Rainy Day Chilli

So it's been a while since my last post...over 2 years in fact. But I've decided that it's time I got back to this. I've been fairly lazy recently and have been eating out or picking up take-out a lot, so I figured that getting back to blogging will motivate me to start cooking and baking for myself more! I also figured that it was time to expand beyond just baking to cooking and savory dinner-like foods too! In that vein...my last obsession is soups. They're so easy to make, and as a vegetarian, constitute a complete one-pot meal! Since beans and vegetables comprise most of my diet, chilli is an obvious choice...and on a gross, rainy day like today, it's so warm and comforting! My chilli dinner today was actually left over from Saturday night when I made chilli and cornbread biscuits with my friend who was newly returned to NYC from a summer abroad. The chilli was something I had made a few times before, but the biscuits were a new, super easy, and quite successful endeavor! The great thing about this chilli: it's simple to make and re-heats beautifully!

Three-Bean Veggie Chilli

1 28 oz. can fire-roasted tomatoes, diced
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
14 oz. water (approximate - to thin out the tomato base a bit)
4 cloves garlic, minced (or grated on a microplane)
3 tbsp. hot sauce (or more!) - my favorite is the Bone Suckin' Habanero Sauce
2 tbsp. cumin (this is just an estimate...I love cumin so I put in a ton)
1/2 tbsp. onion powder
1 tsp. ground chipotle pepper
salt (and a lot of it)
1 can black beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can kidney beans
2 ears fresh corn (or 1 can corn)
1 small-medium red bell pepper, chopped
1 small-medium orange bell pepper, chopped
1 small-medium yellow bell pepper, chopped
1/2 medium green bell pepper, chopped

1. Combine tomatoes, water, and spices in a large soup pot. Cook for about 10 minutes, or until spices are well-incorporated.
2. Add beans and vegetables to tomato base. Cook for at least half an hour.
3. Serve!

Red Pepper Cornbread Biscuits

1 8 oz. can corn niblets, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 c. cornbread mix
1/2 tsp. salt 
1/2 c. skim milk
1/2 small red bell pepper, finely diced

1. Preheat oven to 450F.
2. In a food processor (or using a wand blender), puree corn niblets until smooth.
3. Combine cornbread mix and salt in a mixing bowl, and whisk to incorporate.
4. Mix in pureed corn, milk, and red bell pepper.
5. Scoop biscuits onto a baking sheet using 1/3 c. measuring cup, ensuring that they are well-spaced on the sheet.
6. Bake for 5-7 minutes, or until golden brown.
7. Cool on a baking rack, and enjoy with (or without) your chilli!

Together these made the perfect rainy day meal...and no-fuss leftovers! To reheat, just microwave a bowl of chilli for about 2 minutes, stir, then microwave for another 30 seconds, and voila...hot chilli!

Bon appetit!

Inspired recipe of the day: Butternut Squash Noodles with Curry-Peanut Sauce
Drool-worthy dessert: Dulce de Leche Rice Pudding

Fresh Jam

The other day my family lucked out: our neighbors had gone peach-picking and brought over some of the literal fruits of their labor (I know...cheap pun) for us! Since we had already bought some peaches the day before, I decided to use some of the grocery store peaches and a couple tahitian mangoes we had to make some fresh jam!

Fresh Peach-Mango Jam

yield: about 32oz. of jam

2 c. chopped peaches (about 4 small peaches)

1 c. diced tahitian mangoes (about 2 mangoes)

1/2 c. granulated suagr

1/2 c. light brown sugar

1/8 c. water

1. Combine all ingredients in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat.
2. Bring mixture to a boil, and mash with a potato masher until it is the desired consistency.
3. Cook for another 5 or so minutes, or until the mixture reaches a rolling boil for about 1-2 minutes.
4. Remove from the heat, and allow to cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to a heat-proof mason jar, screw on lid, and let sit for about 24 hours for jam to settle.
5. After jam has settled, store it in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

I was too lazy to preserve the jam by boiling the jar (so it can be stored outside of the fridge), but it's a small enough amount of jam that I think we'll be able to eat it in 3 weeks. I also didn't have any pectin, which many jam recipes called for, hence my addition of extra light brown sugar. It definitely is not a very thick jam (it's fairly runny), but I think the consistency is pretty good...and it tastes pretty great too!

The only problem was that I woke up the morning after putting it into the fridge craving the jam on honey whole wheat bread...which we didn't have. So, being the frantic baker I am, I decided to bake some! I used the "lighter version" of this quick bread recipe from the NYT website...but changed slightly.

Honey Whole Wheat Quick Bread

1 2/3 c. skim milk

2 c. whole wheat flour

1 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. sea salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 egg

scant 1/2 c. honey

1. Heat the oven to 325F. Grease a 9x5" loaf pan.
2. Mix together the flours, salt, and baking soda in a medium-sized bowl.
3. In a glass measuring cup, stir together the milk, egg, and honey. Pour this into the dry mixture and stir until well-mixed.
4. Pour the mixture into the pan, smooth out, and bake for roughly 50 minutes.
5. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

This bread was soooooo good, and went perfectly with the jam!

Side-note: the jam was also really good as a topping for Haagen Dazs' low fat tart frozen yogurt!

xoxo

A Day of Boredom and Baking

A couple days ago my family finished the banana-cherry bread I made the other day, so I decided that I needed to make a new one. This time, though, I used a cup of diced mango instead of the cherries, lime juice instead of lemon juice, and 1/4 c. light brown sugar and 1/4 c. granulated sugar instead of the 1/2 c. granulated sugar. I think it turned out even better than the last attempt!

Later today, though, I decided that what I really wanted for dessert was chocolate chip cookies...so I made some! I used the recipe for Cholesterol-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies from the Mrs. Field's cookie book, which only uses egg whites and 1 stick of butter, as opposed to the usual eggs and 2 sticks of butter in most recipes! It also uses some honey, which I think made the texture really nice! The recipe called for 2 c. of semisweet chocolate chips, but instead I put in about 1 c. milk chocolate chips, 1/2 c. semisweet chunks, and 1/2 c. butterscotch chips, and they were sooooo tasty!

Sorry that there is no recipe, but with the modifications I mentioned, you should be able to transform any chocolate chip cookie recipe into a slightly lower cholesterol version!

Enjoy!

Banana Bread with a twist

This morning I woke up craving something with bananas in it, and knew exactly what I wanted to make! The other day I saw a recipe for blueberry-banana bread on the blog Fat Free Vegan Kitchen and thought that sounded really good! Since I didn't have any blueberries on hand, but I did have a bunch of cherries, I decided to change the recipe a bit so I could use fresh cherries in it! So...here's my slightly altered version:

Cherry Almond Banana Bread

3 large over-ripe bananas
2 tbsp. lemon juice (juice of 1/2 lemon)
1/3 c. apple sauce
1/2 c. sugar

1 tbsp. honey
2 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. cherries, pitted and quartered

1/3 c. slivered almonds

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 9x5-inch loaf pan with oil.In a large bowl, mash the bananas and add the lemon juice, applesauce, sugar, and honey. Stir well to combine.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture, and stir just until the mixture is well-combined. Fold in the cherries and almonds.
4. Spread the mixture evenly in the prepared pan and bake until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting and serving.

Notes: The bread turned out really well, but next time I think I would use either white whole wheat flour, or 1c. whole wheat flour and 1 c. all-purpose flour. I also think it might taste good to use 1/4 c. granulated sugar and 1/4 c. light brown sugar instead of 1/2 c. granulated sugar.

All in all this bread turned out well, and is a great healthy breakfast bread utilizing fresh summer cherries!