Vegetarian Chili

It's chilly outside-and you want something warm to eat for dinner tonight (and tomorrow night).  How about Chili when it's chilly?! This healthy and satisfying meal will serve your family for 2 days-who doesn't love left overs? This recipe makes a big batch-feel free to cut it in half if you don't want it for more than 1 night.

Serves 10. Prep time: 20 minutes   Cook time (hands off): 40 minutes if using a pressure cooker, 1 hr 20 minutes if using traditional pot
Ingredients:

• 8 c beans-we used kidney and black beans (we did half and half)
• 2 c chopped carrots (unpeeled)
• 2 c chopped/peeled sweet potatoes
• 3 c onions
• 1 28 oz can chopped tomatoes (or whole and cut up)
• 1 16 oz can tomatoes
• 3/4 c barley 
• 1/2 c banana peppers (or 1 c of green peppers to reduce your spice)
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 1 dark beer (optional)-if omiting, add more liquid
• 1-2 c water (depending on how much liquid is in your tomatoes)
• 4 tbsp chili powder
• 2 tbsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 2 tsp salt

Instructions:

1. Combine all of the ingredients into a pot except barley (save for later or see step 4)
2. If using a pressure cooker-bring up to boil and reduce heat once detector pop, cook for 20 minutes
   
3. If using a traditional pot, bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer for about 50 minutes-1 hour
4. Add in barley and bring back up to a boil (we did this because we didn't want the barley to expand too much but you could add it in with everything in the beginning)
5. Cook for another 20 minutes, until barley has softened (without pressurizing if using the pressure cooker)
6. Serve over brown rice or with these awesome molasses corn muffins, top with low fat cheese. Even better the next day!
   
   
   
   

Nutritional Benefits:

• High in Protein: awesome for healing and repairing damaged tissues-1c of kidney beans=15g of protein
• High in Fiber, 1c of kidney beans=13g of fiber in just the beans, Barley= 6g of fiber in 1 cup cooked: barley expands about 3-4xs (veggies are high in fiber too): essential for eliminating toxins from the body, aiding in digestion, and helping to maintain proper blood sugar levels
• Anti-inflammatory
• Low in Fat (almost no fat, less than 1g/1c of beans)-heart healthy
• High in Vitamin A (carrots & sweet potatoes): great for bone, teeth, and eye health
• High in Potassium-840 mg in 1 cup of beans
• High in Iron-about 20% of daily needs in 1 cup of beans: essential for oxygenating your muscles and improving circulation 
• Barley: high in fiber 54% of daily needs in 1 cup of cooked barley, great for diabetics in controlling blood sugar levels, high in magnesium, helps lower cholesterol

Pumpkin Cranberry Bread (oat flour/gluten free)

All things pumpkin! Yum-we love the delicious, warming tastes of fall!  We've been trying to reduce our flour intake to see if it helps us with inflammation. So far, we feel better.  I've adapted a traditional recipe to reduce the amount of fat and sugar.  We replaced oats with the flour traditionally called for in the recipe.  If you'd like to make your own oat flour, which we did, put 2 c rolled oats into a blender for about 1-2 minutes until they form a flour. You'll have a little left over.

Ingredients:

• 1 c pumpkin puree
• 2 c oat flour (or you could use traditional flour)*use certified gluten free oats if you need
• 1/4 c applesauce (no sugar)
• 1/2-3/4 cup of honey (we used 3/4, but could definitely reduce to 1/2)
• 1/4 c water
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 c cranberries (we buy them now when in season and freeze them for the year)

Instructions:

1. Grind oats in blender if making your own flour and measure out 2 cups
2. Place all ingredients into a mixer 
3. Pour into a greased loaf pan (we used a large pan).  This is enough for 1 large pan (9x5) or 8.5x4 plus a mini loaf pan
   
4. Bake at 350 for about 1 hour 15 min or until tester comes out clean

Nutritional Benefits:

