Good evening!
Ina! How could I forget Ina? She is actually my favorite Food Network star, and I have NO idea how Ms. Contessa fell off my radar last night. She’s so unpretentious (except for that Hampton’s accent) her recipes are easy, yet elegant, and I love how her and Jeffrey are just a couple of cute poodles still so in love after all these years. Team Ina. (I would wear a shirt if they had one.)
Plus she’s got every foodies’ dream job – own a gourmet food shop, retire, and spend all day cooking? Mmm Hmm! 
In other news – missed ya’ this morning! I chose sleep over blogging. It’s true – the alarm went off and I practically chucked it across the room. I blame it on my continued recovery efforts. All my life I’ve heard people say “my head is so plugged up” when they’re sick, and I never knew what they were talking about…until now. I feel like someone is literally sticking their fingers in my ears, plugging my head up! Hmph!
At any rate, breakfast was good ol’ Cheerios & a sliced banana, but lunch was an unexpected delight! I picked Ben up around noon to go for a short drive (sometimes we both need a little break from the office – you know how it goes) and we ended up making an impulse decision to go out for Mexican!
Old West caught our eye from the side of the road, and we pulled right in.
We actually used to come here quite a bit, as it’s close to both of our offices, but hadn’t been in some time. It was good to be back.
We started with some complimentary Chips & Salsa, natch.
I took a portion out for myself and put it on a napkin, because I cannot be trusted around an open basket of chips.
Our order was out to us in, no lie, 4 minutes. Flat! 1 Cheese Enchilada & 1 Chicken Enchilada.
Here’s the thing about Mexican restaurants. Usually you start off the meal with chips and salsa, and by the time your entree comes, you’re too full to eat. But you do anyways because it’s so good. Well, I’ve learned my lesson and now opt for a la cart items instead of a big platter with rice, beans – the whole 9. This way, I get exactly what I’m craving – delicious enchiladas – but I don’t leave the restaurant feeling so full from chips and enchiladas and rice and beans. Catch my drift?
My enchiladas were everything I could have hoped for. Fresh, perfectly spiced and filled with cheese! 
Ben ordered some Grilled Steak Enchiladas that were out of of control good!
Served with the fluffiest rice. What a great impromptu lunch date!
In dinner news, crock pot week isn’t turning out quite like I had planned! Tonight’s dinner concept started from a recipe in one of my crock pot cook books, but, was made on the regular stovetop after mish mashing the recipe with another one I found online. Either way, it turned out to be unbelievably good – it was White Chili!
White Chili
Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 Tablespoon ground cumin
1 4.5 ounce can chopped green chilies
4 jalapeno rings, minced
2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1 can northern beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups chicken broth
dash oregano
salt & pepper
green Tabasco sauce
1 tablespoon cornmeal
1/4 cup milk
Directions:
1. In a large pot, saute onion in oil on medium low heat until onions are translucent. Add garlic and cumin, and stir until fragrant, ~1 minute.
2. Add all ingredients from green chilies to Tabasco sauce into the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Stir cornmeal and milk together, add to pot and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes. Serve with cheese, tortilla chips or sour cream!
This white chili was incredible! Just a hint of spice, and so flavorful.
Oh! What would a good chili be without a good chili sidekick? Nothing! That’s why I baked up my faaaavorite cornbread recipe – Grandmother’s Buttermilk Cornbread!
I used less butter than the recipe called for, and unsweetened vanilla almond breeze instead of buttermilk (so I guess it should just be called “Grandmother’s Cornbread”) but it was delectable as always!
Sweet, crunchy and so satisfying. What a treat!
Whew! Long post.
Tonight I’m working on a special blog post for the morning, than hitting the hay early so I can get up for a morning workout tomorrow. Exciting stuff, my friends!
Goodnight!
~~~~~
What’s the last spontaneous thing you did?
All that mexican looks muy bueno!
The last spontaneous thing I can think of is buying walnut butter 1 1/2 months ago. I know–I’m not incredibly spontaneous
i LOVE mexican!! great idea tho to save some cals! thanks for sharing!!
spontaneous…hhhmmm really can’t recall!! maybe i’ll have to change that sometime soon!
Ole! You are on the Mexican kick today girl! I think Mexican could be the very essence of ethnic eating. Well, that and Thai. If I had to choose, I would rather not because I can’t imagine my life without both.
Glad you got to enjoy a wonderful little lunch date. I love having those!
Sometimes you just need your sleep! And good for you for getting out of the office, that is good for the soul I think. Now I need to eat my own words.
The last spontaneous thing I did. Hmm… probably start my blog and adopting a dog!
The last spontaneous thing Hunni and I did was go to the movies after dinner the other day. We usually don’t go to the movies and had planned on seeing lovely bones for our valentines date but just ended up seeing it last thursday.
Lunch date looks great!
Can’t wait for the post tomorrow!
Your Chili Verde looks right up my alley – I LOVE green tabasco! I put it on anything that seems appropriate (I would say anything, but I thought about it and it would be a slight exaggeration – wouldn’t put it on, say, my cinnamon apple oats…).
Spontaneous: I (along with my family) decided to move myself to California to take care of my older sister (she had massive amounts of blood clots in her lungs – it came on in less than a day; any women out there on b.c. pills should think twice about them because she’s lucky to be alive.. and she’s just as healthy as I am!). The decision was made on a Saturday and I left the next morning!
MMM!! Mexican food is my weakness!
LOVE cornbread, that looks awesome!
I love that ordering trick…I’m going to try that sometime.
Mmm I could have Mexican food like 3-4 x’s a week. Whenever the husband and I go out for an impromptu meal, it’s almost ALWAYS to our fave restaurant – Fiesta Ranchera. And you’re right, it only takes like 3 seconds for the meal to come out!
I love love love Barefoot Contessa! She is by far one of the top notch cooks on the food network and her recipes/techniques are superb
The chili verde looks great, much like a white chicken chili that I make often and is always a comforting fave in our house!
Taking out a serving of chips and sticking with that pile is SUCH a good idea. It is so simple yet really smart! I can never ever be trusted around a full basket of chips either, I go to town.
Ina is my favorite – I think she is the classiest!
That’s definitely a good plan when it comes to Mexican food. I am completely guilty of eating a bunch of chips and salsa and not eating my meal.
Oohh can’t wait for the special post!!
The mexican looks great! i’ve never tried Mexican food but I really really want to after seeing that!
Have a great evening
I love Ina Garten!! She’s one of my favorites.
Your lunch looks SO good! Now I’m craving Mexican food lol.
Last spontaneous thing… hmm, I don’t even know.
We’re in a very predictable phase right now. haha
Jenn
What a cute restaurant. I miss Mexican food.
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