I’ve had all of the cravings for buffalo chicken lately.
Instead of just buffalo chicke,n I wanted to put a spin on it and load it with tons of health superfoods to amp it up since I’m all about the cleansing stuff right now. The original idea was a skillet (which hasn’t left) and I ended up morphing in to this buffalo chicken chili.
I have mixed emotions about this.
One, I’m just not a big soup girl. Well unless it is thick, creamy and generally loaded with cheese so that option is out.
Two, the skillet sounds so amazing.
But here we have it, soup. Fortunately I knew what I was up against and I was determined to beat it.
I mean all soup really needs to make it delicious is ingredients that are hearty, filling and topped with enticing toppings. Mounds of toppings. Of course the perfect (cleanse worthy) pairings for buffalo chicken chili are goat cheese, (check) chopped spinach, (check) a few roasted pumpkin seeds for the added crunch, (check) and a twirl of ranch dressing if you accidentally got it a bit too spicy (double check).
Really that’s what any good, nutritious and wholesome meal is made of, layers. Lots and lots of layers. Layers of flavors, of nutrients, of food coming together into an unbelievable mix of health presented in a way you never thought possible.
That’s the beauty of it. Once you break out and start combining, savoring and really understanding the flavors you eat, you can then begin to create other combinations from whatever is in the refrigerator and create and enticing breakfast or lunch any day of the week. Trust me, this doesn’t take a trained chef (although I’m sure they can do all of this with their eyes closed).
What it does take, savoring your food. Truly enjoying it, respecting it and what it does for your body.
Let’s make a pledge to one another. A pledge to end the disconnect from what we eat, to how we feel and all of the emotions in between. The act of eating and art of cooking are essential to life and I am deeply sadden when I hear stories and find people who fear it. They fear the food they eat, they fear flavor because they associate it with calories and most of all, they fear how their body is going to look.
Unfortunately, we fear the wrong things. We fear what others think of us, how they perceive us and the number on the dreaded scale. But the reality we shouldn’t fear our size but rather our health. And until we do that, we’re just stuck in this yo-yo dieting thing, constantly worried about our external appearance and never truly believing that what happens internally is the only thing that can create lasting results externally.
[Tweet “We must get healthy to lose weight, not lose weight to get healthy.”]
Until we flip that mentality, we won’t win. We’ll never win the war, the battle that could so easily be overturned. We are our biggest enemy and I’m the same way. Let’s choose today to make our health a bigger priority than the scale and know that in doing this the scale will be changed easier than if we don’t.
The struggle is real, I see it, I’ve lived it, I’m fighting it but man the other side is just so sweet and so delicious. Instead of just looking at food like this and wishing you could eat it, understanding that you really can!
It’s mindset. It’s a choice. It’s what we believe. It’s trust.
If you want more help in this area grab my free detox guide below and get my best tips on overcoming our mind and truly embracing health and the success that comes with that.
In the meantime lets get back to the soup. While I went into the whole situation with my nose turned up, slightly sobbing when I realized the only hope for my skillet was soup. I had two choices, continue sobbing (just joking) or embrace the situation and figure out a way that I was actually excited to eat it.
And that’s just what I did. Embrace the soup!
Actually I’m going to have to give you an explicit warning here…
{I can imagine my mom and husband are panicking wondering what in the world I’m about to say}
I may have done something that I’ve never seen before. Like the unspeakable when it comes to food.
I made a salad and poured my soup on my salad.
What? Did I just jumbled up my words?
No. I actually made a chopped salad, with spinach, romaine, goat cheese and avocado and poured my bowl of soup on my salad.
It was the best of both worlds.
Explosion!
I’d like to think that I am being an innovator in the food world. But when you think about doing this in a restaurant it’s probably kind of disgusting and not something anyone talks about. So really it’s not that anyone hasn’t thought of it, it’s just that it really is unthinkable to post such a thing on the internet.
Either way, just know it is delicious and a great way to amp up those vegetables while getting all of the flavor.
It’s the truth.
If you want to know more about getting all of the vegetables you need in a day make sure you check out my post: How to get 10 servings of vegetables a day and 58 recipe ideas.
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 tsp garlic, minced
- 3 stalks celery, diced
- 2 large carrot, peeled and diced
- 3-4 cups shredded chicken
- 1 cup white beans
- 1 box fired roasted tomatoes
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup corn kernels
- 1 Tbsp chili powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 full batch homemade buffalo sauce
- Sriracha sauce or hot sauce
- Chopped Spinach
- Roasted Pumpkin seeds
- Cilantro
- Crumbled goat cheese (optional)
- Ranch Dressing
- In a medium skillet, add olive oil over medium heat and cook onion until caramelized.
- Add in garlic and cook for an additional minute and add to large slow cooker.
- In a small saucepan make buffalo sauce.
- Add remaining ingredients to slow cooker, along with buffalo sauce and set on low.
- Cook 5-8 hours.
- Serve with all of the toppings