Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

2 frozen bananas, peeled and sliced

2 cups 2 percent reduced-fat milk or soy milk

2 tablespoons smooth natural almond butter or peanut butter

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1 tablespoon flax meal (optional)

½ cup 2 percent reduced-fat Greek yogurt

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.

PREP TIME: 10 MINS

COOK TIME: 1 HOUR 30 MINS

TOTAL TIME: 1 HOUR 40 MINS

INGREDIENTS:

1 (8-ounce) block reduced-fat cream cheese, roughly cut into 1-inch cubes

4 ounces crumbled blue cheese*

3 cups diced or shredded cooked chicken

2 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

1 cup hot sauce** (I recommend Frank’s)

1 cup plain Greek yogurt or sour cream

1/2 cup thinly-sliced green onions (about 3 green onions)

1 Tablespoon ranch seasoning***

(optional toppings: extra crumbled blue cheese, thinly-sliced green onions, chopped celery, and/or a drizzle of hot sauce)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Spray the inside of the bowl of your slow cooker with cooking spray.

2. Add all ingredients to the bowl of the slow cooker, and stir until combined. (You can also stir the ingredients together in a separate bowl, and then transfer that to the bowl of the slow cooker afterwards.)

3. Cook on high for 1.5 – 2 hours, or until the cheeses are all melted. (Alternately, you can also cook this on low for 3-4 hours, or until the cheeses are all melted.) Give the dip a good final stir, then transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with extra blue cheese and green onions if desired. Serve with chips or your desired dippers.

BROWNSVILLE — If Hurricane Preparedness Week, May 15-21, is about preparing for hurricane season, then the week before must be about preparing to prepare for hurricane season.

This week, in order to get the public’s attention about next week, teams of Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel are combing the coast to get the word out about this year’s Hurricane Preparedness Week theme: “It Only Takes One.”

It only takes one hurricane, that is, to create major havoc even in the midst of a relatively inactive season. Earl Armstrong, external affairs specialist out of FEMA’s Region 6 office in Denton, was in Brownsville yesterday as part of a swing through the Rio Grande Valley and up to Corpus Christi to talk about preparedness.

He noted that 2016’s Atlantic hurricane season forecast predicts 12 named storms, five hurricanes and two major hurricanes, which is not far from the seasonal average of 12 named storms, six hurricanes and three major hurricanes.

Armstrong recommended that people near the coast make a plan that includes how and where they’ll evacuate, and how they’ll let loved ones know where they are and that they’re safe.

“They can put together supply kits that they can take with them,” Armstrong said. “They can keep their car gassed up. They can listen to local officials.”

Evacuation kits should have food, at least a gallon of water for each family member, water for pets, and medications for family members and pets, he said. Especially, pay attention to authorities, Armstrong said.

“Listen to your local officials,” he said. “Boiled down, that’s it.”

Hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30 each year. Armstrong said even coastal residents tend to dismiss it if it’s been a while since they’ve experienced a major storm — not to mention transplants who’ve never experienced one.

“There have been studies in the past that (show) people have gotten kind of complacent, and kind of forgotten about hurricanes of the past,” he said. “Down here in this part of the country you’re close to the coast, such flat lands. Just go ahead and prepare for the eventuality that you’re going to be hit, no matter what the forecast is.”

For complete information on how to prepare for a hurricane, go to www.ready.gov/make-a-plan.

serves: 8-10

INGREDIENTS

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts

2 cups mirepoix (just a simple mixture of chopped onions, celery, and carrots)

1-2 teaspoons dried basil

1-2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 teaspoon poultry seasoning

1 teaspoon salt

4 cups chicken broth

2 tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in 2 tablespoons water

2 12 ounce cans evaporated milk

2 1lb. packages mini potato gnocchi (about 4 cups – we use DeLallo brand)

6 slices bacon

2-3 cloves garlic

5 ounces fresh baby spinach

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Place the chicken, mirepoix, basil, Italian seasoning, poultry seasoning, salt, and broth in a crockpot or slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours or low for 6-8 hours. Shred the chicken directly in the crockpot.

2. Add the cornstarch mixture, evaporated milk, and gnocchi. Stir and replace cover.

3. Cut the bacon into small pieces and fry until crispy. Drain on paper towels and wipe most of the bacon grease out of the pan, leaving just a little bit for the spinach/garlic. Add the garlic and saute for one minute. Add the spinach and stir until wilted. Remove from heat. Add the bacon and spinach to the crockpot. Stir to combine.

4. Add any additional liquid as needed (I added about a cup of water) and season again with salt and pepper as needed.

NOTES

Be sure to taste and adjust with salt/pepper before serving. It may need more depending on the saltiness of your broth.

