork and beans" but wanted to make it homemade.

Real Texas Chili Con Carne

I made this for a co-worker.  He is always talking about chili from Texas (where he lived for quite some time) and how it doesn't have beans.  And I add, or tomatoes.  So, I decided it was time to give it a whirl.  I looked at soooo many recipes and had a hard time finding one I liked or could modify.  I finally found the one I wanted on "Serious Eats" and I stopped looking once there.  I made some minor adaptations:

Turkey Chili Stuffed Acorn Squash

I saw this recipe float by on social media and thought it would be great for a Monday, especially because I took homemade turkey chili out of the freezer last night.  Mine was really close to hers in the recipe except I used ground dried chilis to make my chili powder.  I had kidney beans in mine too.  I usually make squash a lot in the autumn but haven't made any this year so far.  I washed the acorn gourds good and preheated the oven to 400°F.  I cut the squash in half and cleaned out the seeds with a spoon.  I lined a baking sheet with parchment paper, sprayed with cooking oil.  I brushed olive oil inside the squash and seasoned with kosher salt & fresh cracked pepper.

Turkey, Pinto/Cannellini Bean Chili

Today found me "under the weather" and at home.  Looking around at what I could make for dinner, I found some frozen turkey in the freezer and pinto beans in the cupboard so decided on chili.  I thawed the meat.  I discovered a bunch of good ingredients I could utilize for it.  I used:

Crock-Pot: Smoked Turkey Legs with Pinto Beans & Bacon Corn Bread

This is my re-do of a soul dish I once knew.  My dad's last wife (R.I.P.) was a great cook.  She was black and taught me soul food before I knew what that was.  Her fried chicken and sweet potato pie will be forever etched in my memory.  I never have had either since that compare to hers...She taught me how to make the chicken but I have never come close to recreating it.

Creamy White Chicken Chili

This just looked yummy when I saw it, so I decided I had to make it.  Perfect for a week night, meaning easy and quick, besides the chopping, but I'm used to doing it on auto-pilot now.  I also still had some tostadas to use up, so this would be perfect for that.  I also had one of my favorite Trader Joe products which is the Hatch Valley Salsa, so a jar of that was going in too.  In the recipe, hers looked kinda like soup, so I decided I would puree some of the beans to make it more thicker and maybe lessen some of the broth if I had to.  I had the exact same canned chilies as she did too, and would see if I needed one or two after I put the salsa in.  I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs because they were on sale.  I had a yellow/orange pepper in the fridge so diced that up.  And, cilantro was not in the recipe, but I added that in and for garnish as well.  I sliced some green onions and lime wedges for garnish as well.  I also bought some zero fat sour cream and I used "Better than Bouillon" 50% reduced sodium chicken base for the broth.  I made 2 cups.

Veggie Chili

I'm not accustomed to vegetarian dishes, but am turning over a new leaf in this new year.  I saw this on "The Chew" and it looked good, so I decided to make it for Sunday dinner (I used the recipe as a guideline).  I have never used cocoa in my chili so this looked interesting.  Unfortunately,  I didn't have any veggie stock.  I will remedy that in the near future by buying this.  I decided to just use no salt strained tomatoes and see how it worked out.  Tonight, I used: