It is amazing to me how quickly the seasons change here in the Northwest. The evening temperatures have dipped into the 40's within a week. As I was driving home along my regular route a day ago, I saw the leaves were just starting to turn red, orange and yellow! This past week, the house has been cold in the morning and throughout the day. When dear hubby would come home in the evening, he would comment on how cold the house was and encouraged me to turn on the heat, don't be cold. Well, I decided that I would wear my clothes in "layers" to stay warmer. After all, the thermostat said 66 degrees and in the summer that would feel great, right? I decided that if my doggies could take it, so could I! The day the dogs huddle together, shivering will be the day I turn on the heat! Well, today it happened. I had to turn the heat on! No more cold hands and drippy nose for me!
Buddy and Lucy trying keeping each other warm
When the outside temperatures go down, it's nice to warm the tummy with a warm meal, especially soup, stew and chili. It just doesn't enter my mind to make stew in July or August. A warm meal from a bowl sounded good, so I looked in my pantry and saw that I had 3 types of white beans, a great starting place. Next, I Googled white bean chili and started reading recipes until I found one that sounded the best. I used this recipe from food.com as my starting point and adapted it to suit our taste.
I used more spices because we like our chili spicy and I just can't seem to get enough of the Mexican oregano! I also used the three white beans listed on the recipe because I had them in the pantry. I also added a jar of La Victoria Salsa Verde because I didn't have diced green chilies. It really added a lot of great flavor. I served our chili with grated Monterey Jack cheese sprinkled on top and some cornbread on the side. I planned on freezing half of it for another time, but we enjoyed it so much, we ate it a couple nights until it was gone. Besides, we love leftovers! Most soups, stews and chili's taste better the next day! It's also like having a night off; no dirty pots and pans to clean up and dinner is on the table in less than 10 minutes (with the help of the microwave)!
