Okay guys, I am so sorry it has taken me so long to write this recipe! I’ve been pretty busy lately with fashion shows and school. Now that I have a day off I am going to tell you how I cooked my delicious chowder! Ready? Set! GO!!

READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE YOU START!!

Cook Time: Maybe an hour? I can’t remember. I was definitely playing by ear and making up my own meal.

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First you’re going to need to get your ingredients together. I used:

1 baked/grilled chicken breast (you can use as many as you like, depending on how much you want to make)

***Oh, and before I continue, I didn’t measure anything haha! So if you’re the type of person that needs exact measurements, this recipe may not be for you or you can just come up with your own measurements. This is just how much I used when cooking for 1 or 2. You may want to add more celery, apples, tomatoes, and banana chips depending on how much chowder you want to make. The consistency should be creamy, so keep that in mind as you are going through the steps of preparation.***

2 celery stalks

1 tomato

1 Fuji apple

1/4 lb or about 6 cups of whole almonds (ground them myself with a blender. I suggest a food processor.)

2 handfuls of banana chips (dried banana slices)

Almond Breeze almond milk (sweetened)

minced onions (season to taste)

Texas Pete hot sauce

chili powder (season to taste)

seasoning salt (season to taste)

peppercorn pepper (read above parenthetical phrase)

salt

butter

raspberry vinaigrette

honey

extra virgin olive oil

romaine lettuce

whole basil

parsley (flakes, chopped, not whole)

Tajin Clasico seasoning (Latin seasoning mix)

You will also need:

1 standard size fry pan (I like nonstick, but use what you like and use PAM)

1 casserole dish (I used a glass one)

1 medium to large saucepan depending on how much you make

And your normal cooking utensils

Alright, now that you’ve got your ingredients on hand, go ahead and shred the chicken breast. It will resemble pulled pork. You know? That strewn look? Yeah. That is your goal for the chicken. Set it aside.Turn on your stove to about medium high to high. I used closer to high.

Now you’re going to chop up the tomato(es), apple(s), and celery. Season them while they are on the chopping block with the seasoning salt and chili powder. You’re about to put them in the fry pan, but before you do add a little bit of butter or olive oil to the pan and let it heat. Once it is hot, not burnt(!!) add your fruit and vegetable medley. They will sizzle. That is what you want. Season them again. This time with a little peppercorn, more chili powder, and raspberry vinaigrette. Add the shredded chicken. Stir for about 5-7 minutes, remove from heat. Do not turn off stove top, but be careful. Preheat oven to BROIL.

Drizzle the extra virgin olive oil in the casserole dish and add a small amount of butter. Spread it all over the bottom (and sides, if you are making a lot) of the casserole dish; set aside.

In the saucepan, pour about four cups of almond milk. This may be like half of the carton depending on the size. You may put more, or less milk in the pan if you are cooking for a certain number of people; use your best judgement. Bring milk to a nice boil and begin seasoning with parsley, basil, peppercorn, salt, honey (I’d say about 1/4 cup), and minced onions (1/4 or 1/2 cup). Reduce heat to medium-low and cover. Stir occasionally. Do not forget it with the next steps!

Next take your whole almonds and banana chips. Dump them in your grinder and grind for a few minutes. Don’t grind it too long or you will get almond butter —- with banana haha, which would probably be delicious. Oooh, if you’re adventurous you could try that in the chowder as a thickener. I think I will do that the next time I make it. Make sure all of the almonds are ground. It doesn’t have to be perfect powder, but you don’t want big chunks either. After you have the perfect texture, pour half of that in the milk and stir.

***To get the perfect texture of the ground almonds you will have to grind maybe 2 cups at a time, depending on the blender or food processor you use. You don’t want to overload the grinder because you won’t like the results.***

The next step is to pour the veggie/fruit/chicken medley into your casserole dish. Spread everything out and season with the Texas Pete hot sauce and distribute the rest of the ground almonds on top. Drizzle a little honey on top of that and stick it into the oven. Now, be careful! Broil will burn your food very quickly. Either leave the door cracked or watch it very carefully. The purpose of broiling this is to get that nice blackening of the tips of the fruit and vegetables. You want to get that awesome grilled look to them. This should take under 5 minutes. The time may vary depending on your oven.

The last stage is to add the broiled medley to the almond milk and stir. Now add the romaine lettuce. You can add the entire head if you like, be sure to tear the leaves apart first haha. Add a little more honey, any ground almonds you may have left, and more parsley. And it’s done!!

Of course, continue seasoning if you feel you need more, but the general taste should be spicy yet sweet. The texture should be creamy, unless you like it more on the soupier side. I like to serve this dish in cute little bowls. It can either be your meal, appetizer, or side. ENJOY!!