Tex-Mex Night

Let me take a few lines here to sing the many praises of the crockpot. The crock-pot slow cooker was first marketed in 1971 by Naxon. A crock pot is plugged into the wall and heats food by wattage, not temperature. As a result, liquid on the outside of the pot may lightly boil, but the food on the inside will be cooked slowly and deliciously. I love being able to throw a bunch of things into a crockpot in the morning and then come home to a delicious dinner. They are great for stews and sauces and chili.
I have a small crockpot that makes enough for 4 people, which is the perfect size for dinner one night and leftovers the next day. The center of my crockpot even comes out for easy cleaning. I have been known to cook something in my crock-pot, let it cool, refrigerate it over night, let it come to room temperature, and heat it the next day. I'm not sure how this is from a food safety perspective, but as a vegan I don't exactly need to worry about salmonella from my raw chicken, now do I?
Anyway, I threw together a recipe for vegetarian chili that came out quite good. I also made corn-bread muffins to go with it. My boyfriend doesn't like dry, crumbly corn-bread. In an effort to impress him, I set about making the moistest, sweetest cornbread I could come up with. Sometimes I have a tendency to overdo things, so the muffins came out tasting more like corn cupcakes. I will not be reprinting that recipe here, but I thought that inquiring minds would want to know about the muffins in the picture.



Vegetarian Chili

• 1/2 a white onion, diced
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• 1/2 a green chili pepper, diced 
• 1/2 a carrot, diced
• 1 can tomato paste
• 2 medium tomatoes, diced
• 1 can pinto beans
• 1 can kidney beans
• 2 cups vegetable broth

1. Saute the onion over medium heat until it starts to turn translucent. Add minced garlic, carrot and chili pepper and cook for an additional few minutes. Transfer this directly to your crock pot. 
2. Add 1 can of tomato paste and an additional can of water. Stir well until the tomato paste is completely dissolved. 
3. Add the tomatoes and beans. 
4. Add enough vegetable broth to cover the entire mixture and set to low for 8 hours or high for 5.

Serves 4 at about 300 calories.