I make a mean veggie chili.

And I am eating some right now. I love making vegetarian chili, and from what I have heard, I am quite good at it 🙂 The recipe is never the same, but it is always chock full of healthy, hearty ingredients like beans, tomatoes, and corn. I have made chili with ground turkey before, but I just don’t think it adds anything special to the flavor. Feel free to disagree. 🙂

Tonight’s chili (which is actually last night’s chili, even better after a day) consisted of 3 large carrots, 1/4 red onion, chopped, 1 can plum tomatoes, mashed, 1 can black beans, a handful of pickled jalapenos, chopped, and a half bag of frozen corn. I started by heating up habanero oil and tossing in the carrots and onion until they were slightly soft.
 
Carrots are not common in my chili, but since we are going out of town I am trying to use veggies up. Once the carrots were soft, I poured in the can of whole tomatoes and used a potato masher to gently break them up. I like chunky chili, but otherwise you could definitely use chopped tomatoes or put them through the food processor. Once the tomatoes were the way that I like them, I added the black beans.

One big happy veggie family. The chili simmered on low while I started chopping this beauty.
I topped my bowl of chili with shredded Kerrygold Dubliner Irish cheddar, TJ’s 0% Greek yogurt, and avocado.

I had this bowl times two. It was soooo good. The habanero oil added just the right amount of spice, while the carrots added a slight crunch, and the beans and tomatoes gave it a warm, homey feel. The avocado was unbelievably good, perfectly ripe and buttery. I have another half to eat before I leave for San Francisco. I plan on chowing down on it with a squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of sea salt. Just may be the perfect food. We also have a couple of cups of chili left which I am going to freeze individually for when we return from our trip. One thing I love about chili is that it freezes and reheats extremely well, making it an ideal meal to cook in bulk. When I return next week, I am going to make a big effort to start cutting BPA out of our lives, so my chili will be getting a little bit of a makeover. That is all for tonight. I am off to tackle this:
I have outfits to try, guest posts to upload, and an itinerary to organize. I am excited about all of the posts that I have scheduled AND about blogging from the sky again! Goodnight guys!