This post is part of my Freezer Food Exchange diary. Similar to a Christmas cookie exchange, a group of people all bring a set amount of food for each participant (a dozen cookies, two frozen 3-4 serving dinners, etc). In this case, everyone made two dinners worth of two dishes for each participant. There were five of us for October, 2013, so we all came home with 20 meals, two of ten different dishes.

 

Some people are brilliant food bloggers. I am not. But I am going to attempt to start using this blog to track some of the recipes I try, because it's an easy place to look back on them.

At the end of September I signed up for a freezer food exchange with some other local new mommies. It's sort of like a Christmas cookie exchange, but with dinner. Everyone made two dinners worth of two dishes for each participant. There were five of us, so we all came home with 20 meals, two of ten different dishes.

Last night I pulled out the Crockpot Chicken Chili. It was quite tasty. If I make it (I can't say again, as this was someone else's dish), I'll add some mushrooms and my (not so) secret chili ingredient, pineapple. The portion we got was huge; in addition to enough leftovers for lunch today we are having more for dinner tonight. This time I decided to add a side of fresh, homemade cornbread.

I had grabbed a cornbread recipe from Chatelaine's September 2013 issue and figured this would be a good time to try it. It turned out pretty tasty. My usual complaint about cornbread is it's too dry, but I used their "Switch it up" Tex-Mex variation, adding a half cup of salsa, which was just enough extra moisture. Because I'm currently dairy free, I used 1/4 cup melted vegan margarine and 1/4 vegetable oil in place of the butter, and low calorie almond milk in place of the milk (the low cal stuff has very little flavour). Next time I may let the batter rest for a bit before cooking. Otherwise, it was quite tasty.

Crockpot Chicken Chili

• 2 large chicken breasts
• 1 can corn (or 1c frozen corn)
• 1 can diced tomatos
• 1 can tomato paste
• 1 can red kidney beans
• 1 can red kidney beans
• 1 can black beans
• chili powder to taste
• taco seasoning to taste
• 1 cup quinoa (optional - can also be added on reheat)

Place all ingredients in crock pot with chicken on bottom. Cook 8-10 hr low or 4-6 hr high. 1/2 hr prior to eating remove chicken, shred and mix back in. For reheat can be reheated in microwave, on stove or in crockpot. Chicken already shredded.

Cornbread

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 400F. Lightly spray or brush an 8x8 pan with oil.

Whisk flour with cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Whisk eggs with milk and butter in a medium bowl. Whisk into flour mixture. Scrape into prepared baking pan and smooth top.

Bake in centre of oven until top is lightly golden and a cake tester inserted into centre of bread comes out clean, 25-30 min.

Switch it up!

Stir 1/2 cup medium or hot salsa into batter. Pour into baking pan. Bake in centre of 400F oven until top is lightly golden, about 40 min. Loosely tent foil over pan after 20 min to prevent over-browning.

Notes: Our oven runs hot, so this only took about 30-35 minutes.