Vegetarian Chili - from Scratch!

It's been rather cold in Phoenix lately. Well, cold for us. I think it may have gotten below freezing. At night...
Anyway, cold weather is the perfect time to make something warm to eat. We are supposed to be eating lots of beans, so what's better than chili?

Here's the recipe we started with. I didn't have all the ingredients, so I improvised. This made a BIG pot of chili. I used it for a pot-luck and still had leftovers. I thought it turned out pretty good, and the husband and a couple of the kids agreed. The others just wouldn't eat it because,,,beans....

Vegetarian Chili From Scratch

Ingredients:

• 2 cups dry beans - I used a mix of black beans, kidney beans, and chick peas
• 2 15oz cans diced tomatoes
• 1 8oz can tomato sauce
• 3 medium carrots
• 1 onion
• 1 bell pepper
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1-2 tablespoon chili powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• salt

1. Put beans in a large bowl. Cover with water and let soak overnight.
2. The next day, rinse the beans. Process vegetables in food processor until finely chopped. Place all ingredients in large crockpot and cover with water. Cook on high for 6-8 hours. 

Stuffed Acorn Squash with Rice (FLOP)

So, we've been doing a lot of squash this week because it was on sale. I usually love squash. And acorn squash is especially delicious. And the photos for this recipe were so pretty...

However, this recipe was pretty much a flop. If I were to try this again (and I probably won't), I would NOT use the thyme. The taste was over-powering, and negated the flavor of the acorn squash.
Also, while it was really cute to have the rice mixture IN the squash "bowl", eating it that way was a bit difficult. And I really didn't think the rice mixture really went well with the squash.

With all that said, here is the recipe in case you want to try it. I included my changes...

Stuffed Acorn Squash + Rice Medley
Acorn Squash

• 3 acorn squashes, cut in half lengthwise and seeded
• salt

Wild Rice Medley

• 1 cup rice, dry (I used half black wild rice and half long grain brown rice)
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 small red bell pepper, diced
• 1 large shallot or small onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 large handfuls greens (I used spinach)
• 1 can cannellini beans (15 oz), drained and rinsed
• 1 tablespoon thyme
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional
• sea salt and cracked pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cut and seed your squash, place on baking sheet with cut side up. Brush each squash half with a little cooking oil. Sprinkle with salt if desired. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until tender…knife should easily pierce the flesh.
Cook your rice according to package.
While rice and squash are cooking, in large wok or saute pan, heat oil on medium heat. Add onion, garlic and bell peppers, saute for about three minutes. Add beans, one tablespoon thyme, red pepper flakes, a few twists of salt and pepper, cook for another three minutes. Add leafy greens, stir frequently until they are wilted.
Combine rice and sautéed vegetables in the larger of the two pots. Taste for seasoning adding additional salt and pepper as needed.
Scoop mixture into each acorn squash half and serve with any additional seasonings.

Black Bean and Butternut Squash Burritos

Squash is the theme of the week. It's been on sale, and I think it's yummy.
So, here's the first squash recipe we tried. I think it was yummy. I even got some good responses from the kiddos after I got them to try it.

Black Bean and Butternut Squash Burritos

Ingredients:

• 1 medium butternut squash, peeled, cubed, & roasted
• 1/2 cup uncooked short grain brown rice (yields: 1.5 cups cooked)
• 1-2 tsp olive oil
• 1 cup chopped sweet onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 1 tsp salt, or to taste
• 2 tsp ground cumin, or to taste
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste
• One 15-oz can black beans (about 1.5-2 cups cooked), drained and rinsed
•  tortilla wraps (large or x-large)
• Toppings of choice: (avocado, salsa, vegan sour cream, spinach/lettuce, cilantro, etc)

1. Preheat oven to 425F and line a large glass dish with tinfoil. Drizzle olive oil on squash and give a shake of salt and pepper. Coat with hands. Roast chopped butternut squash for 45 mins. or until tender.
2. Cook brown rice
3. In a large skillet over medium-low heat, add oil, onion, and minced garlic. Sautee for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Now add in salt and seasonings and stir well.
4.  Add chopped red pepper, black beans, and cooked rice and sauté for another 10 mins. on low.
5. When b’nut squash is tender remove from oven and cool slightly. Add 1.5 cups of the cooked butternut squash to the skillet and stir well. You can mash the squash with a fork if some pieces are too large.
6. Add bean filling to tortilla along with desired toppings. Wrap and serve. Leftover filling can be reheated the next day for lunch in a wrap or as a salad topper.

Black Bean Burgers & Sweet Potato Fries

This is actually take two of attempting to make black bean burgers and I'm still not sure that I have perfected it.

Here is the recipe that I used.

Against my better instincts, I included the egg (I think they would be fine without), and I didn't have enough bread crumbs so I put in some cracker crumbs. Both of those are no-nos on Miss May's diet, and I think I could have found suitable substitutes. I think next time I will use oats instead of bread crumbs. I also included a few carrots and used less chili powder and hot sauce (because, kids).

Here's what I would modify it too:

Black Bean Burgers
Ingredients:

• 1 16oz can black beans, drained
• 1/2 green bell pepper
• 1/2 onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 small carrots
• 1/2 Tablespoon chili powder
• 1 Tablespoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce
• 1/2 cup quick oats

In a bowl, use a potato masher to smash the black beans until a thick paste is formed. In a food processor, finely chop bell pepper, onion, garlic and carrots. Mix into beans. Add seasonings and oats and blend until the mixture is sticky and holds together. Form into patties. Cook in pan on medium high heat. Flip to cook both sides. Serve on a whole wheat bun.

This is what the mixture looked like before it was cooked. I used my Pampered Chef scooper to get all the patties the same size.

The trickiest part was trying to get the patties flat. I cooked them on the stove in a frying pan and used the back of a spatula to smoosh them but it kept getting stuck. Eventually, I got the hang of it. I thought they were really good, and the kids ate them pretty well.

I served them with some homemade sweet potato fries. This is something I have yet to perfect, but I'm going to keep trying because I love them!

Most of the "healthy" sweet potato fry recipes I've found basically say: cut up a sweet potato, put it on a pan with some oil and a little salt (Line the pan with aluminum foil. Trust me.), and cook for a long time. I cooked this batch at 400° for 50 minutes.

The result - delicious but mushy sweet potatoes. I'm not sure they would count as fries because fries should be crispy.

So I'll keep working on that.

Being goofy

My kids love their condiments. I need to find some without sugar/dairy. Working on that.

We had some spinach with the burgers. These kids were being silly with it. But at least they will eat it!

And I can't forget - I love recipes that can easily be turned into leftovers. I had a few bean patties left over the next day. They didn't hold together very well, so I mashed them up, added a little tomato sauce, and called it sloppy joes. Made a great lunch!

Fiesta Rice

One of the recipes that we tried this week I have dubbed "Fiesta Rice". I thought it turned out really good, and made for some yummy leftovers.
I used this recipe as a starting point, and made my own changes.

Fiesta Rice:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup chopped bell pepper
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can corn, drained
• 1 cup rice
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 can black beans, drained

Instructions:

In sauce pan, saute onions, peppers, and garlic in a little water until peppers are soft and onions are translucent. Add tomatoes, corn, rice, seasoning, and water. Bring to a boil. Cover and boil 15-20 minutes or until water is absorbed and rice is done. Stir in black beans and serve.