Veggie Chili

I am so grateful for this snow day.  I am not good at just relaxing, but this will force me to just chill out at home.  I stocked up on food this weekend like all the other crazy people at the grocery store.  I decided to make this veggie chili I saw in my Southern Living magazine for company that we had coming over last night.  Our good friends, Kristen and Cody, are adopting a sweet baby girl from China.  We wanted to hear about all the latest updates over a warm meal.  Here is a link to her blog about Mae.  Such a sweet story.  Kristen is dairy free/does not eat red meat and I am gluten free.  As you can imagine this makes for a limited menu.  Luckily this chili hit the spot!

Kristen all ready to brave the drive home in the snow.

As with all recipes I have to change up something.  For starters I used organic carrots which are smaller than normal carrots so I used four instead of two.  It also called for a chili seasoning kit.  I have never seen a kit so I just bought the chili seasoning packets from Sam's.  It turned out the first ingredient was whole wheat so that wouldn't work.  Alex ran back out to the store for me and found a Tex-Mex chili packet that was gluten free.  We used three of those packets instead of the one chili seasoning kit the recipe called for.  This chili turned out to be a big hit.  Everyone loved how hearty it was even though there was no meat.  I also made gluten free cornbread that was awesome.  I will be blogging on that soon!

A quick note on organic fruits and vegetables.  Organic fruits and vegetables have not been sprayed with pesticides.  The research has shown that even after washing fruits and vegetables that pesticides still remain on non-organic foods.  There is no research on the long term affects that this might have on our health, but I feel  it makes sense to eat organic.  I have always understood you should buy organic things that you can not peel.  Things that we peel, bananas, oranges, lemons, etc. are fine to buy non-organic.  Here is an article explaining the same thing.

I did not use the French's Chili packet shown, but the Tex Mex one instead.

Source:  Adapted from January 2011 Southern Living Magazine

Ingredients:

• 2 large carrots, diced (or 4 small carrots)
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 3 1.25 oz packets of Tex Mex Chili Seasoning (any kind would work or if you find the chili seasoning kit use that)
• 1 8oz. can tomato sauce
• 3 cups tomato juice
• 2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes, undrained
• 2 15 oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 15 oz cans great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 large zucchini, chopped
• 1 yellow squash, chopped
• 1 cup frozen whole kernel corn (I used white shoepeg because that was already in the freezer)

Directions:

Saute carrots and onions in hot oil in a 5 to 6 qt Dutch oven over medium heat 7 minutes or until onions are translucent.  If using the chili seasoning kit, stir in half of the red pepper packets and all remaining packets.  If you are using the regular chili seasoning packets then dump all three in now.  Saute mixture 2 minutes.  Stir in tomato sauce and next 7 ingredients.  

Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender.  Serve with desired toppings.  We used sharp white cheddar cheese and cilantro.  You could also use sour cream, chopped green onions, and chopped tomatoes.