Slow-Cooked Sunday

I love to cook.  The smells, the sounds, creating something delicious, it's all a bit of an outlet for me.  The last couple of months Keith and I have been working hard at healthy eating (we're trying to drop a few pounds), and the resulting meals have been fun and flavorful.  It's been a challenge to both our skill and our creativity to fix food that is tasty and exciting but also low-fat and full of nutrients.  We've found tons of inspiration from a couple of cookbooks (and I just got a new one for my birthday) and really, everything we've attempted so far has ended up being delicious and completely satisfying (as well as good-for-us).

I especially love using our slow cooker on Sundays after church.  Something about tossing everything in and just walking away from it seems perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon.  Last night we made a delicious chili.  It's based on one of our South Beach diet cookbooks but because I never exactly follow a recipe and because I wanted to use the slow cooker, I made a few improvements.  Here's my version of Slow Cooked Pork and Poblano Chili:

Slow-Cooked Pork and Poblano Chili

Ingredients:  

3 poblano peppers (remove seeds and roughly chop)

1 bell pepper (remove seeds and roughly chop)

1jalapeno pepper (remove seeds and roughly chop)

3 cloves of garlic

1 medium onion (roughly chopped)

1 Tbs. olive oil

1 can unsalted diced tomatoes (with liquid)

1 can white beans (rinsed and drained)

2 cups low-salt chicken broth

1 pound pork loin (cut in 3/4 inch chunks and sprinkled with salt and pepper)

1 tsp. ground cumin

Directions:

Take all your peppers (be sure to remove seed unless you really like the heat), plus your onion and garlic and pulse it in the food processor until finely chopped (but not pureed).  You may have to do this in batches if you're like us and have a smallish food processor.  

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Dump all your chopped veggies from the food processor into the skillet and cook until well softened (about 10 minutes) stirring occasionally.  

While your veggies are cooking, set your slow cooker on high and dump in the tomatoes, white beans (we used cannellini but any white beans will do just fine), broth and pork.  Sprinkle cumin over the top and stir to combine.

Once your veggies are nice and soft go ahead and dump them into the slow cooker as well.  Mix it all up real good, put the lid back on and let it cook down together for a good 3-4 hours on high.  Stir it every hour or so.  Or if you're like me, stir it every time you think about it, because you can't resist going in and checking on it and ooh-ing and ahh-ing over how great it smells and how good it's going to be.  

Serve it hot in big heaping bowls and toss on a little jack cheese and salsa on top for good measure.  Add a little sour cream and lime juice as well if you've got it (use low-fat cheese and sour cream, of course!).  Then dig in with a giant spoon and enjoy!