It's chili time

I owe a blog, in fact, I owe several. I got back from my conference in Denver on Friday night (blog soon) and due to being super tired and and getting snow on Saturday/Sunday (blog soon - we had power and it wasn't bad here) I didn't have the desire to stare at my computer.

However, because we seem to have entered winter, Saturday seemed to be the perfect time to make chili. My (semi) vegetarian ways (no land meat) make chili quite different to most peoples chili but it is still super delicious, really filing and warms you up nicely!

Some people might be surprised that I like such a dish considering when I was younger I wouldn't eat the following ingredients: kidney beans, corn, garlic, mushrooms, bell peppers, hot peppers and I would only eat raw carrots and onions if they were cut up really small. So essentially, out of all of the ingredients, the only things I would have eaten were celery and tomatoes. Good job I'm not quite as fussy any more!!


Ingredients:
4 cloves garlic (the more the better)
1 cup onion
3/4 cup carrots
3/4 cup celery
2 bell peppers
2 hot peppers (we've used Anaheim and jalapenos but you can do whatever you like)
1.5 cups mushrooms
2 cans (~28 oz) fire roasted tomatoes
1 can dark red kidney beans
1 can corn
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon cumin seeds (if you have them)
1.5 teaspoons dried oregano
1.5 teaspoons dried basil
1 tablespoon olive oil

Recipe:

1. Heat oil and cook garlic, onion and carrots until tender (about 5 minutes, depending on size of carrots)
2. Add celery, bell peppers, hot peppers and chili powder and cook for 6-7 minutes
3. Add mushrooms and cook for 4 minutes more
4. Add beans, corn and tomatoes (with all the juices) and cumin, oregano and basil. Bring to a boil, turn the heat down, cover and simmer for around 25 minutes.
5. Enjoy with some shredded cheese on top :-)

TRY IT - maybe you won't even miss the meat!! Plus it's very healthy (especially if you get low-sodium cans).