You can use something other than evaporated milk, but I found that evaporated milk has the creaminess of half and half or heavy whipping cream without actually needing to use up all my good half and half in the soup. 🙂

The leftovers do soak up a lot of the moisture, so you might need to add more evaporated milk depending on how soupy you want it and/or how long you’ll be keeping it around.

SAN BENITO — School board members have officially adopted the new school calendar after a minor revision to a national holiday.

The new calendar calls for an earlier start time for elementary school children.

Last night, school board members voted to approve the revised calendar. School officials said the previous newly adopted calendar had a minor error that interfered with Memorial Day.

Everything that was previously approved last month will remain as is.

Because of a recently passed state law, classes will be starting and ending at different times for 2016-2017 school year. However, it only applies to the elementary schools.

The first bell for elementary students will ring at 7:25 a.m. Instruction will begin promptly at 7:30 a.m. The elementary school dismissal time will change from 2:55 p.m. to 3 p.m.

The first bell for middle school students will ring at 7:50 a.m. Instruction will begin at 7:55 a.m.

The first bell for San Benito High School and San Benito Veterans Memorial Academy students will ring at 8:10 a.m. Instruction will begin at 8:15 a.m.

Because of the recently passed state law, the school district is required to base the school calendar on the number of instructional minutes instead of the number of instructional days, Superintendent Dr. Adrian Vega said.

The state mandated converting from a 180-day requirement with a minimum of 420 minutes of instruction per day to a new schedule, which does away with the 180-day requirement but implements a minimum requirement of 75,600 minutes per school year.

They maintained the minimum of 420 minutes per day of instruction.

YIELD: 4 SERVINGS

PREP TIME: 10 MINUTES

COOK TIME: 8 HOURS 5 MINUTES

TOTAL TIME: 8 HOURS 15 MINUTES

The easiest one pot recipe ever. Simply throw everything in and that’s it! No cooking, no sauteeing. SO EASY!

INGREDIENTS:

8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs

16 ounces baby red potatoes, halved

16 ounces baby carrots

16 ounces green beans, trimmed

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

FOR THE SAUCE

1/2 cup reduced sodium soy sauce

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup ketchup

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large bowl, combine soy sauce, honey, ketchup, garlic, basil, oregano, red pepper flakes and pepper.

2. Place chicken thighs, potatoes, carrots and soy sauce mixture into a 6-qt slow cooker. Cover and cook on low heat for 7-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours, basting every hour. Add green beans during the last 30 minutes of cooking time.

3. OPTIONAL: Preheat oven to broil. Place chicken thighs onto a baking sheet, skin side up, and broil until crisp, about 3-4 minutes.

4. Serve chicken immediately with potatoes, carrots and green beans, garnished with parsley, if desired.

RAYMONDVILLE — A new tool is expected to help police and prosecutors crack down on domestic violence.

The Willacy County District Attorney’s Office and the Raymondville Police Department will work with 15 hand-held cameras to document cases of domestic violence at the crime scene, District Attorney Bernard Ammerman said yesterday.

The district attorney’s office applied to the Texas Council on Family Violence for a $7,363 Governor’s Office grant used to purchase the cameras.

“It’s going to make evidence-collection and prosecution a lot better,” Ammerman said. “These cameras are going to take pictures and videos of everything going at the crime scene. They’re going to be used for evidence-collection (after) the time crime occurs.”

Photographing and videotaping victims at the crime scene makes it more likely authorities can take the cases to court, Ammerman said.

Currently, he said, police departments interview victims at the crime scene before asking them to be available for follow-up interviews.

“A lot of times the victim won’t come back,” Ammerman said.

Too often, he said, victims change their stories to protect their attackers.

“By collecting evidence at crime scenes, there’s less of a chance the victims could be coerced by the suspect,” Ammerman said. “We want to be able to get the truth so we can help these people.”

The hand-held cameras offer lawmen new “forensic” tools, said Aaron Setliff, public policy director for the Council on Family Violence.

Police body cameras, Setliff said, may not produce quality recordings.

“With the video camera evidence, offenders are more likely to plead guilty and to do so earlier on in the criminal justice process, helping to increase his supervision and helping the victim move forward more quickly,” Setliff stated in an email.

Ammerman said the Council on Family Violence will provide training on the use of the cameras to members of his department and Raymondville police officers later this month.

Authorities will be using the cameras by the end of the month, he said.

“It’s something new we want to try,” Police Chief Uvaldo Zamora said. “It’s a good project. It’ll have a good, positive impact.”

In Willacy County, as many as 30 percent of misdemeanor cases stem from domestic violence, Ammerman said.

“When you look at the overall scheme, that’s a lot,” he said. “Typically, it’s household-, family- or dating-related.”

Since 2009, Ammerman said, the seriousness of the crime has led him to assign a prosecutor to handle domestic violence cases.

