catch-up (again, sheesh)

I've been at my parents' house. My husband was traveling and now he's home for a while. (I think hope.) I actually made some yummy meals at their house, but I've been unable of doing anything but keeping my children alive and watching instant movies on Netflix in the foreign genre. Now that I'm back home and emotionally balanced by my husband-anchor, I feel like I can once again report on the evening eating.

Our first night home we had pizza. My husband's favorite food, it was a love token. I even bought pepperoni! (Well, it was turkey pepperoni, but who's splitting hairs?)

I also tried making thin crust and it was pretty successful. Normally with my pizza dough I double it and make three pizzas. This time I cut it into fourths and by rolling the dough very thin, managed four pizzas the same size as the usual three. The crust was nice and crispy and the whole family thought it was a tweak that needed to stay permanent.

Second night? Tacos. What is it about tacos? It's one of the few things that I make the same on a consistent basis. I alternate between ground beef and tofu but other than that, our tacos don't change. The special factor is that we make double deckers. (That's one good thing you get credit for, Taco Bell.) Soft tortilla "glued" to a taco shell with refried beans. They are goo-oo-od.

Tonight I made the only chili that my husband likes: Cha Cha's White Chicken Chili. You see, he is not fond of chili. I kept trying different types of chili, hoping I'd find one that he liked. Finally, one day he said, "You know, Tricia, I just don't like the taste of chili powder." That would explain the chili disdain but we didn't say this sooner because...?

Cha Cha's chili has absolutely no chili powder. It has green chilis, cumin and oregano. That's it. And did I mention its absolute tastiness? It is three-bowls full, stomach-painfully-distending delicious. But to my credit, I only had one bowl tonight, thank you.

The original recipe is from Allrecipes but I've added a few tweaks that I think improve it drastically. (Although if my husband wasn't such a spicy-baby-mouth I wouldn't decrease the spice factors at all.) They are as follows:

1. To decrease the spicy factor I skip the jalapenos but double the green chiles.
2. I omit the cayenne pepper.
3. I decrease the chicken broth to one can.
4. I increase the beans to four cans.
5. We serve it over rice with sour cream and the cheese as garnish.