If you're sick and tired of Thanksgiving leftovers (impossible, right) I've got another great recipe to share. I actually came across this while traveling through the Houston airport - and I'm making it today. It's surprisingly simple although requires a good, long, cooking time. If you keep the toppings to a minimum this is a super, healthy, low-fat dish. Yum.

(The recipe serves 8 but I'm cutting it in half to have enough for one dinner and some left-over to share. Besides, I don't have a pot to fit it anymore! The beans should be soaked over night and then simmered on the stove top or in a crock pot for 5 hours. For the sake of time, you can use canned beans but you'll have to cook the chicken and chilies together first to get better flavor and then add all together with the broth.)

Great Northern Chili - serves 8

Ingredients

1 lbs dry white great northern beans

7 cups chicken broth

3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

1 large onion, peeled and chopped

2 tsp. ground white pepper (or whatever you've got)

2 tsp. kosher salt (again, I use what I have to save some money)

1 tbsp. oregano

1 1/2 tbsp. cumin

1/4 tsp. ground clove

7 oz. green chilies, diced

5 cups cooked chicken breast, diced

1 tbsp. jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced

Instructions

1. Carefully pick over the beans, rinse, then soak in covered water for 24 hours.

2. Drain the beans. Combine them in a pot with 5 1/2 cups chicken broth, garlic, onion, white pepper, salt, oregano, cumin, and cloves. Simmer beans for 5 hours, stirring occasionally until beans are tender.

3. Stir in green chilies, chicken, and remaining chicken broth; simmer for 1 hour.

4. Add jalapeno.

5. To plate chili, serve with shredded Monterey jack cheese, tortilla chips, sour cream, chopped cilantro, diced avocado and salsa.

Again, this is a long cooking chili and some heavy toppings. When it comes to cooking I rarely follow any recipe exactly - I like a little improv! Since, we have out-of-town guest swinging by (one with a cold) I want to speed up the process. And I'm impatient when I want to eat! I'm going to use my intuition and try to get it all finished and still tasting delicious by dinner time. Maybe next time I'll plan for the two day chili challenge:)

And since this is a blog about healthy living and eating don't forget to amend recipes to meet your goals. This is really easy to do, I promise. Especially because this recipe dosen't call for oil, sugar or butter which are harder to substitute.

Try this instead:

Use low-sodium broth

Use low-fat cheese or skip it altogether

Use baked tortilla chips - or better yet, throw a few whole grain tortillas in the oven until crispy and make your own healthy "chips"

If you add the cheese skip the sour cream or visa versa

Load up the heart healthy salsa

Avocados are super healthy, just go easy

Bon appetite!