Ammerman said the new cameras will help his office better prosecute domestic violence cases.

“I want to make sure when we take domestic violence cases to court, we have all the evidence,” he said.

HARLINGEN — Nearly 1,900 applicants started the 7-Eleven contest in which the lucky winner essentially will be handed a franchise.

This week, the group was trimmed to seven. One of them is Army Capt. Aditya Khurana of Harlingen.

Khurana is a logistics officer for the 319th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion. A native of India, he immigrated to the United States and lived in Puerto Rico. Ten years ago, he joined the Army.

The contest, Operation: Take Command, will essentially give the winner a 7-Eleven franchise since the company will waive the $190,000 franchise fee.

“It’s an investment opportunity,” Khurana said earlier this week of the possibility of winning the contest.

“I’ve always wanted to work for myself and see how that works out,” he added. “I worked for lot of people; I’ve made a lot of money for other people.”

Khurana is the only remaining contestant from Texas. Entrants had to be over 21, a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, be an active or honorably discharged military member, have excellent credit and three years of leadership, retail or restaurant experience.

The Army captain said he’s open to operating a 7-Eleven franchise, but it has to be the right financial fit for him.

“Basically, at the end of the day, it comes down to cold, hard numbers,” Khurana said. “Looking at it practically, if I can replace my salary along with a little bit on top, I’d be interested in it.”

“That’s basically the gist and crux of it,” he said.

Khurana said he’ been candid with 7-Eleven on this, and he said they understand his position.

Still, a convenience store of one’s own has a certain allure.

“On the other hand, I see that in San Antonio and in Houston, they’ve recently entered the market space, including here in Harlingen,” he added. “I’d be open to any of those possibilities.

This is the second year 7-Eleven has conducted its Operation: Take Command contest.

For Khurana, it’s an opportunity to own his own business and put in 75 hours a week doing so.

“I’m working 75 hours a week anyway!” he said. “I’m the operations officer of a logistics battalion of 625 soldiers.

“It’s a lot of work” he said. “Uncle Sam expects to get his money’s worth.”

For Khurana, it’s also a long way from the streets of Puerto Rico where he grew up after he left India.

“My first job in the United States was selling chewing gum at a traffic light, so I’ve come a long way,” Khurana said. “This should be another adventurous undertaking if it does happen.”

How to vote

The seven contestants remaining in this year’s event, including Khurana, have all posted videos to the 7-Eleven website on why they should win. To see those videos, and to vote on which one you like best, go to www.VeteransFranchiseGiveaway.com

The votes will be a contributing factor to which three of the contestants move through to the final round, which includes an interview with President and CEO Joe DePinto, who is former military himself. A winner should be announced in June.

HARLINGEN — Fast-growing discount retailer Five Below is coming to Harlingen.

The company has submitted plans with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation for a new $175,000 store at Harlingen Corners Shopping Center at 2819 W. Expressway 83.

Harlingen Corners is the site of the popular Kohl’s and Bed Bath and Beyond stores.

The Harlingen location is the fourth store being planned for the Rio Grande Valley. Stores in Mission and Brownsville, at Sunrise Commons mall, will be holding grand openings soon, the company says.

Another location expected to open later this year will be in Pharr.

Five Below is a publicly held chain of discount stores that stock products that cost up to $5. The chain is aimed at teens and pre-teens, but does have many adult customers. It’s a popular store in college towns.

The public company, which is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was founded in 2002 and now has approximately 450 stores in 28 states. The company website said it opened 70 stores in 2015 and plans to open 85 more this year, including the three in the Rio Grande Valley.

Five Below has an estimated market capitalization of $2.18 billion and trades on the NASDAQ exchange under FIVE.

Five Below carries cell phone accessories, remote control cars, yoga pants, trading cards, sports related items, games, fashion accessories, bath and body related items, beverages, room decorations, school supplies and stationery, books, DVDs, computer software and novelty items and gag items.

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LA FERIA — The La Feria boys track and field team will be represented at the UIL state meet in a big way.

The Lions qualified four individual athletes and a relay team for this weekend’s meet, making it the largest contingent of athletes in the Valley.

After a long season, La Feria head boys coach Everardo Sanchez and his team is simply enjoying the ride.

“It’s great for us to get all these kids because we get to rest up and relax that a lot of the stress is gone,” Sanchez said. “We’re able to focus on this because it’s icing on the cake.

“It makes things easier now that we’re a lot more relaxed.”

With a solid number of athletes competing on Friday and Saturday, the Lions have a solid chance to not only collect medals, but to be in the hunt for an overall team title.

“We made them aware that there is a chance for a title,” Sanchez said. “You normally don’t see that in South Texas. In track, that’s unheard of and it’s in the back of our minds.”

The meet will be held at Mike A. Myers Field on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin.

Full story at RGVSports.com