Thursday, April 5, 2012

Chili: Part 2!


Out of chaos comes clarity! My life has been crazy, crazy, crazy lately! I was inspired to revamp my chili recipe after meeting with a nutrition client last night. It is a combination of my own recipe and some inspiration from a fabulous site called: cookingcomically.com. The writer of that blog is a creative and hilarious cook and his recipes kill! Enjoy!!!!!!

Ingredients:
3 T olive oil
1 package soy crumbles
1 cup water
1 chopped green pepper
½ chopped red pepper
½ chopped yellow pepper
½ white onion chopped
½ red onion chopped
6 stalks celery, chopped
2 cups pasta sauce
1 can no added salt kidney beans, drained
1 can butter beans, drained
1 T red crushed red pepper flakes
1 T onion powder
1 T garlic powder
1 T paprika
1 T cumin
1 T sugar
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp black pepper
Directions:
Get up close and personal with your food!
In a large pot, add 3 T olive oil at medium heat.
Add both varieties of chopped onion and allow to simmer until edges start to become somewhat golden.
Add soy crumbles and water to pot. Stir so crumbles break apart.
The contents of your pot will begin to sizzle. Add water, celery & chopped peppers. Cook for about 5 minutes or until vegetables are soft.
Drain and add kidney & butter beans to chili mixture. Stir well.
Add 2 cups of pasta sauce to mixture. Stir well.
In a sealable container such as a zip baggie or plastic container, mix all dry seasonings together in this container. Seal and shake it up!
Add seasoning to the chili mixture and stir well.
Reduce heat and stir occasionally. Cook for about 30-45 minutes.
Serve hot & enjoy!

Tips/Tricks:
1)The sauce used in the images above is homemade. If you do not have access/time to homemade sauce, try to find one that contains little sugar and preservatives. The less junk in your chili, the better!

2) If you are NOT vegetarian and would like to add ground meat to this recipe, I would suggest first cooking the meat and draining it before adding to mixture. My recommendations would be ground turkey/ chicken.

3) I love to enjoy my chili with a corn muffin. Until I perfect a recipe, I swear by Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix. It take 15 minutes to prepare and it really delicious! No high fructose corn syrup, too!
4)  Try topping this fabu dessert with fat free cheese, sour cream or enjoy with whole grain crackers.
5) Chili is wonderful to freeze! Make this whole recipe and freeze for a great go-to lunch or dinner!

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Promises, promises!

Hey everyone!
I know the blogging has taken a slight backseat to my school semester but I promise to come back with a ton of recipes in hand! In the meantime, I am going to be posting links for helpful articles, motivational images and quotes and any other deliciously educational material I can find.

The article below is written for Yahoo! by David Zincenko. He is the author of the "Eat This, Not That!" series of which I have 2 books! I like his style because home cooking from scratch doesn't work in every scenario for every person. This article caught my eye because it is all about the way national food chains have polluted Italian pasta staples!

http://health.yahoo.net/experts/eatthis/7-worst-pasta-dishes-america

Have a delicious day!

~Angel