Phood Phun with Phlip - Eggplant Chicken Chili

     No cutesy backstory to this one.  Mimi came up with this one off the top of her head when we were brainstorming things to cook when we basically swore off carbs last year.  She is brilliant like that.

     The beauty of this is that it is a crock pot meal, not requiring a ton of attention or difficult techniques.  Let’s get right into it.  You will need:

1 can of Rotel

1 can crushed tomatoes

3 cups diced chicken

1 cup chicken broth

3 cups eggplant

2tbsp chili powder

1/2tsp crushed red pepper

1tsp each of oregano, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, pepper, and coriander

salt, to taste

Dice the eggplant and salt it well, do this while the chicken is cooking.

Again, this is a crockpot meal and will not be complicated at all.  Everyone in the pool now, mix well and stir occasionally.

We’re calling this a chili, so be prepared to cook and stir until it is the desired consistency and taste for how you like your chili.

Although the "meat/veggie/sauce" formula covers all bases in this overall easy-to-make dish, we couldn’t leave you without SOMETHING to go with it.
Fortunately, the “something to go with it” is a sendup of something we have done before, you can find the general framework here in the rolls we used for our breakfast sliders back in July.

1 cup each almond flour and shredded cheese

2 large eggs

1/2tsp each baking soda and salt

seasonings to your taste

In the interest of topical applicability, we used pepper jack cheese this time.

ONE difference this time though.  Instead of baking them, Mimi pan fried them, kind of like you might do a Johnny cake. Sometimes low-carb living requires the upping of our fat intake to properly fuel our bodies, so the frying hasn't killed us yet.  If you choose, you can still bake them.

("Jacked up Johnny Cakes" is what she calls them)

All done, you can top your chili with the johnny cake, then a dollop of plain Greek yogurt (sour cream is also safe but yogurt has more protein) and a little cheese and we’re wonderful:

For $4 worth of chicken, $2 in eggplant, $1.50 in chicken broth, $2 in cans of tomatoes and some seasonings we should all have in our houses already, I'd say we have ourselves a pretty good outcome for the 6 heaping-cup-size servings it should yield.

Calories: 214

Fat: 6.3

Carbs: 10, Fiber is 4...  6 net carbs

Protein: 28

(numbers are for the chili alone, not any add-ins)

Alternatives: you can make cheese crisps (we'll discuss those when we get to taco night) to dip your chili with.

Bear in mind as well that the carbs in Almond Flours tend to vary.  This is the one we keep around.