Red Chili

Ingredients

Servings | 4-6

1 pounds ground beef

1 medium onion chopped

1 red or green bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1 hot chili pepper, seeded and diced

1 can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce – use ½ to 1 full can depending on taste

1 poblano pepper, roasted, skinned, seeded and diced – use ½ or whole depending on heat desire

2 cans of pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can of dark kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 can diced tomatoes with juice

9 cups of water

2 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon cumin

salt and pepper to taste

1-2 tablespoon of masa flour, as needed for thickener if desired

Directions

Prep | 15 mins     Cook | 45 mins     Ready In | 1 hr

1. Roast poblano pepper until skin bubbles up, sweat- then remove skin and seeds. Dice and reserve until later.
2. In a large 4-5 quart pot, brown ground beef, onion, bell pepper, and hot chili pepper. Stir frequently breaking ground beef up into small crumbles as onions and peppers cook.  Once beef is almost done, add 1 tablespoon of chili powder.
3. Add one can of tomatoes with juice (all drained), rinsed beans and water once beef and peppers and onions are finished cooking . Then add remainder of chili powder, cumin and one half to a whole can of diced chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and reserved poblano peppers.
4. Simmer on medium heat for 30-45 minutes adding water as necessary if it is getting too thick. As chili cooks down a thickener may not be necessary. Although if desired add 1-2 tablespoon of masa flour and bring to boil. Once chili is done, taste and adjust salt and pepper to desired taste.
5. Serve and use the following toppings as condiments: shredded cheddar, sour cream. Great with fresh jalapeño cheddar corn bread! Enjoy!

Jess’s White Bean Chicken Chili

Ingredients

Servings | 4-6

1 pound of rinsed, soaked (overnight) great northern beans – you do not have to soak northern beans – I do if time permits

1 pound cooked, diced chicken meat (preferably slow cooked in liquid until done creating stock) this can be any cut of meat (I slow cook a whole chicken creating stock.)

1 medium onion diced

1 roasted, skinned, seeded and diced poblano pepper

3 quart of chicken stock

2 – 3 tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoon lime juice

1 teaspoon lime zest

salt & pepper to taste

cilantro to garnish

Directions

Prep | 10 mins     Cook | 45 mins     Ready In | 1 hr

1. Soak northern beans in water over night.
2. Slow cook chicken the day before in plenty of water creating 2-3 quarts of stock. Pull (if on the bone) and dice chicken and hold.
3. Roast, sweat and skin, seed, and dice poblano pepper and reserve until later.
4. Cook beans in strained stock with diced onion slowly, when beans are tender, add chicken meat and poblano pepper.
5. Stir in cumin then add lime juice and zest, and salt and pepper as desired, once chili has cooked down to desired consistency. (Add water if necessary during cooking) Some may prefer to add 1-2 teaspoon of chili powder for an extra kick – this will tint the color. White pepper is preferred over black pepper.
6. Serve – may garnish with fresh cilantro and sour cream dollop. This recipe is also great using pork meat and pork stock instead of chicken.

    Jessica Wright C.E.C is a Certified Trainer, Chef, and PCS TrakNOW Implementation Specialist.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools reached out to PCS in the Spring of 2015 about finding a better way to manage a large volume of special diet requests. Child Nutrition Services staff were creating menus for over 900 students, taking into consideration 90 different allergies, food sensitivities and other dietary restrictions such as texture modifications. Our goal was to compare the ingredients for each menu item with the allergens and other factors identified for each student in order to generate custom menus and notifications for cafeteria managers and parents.

An automated process, utilizing specific keywords to capture a user defined number of allergens contained in ingredients listed on scanned product fact sheets, was created in order to speed the process.  Utilizing this solution, over 1,000 labels could be processed in two or three days.

Next, PCS created a scannable template for capturing Doctor’s Diet Orders. This template extracts student’s special dietary needs as well as allergy information. The Diet Order form signed by the students’ parents and physician. Integration with student information system allows the software to identify the student listed on the form, record full student information, and archive an image of the form for easy access when reviewing custom menus created for individual students or groups of students.

Students are classified into groups based on the complexity of the allergies. A simple allergy, such as ‘no fluid milk’, generates a letter of notification which is automatically emailed to the cafeteria manager, with instruction for an appropriate substitution. An automated letter is generated to the parent to confirm the special dietary plan has been entered into the system.  Multiple allergies may affect a few menu items and similar letters can be generated with listing of restricted items individually for each of these students. The software’s ability to process of less complex dietary needs through an automated email or print merge allows dietitians to focus on more complex allergy groups.

In addition to the function described above, PCS’ Special Diets solution provides tools to assist dietitians in creating custom menus.   It’s easy to generate reports displaying allowed and restricted items by selecting one or more allergies. A complete menu worksheet highlights restricted items in red text for each meal in the menu cycle. Using these reports and the color-coded menu, the dietitian can make recommendations for each day of the menu cycle. This custom menu plan is then emailed to the cafeteria manager(s) and/or parents, utilizing built-in automation.

Taking the guess work out of Special Diets allows Charlotte-Mecklenburg Child Nutrition Services to service an important need in their community at the same time as increasing participation in their meal plans.

Thanks to Jennifer Swan as contributing editor and PCS special diets guru.