vegetarian chili

This past week we've been eating a ton of chili and my crock pot is getting a work out!  For a few days there I was feeding six large, full grown men (and me!) who were working long hours, so I knew that I would need some heavy duty food to keep us going through the day.  I had my lunches planned pretty well, and uh, pretty much all of them were some iteration of chili.  I made the White Chicken Chili and Chicken Taco Chili, which I've featured here on the blog before, my standard bbq pulled pork recipe (I always add a splash of whiskey for flavor), and then this Vegetarian Chili.  I got a six pack of boxed Jiffy Corn Bread and made corn bread muffins to accompany each chili meal, which was the perfect addition.  Crock pot meals were a great way to feed a lot of mouths a warm, filling meal, which is exactly what we needed for lunch to warm us up and keep us energized to power through the rest of the day.  Plus, chili is a pretty inexpensive meal since it's mostly comprised of canned beans.  This veggie chili recipe is super cheap, simple, and quite filling.  I have to say, I'm used to cooking for just me and Dan, but I have a whole new respect for people who cook for big families!  So time consuming and expensive!  The older I get, the more I understand why some ladies choose to be full time housewives/moms.  It's a ton of work to run a household, especially (I imagine) if you've got little ones running around!  Props to you moms and dads out there, mine included!


(recipe via Betty Crocker's Slow Cooker Cookbook)

Ingredients:
1 (15 or 16 oz) can spicy chili beans in sauce, undrained
1 (15 or 16 oz) can pinto beans, undrained
1 (15 or 16 oz) can dark red kidney beans, drained
1 (14.5 oz) can chili-style chunky tomatoes, undrained
1 large onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
2-3 tsp chili powder
1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper

1.  Mix all ingredients in your slow cooker
2.  Cover and cook on low 5-6 hours, or until flavors have blended
3.  Stir well before serving.  Tastes great served with cornbread! Yum!

You can also play around with the kinds of beans you use in this recipe, just sub in something like great northern beans, black beans, etc to give it a different taste!  Or if you'd like to make it non-vegetarian you can throw in some shredded chicken or browned ground beef.  Chili is super easy to play around with, recipe-wise.