let's talk about chili!

I love chili! And it's soo easy to make. In college I looked up a recipe for chili because I had no idea what I was doing. The recipe I found called for a packet of onion soup powder mix, which tastes awesome in chili (but that stuff is too expensive in the DR). My mom likes to put Reese's peanut butter cups in chili, but I feel this is a waste of Reese's peanut butter cups. What are your CHILI SECRETS? Tell me them.

Here's a super basic vegetarian chili recipe. I just made it yesterday with what I had lying around. It was delicious! The recipe is nothing special, but it's a place to start if you've never made chili before.

Ingredients:
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
1 onion
some garlic
hot sauce to taste (I use three or four good shakes)
pepper to taste
(At home, I loved to put celery in chili! But celery is hard to find in the DR.)

First, chop the onion and garlic and sautee them together in a little bit of oil.

When the onions turn clear, take them off the heat. Dump all the ingredients into a pot. Don't drain the beans or tomatoes, just pour the liquids into the pot too. I don't add any water besides the tomato and bean juice.

Yumm. Bring it up to a boil and let it simmer for like half an hour. Stir it occasionally or it will burn to the bottom of your pot. Trust me :( Anyway, that's it! You made chili!

But wait! There is the question of chili TOPPINGS. Some people say sour cream. Others, shredded cheese. Or corn chips. Of course, none of these are terribly healthy. Nutritionally speaking, your chili is better off without any of those things. Whatevs! Here's my new favorite chili topping:

 

QUESO HOJUELITAS. Hojuelitas ("little sheets/pieces") are this awesome snack food that for some reason is not widely available in the US. It's basically a combination of a Cheeto and a Frito. And they are perfect on chili.

Yum!

Vegan Taco Dip

This literally takes 10 minutes to make. Mmmmm, and it's delicious.

I used the smallest baking casserole dish I have because I don't need a GIGANTIC TACO DIP for two people. But, next time I go to a party, I'll use a bigger one to share.

Ingredients:
1 can red kidney beans OR chili beans if you find them (I got mine at Sunflower Market)
1 package of mexican tofu "meat" -- I'll edit the note when I'm home and can tell you the brand
Vegan sour cream (Tofutti is the best)
Vegetables -- I used cucumbers, tomatoes, and avocados, but feel free to use what you have
Black olives (optional, of course)

I cooked the beans to heat them up, then blended them and used them as the bottom layer.
Heat up the tofu using the package directions and use that as the second layer.
Cucumbers, tomatoes, and avocado came next. If I had olives, they would be on top.
Sour cream on top of the vegetables.

You can chill first, or you can dig right in! It's seriously delicious. I bought corn chips to use, and made them into nachos, essentially, and there are plenty of leftovers.

Simple Bean Dip

Sorry for the lack of pictures, y'all. Our puppy chewed the camera cord, so we have technical difficulties.

Anyway, here is the simple bean dip I made for Super Bowl today:

1 can of pinto beans, cooked, drained, and rinsed
1 tomato, peeled and seeded
3 cloves minced garlic
2-3 TBL of lime juice
Cumin (I didn't measure)
Salt, pepper, cayenne (I didn't measure)

I used the Magic Bullet (yes, from all of those really lame infomercials) to mix this all together. Play with the spices, and feel free to add others, or perhaps lose the lime (Nicole isn't a fan of lime, so I'll try it without next time). I really liked the "kick" the cayenne gave this.

The Super Bowl is over, and it's all gone!