Chipotle Bison & Sweet Potato Chili

I'm not sure which is more enjoyable: coming home to dinner cooking and the kitchen smelling like a chef has been slaving away all day, or dipping corn bread into a warm bowl of chili bite after bite, and watching the snow float to the ground through a window. (For gluten-free, this is my go-to corn bread; For grain-free corn bread, try this recipe).

This chili recipe is becoming a regular in our household. It's the kind of dish you want to serve yourself when the night is cold and a sofa with a pile of blankets awaits. It's the kind of dish you serve to guests for the first wintery game night of the season, or the first scary movie of October. 

With chipotle peppers in adobo, this chili is a "solid medium," at least that's what about four of my friends told me after they were about half way through their bowls. It's not a chili for those that can't handle the heat, but it's not going to light your mouth on fire (to me, this means I'll still be able to enjoy eating it--I can palette spicy food, but when it comes to a meal I'd really rather just sit back and taste it). 

This dish feels superbly fall-like to me: summer produce, like tomatoes and chili peppers, meet winter produce, like sweet potatoes. It's a dish to serve when the weather just starts to turn, and you pull out your first sweater, but nothing is stopping you from cooking it through out the winter, too. If we were football watchers, this would be our football dinner. (We're not.)

For a strictly Paleo version of this chili you'll have to skip the black beans. You can experiment with adding something in their place, but it's not necessary. Instead of cheese on top, serve bowls with slices of avocado. (Ok, the avocado thing sounds like a really good idea all around, so I'm going to go ahead and say everyone should do this, regardless of cheese consumption). 

Chipotle Bison & Sweet Potato Chili

Published October 24, 2017 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 6   |    Total Time: 20 active minutes

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Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground bison
• 4 ounces chipotle adobo sauce
• 1 sweet potato, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 14-ounce cans diced tomatoes 
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 jalapeño, deseeded and minced
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1/2 - 1 teaspoon coriander
• Salt & pepper 
• 1/2 - 1  teaspoon cumin
• 2 cups bone broth
• Optional garnish: cilantro, shredded cheese, and sliced jalapeños

Directions:

1. Add all ingredients to your slow cooker and stir, breaking meat into small crumbles. Set to “medium” setting, and set timer to 8 hours.
2. After 8 hours, serve in bowls. Garnish with cheese, minced cilantro, and sliced jalapeños.

Roasted Pumpkin with Merkén Chile & Honey

Two weeks ago I got a terrible head cold that at first made my throat feel like a solid piece of rock and then morphed into congestion and then just left me aching. When I finally got a solid night of sleep (like a really solid night of sleep--12 hours, or more), I felt like I could think again. Smelling, tasting, and swallowing were still a day away. 

The worst part of a head cold to me is that your body feels totally fine--like you could run a mile- but the minute you try to do anything, you realize it was a terrible, terrible idea. By Friday I felt well enough to hit the climbing gym again, and doing so plastered a fixed smile across my face. I could taste again too, so when I got home I cooked the pumpkin I hadn't found energy to cook earlier in the week. Golden pumpkin with savory Merkén Chile: it was the first thing I smelled all week. 

That pumpkin filled my house with the scent of it's caramelizing edges and steaming Merkén chile. They were beautiful, but that smell was what really swept me off my feet. A drizzle of honey was all that was missing. (Doesn't honey make everything better?)

If you can't find Merkén chile don't sweat it: you can use any kind of smoked red chile flake in this recipe. 

Roasted Pumpkin with Merkén Chile & Honey

Published October 19, 2017 by Caitlin

Serves: 4   |    Total Time: 50 minutes

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Ingredients:

• 1 small pumpkin
• 2 tablespoons avocado oil
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt 
• 2 teaspoons merkén chile, or other smoked red chile flake
• 1-2 tablespoons honey 
• Garnish: 2 tablespoons minced cilantro

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Slice pumpkin half, remove stem, and seeds. Slice into wedges, about 1-inch thick.
2. Fit a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place pumpkins on pan, and brush with avocado oil. Sprinkle with garlic powder, salt, and merkén. Place in oven, and bake for 30-40 minutes, until pumpkin is tender all the way through, and starting to brown on the edges.
3. Remove from oven, and drizzle lightly with honey. Garnish with minced cilantro.

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie Bowl

Exhausted from holding on and worn out from trying hard, I yell "take!" to my belayer. The slack in the rope tightens and I can sit back in my harness. I stare at the rock wall, analyzing it's seams, and it stares back at me, full of tricks and secrets and history. My forearms ache from holding on: my endurance for sport climbing is lacking right now. 

Three feet from me, a spot of golden yellow with a tinge of red catches my eye.

There, in the middle of the rock, a miniature tree grows, it's leaves turning orange with fall. In fact, an entire micro ecosystem sits within the crack in the rock. A tiny but steady stream of water from above trickles across a pile of dead pine needles, and a bug crawls up to see the view from the edge of the crack.

I imagine a bird visiting that spot a year ago. He drops a seed, and flies off. And then I imagine that seed getting just enough water to sprout--and a bit more, enough that the sprout grows into a tree right there, on the side of a rock face. It's no larger than 1 foot tall, but it clings on to the side of the rock with might and patience. It doesn't have a belayer; it can't call "take."

There is a breeze and I am reminded of the task at hand. I climb on while that baby tree just stays there, clinging for life. Imagine the view from it's home! 

This pumpkin smoothie bowl is the breakfast to eat when the leaves are crunching underfoot and the air is crisp but still not too cold. It's spiced with fresh ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, and is super creamy. Top it with toasted pecans, and for an extra special treat add a dollop of whipped cream (coconut cream for dairy free!). 

In the ingredient list you’ll find an outlier (cauliflower) and if you’ve never put cauliflower in a smoothie, this might make you run and hide. BUT I promise you: once that cauliflower is all blended in, you will not taste it. What you will taste: pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger. Toasted pecans if you choose to put them on top (please do!). And it will be a thick, creamy smoothie. That texture? That’s because of the cauliflower, which at this point you’ve forgotten is in there.

Try it!

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie Bowl

Published October 12, 2017 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 2   |    Total Time: 10 minutes

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Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/3 cup cottage cheese (or plain greek yogurt, or non-dairy yogurt)
• 1/2 cup milk of choice
• 2 frozen bananas, sliced 
• 1 cup frozen cauliflower florets
• 1/2 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, plus more for serving
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Pinch of ground cloves 
• Optional: 1 scoop vanilla or unflavored protein powder
• Dollop of whipped cream (or coconut cream for dairy-free)
• 2 tablespoons raisins
• 2 tablespoons toasted pecans

Directions:

1. Add pumpkin, cottage cheese, milk, bananas, cauliflower, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and protein powder to blender. Puree until no chunks remain. Pour smoothie into two serving bowls.
2. Top with a dollop of whipped cream, raisins, pecans, and a sprinkle of extra nutmeg. Enjoy!