• Good Source of Vitamin A (pumpkin): helps in bone and teeth strength, healing, and blood circulation
• Good Source of Vitamin C (cranberries): cranberries are an awesome source of this healing/disease preventing vitamin
• Anti-inflammatory: oats and above vitamins help to reduce inflammation, aiding in heart & dental health
• Low in fat: no added oils, better for heart health
• Reduced sugar, no refined sugars: helps decrease blood sugar spikes
• High in Fiber and Calcium (oats): oats are high in both of these, as well as taking longer for the body to digest.  This helps to regulate blood sugar spikes.  Oats are also anti-inflammatory
  

Minestrone Soup

Looking for a low fat soup, high in vitamins and fiber? This soup is made without any sautéing, which eliminates any added fats, and is made with water as a base, so is a vegan soup as well! This is a great way to experiment with any veggie, because there isn't one that you couldn't throw in.  Visit the farmers market *(or harvest what's left in your garden) and throw it all in a pot.  The sweetness of your fresh veggies will blend together to make a delicious and nutritious brew.  We have added chickpeas for protein (which aides in healing and rebuilding damages tissues), but you can omit these if you want a completely fat free soup. Feel free to double and freeze this.  This and all other soups, freeze great!

Minestrone Soup 

Ingredients (this recipe made a large stock pot, abt 4-5 quarts) :

• 1.5 cups of chopped onions
• 3 cups of carrots
• 1 cup of mushrooms
• 1 cup of celery
• 5 cups chopped tomatoes
• 1.5 cups chopped broccoli or cauliflower (or a mix of both)
• 1 cup of peppers (can make them banana peppers if you like the heat, but reduce amount)
• 2 cups chopped greens or cabbage 
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper (or more to taste)
• 8 cups of water
• 1 tbsp garlic, chopped 
    
  
  

Instructions:

1. Add carrots, onions, celery, and mushrooms to pot, along with about 3 tbsp water, sauté
   
2. Add tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking.
3. Add rest of ingredients, except if using fresh greens instead of cabbage.  Add greens right at the end of cooking process to maintain vitamins. The same is true for the garlic. 
4. Cook soup for about 20 minutes.
5. Soup can be partially puréed with a stick blender, or remove some of soup and place into a blender and return to pot, to create a thicker soup
6. Serve sprinkled with a little bit of Parmesan cheese and a salad for a great meal!

Nutritional Benefits:

Virtually No fat (1g in entire recipe): heart healthy and great for diabetics

Packed with fiber and vitamins 

Tomatoes: High in Lycopene, an anti-oxidant that prevents cancer
Peppers: High in Vitamin C, promotes healing and disease prevention (199% of daily needs!-1 cup has more than 2x's the amounts of an orange)

Carrots: High in fiber, high in Vitamin A: beta carotene, which is an anti-oxidant that prevents cancer, healthy immune system and promotes cell growth/tissue repair (1 cup has 308% of your daily Vitamin A needs)
Cabbage: 1 cup contains: 67% of daily Vitamin K and 43% of Vitamin K, high in anti-oxidants, cabbage helps to decrease inflammation, Red cabbage is much high in anti-oxidants than green cabbage (so if you want to replace all the cabbage with red, feel free!)

Broccoli: high in vitamin A and K, broccoli can aid in absorption of vitamin D, and is anti-inflammatory.

Chick peas: high in protein, a nutrient essential for healing and repairing damaged tissues, 1 cup=12 grams, they're also high in potassium, 954 mg in 1 cup with only 1g of fat and 14g of fiber!

Garlic: Anti-inflammatory and aids in blood circulation/cardiovascular health

Making Beans

Making your own beans instead of using a can is easy, and tastes so much better! Follow these directions for most beans:

Nutritional Benefits of Beans:
1) High in Protein
2) Low in Fat
3) High in Fiber

1 cup of dried Black Beans=3 cups cooked
Nutritional Information of 1 cup of cooked Black Beans:
Calories: 227
Carbohydrates: 41g
Fiber: 15g
Protein: 15g
Fat: <1g
Iron: 20%

Instructions:
Place dry beans into a pan and cover with water.  Soak at least 4 hours-8 hours.

2) Drain and rinse beans

3) Place into a pot (preferable to use a pressure cooker, but regular pot is fine)

4) If using a pressure cooker: bring to a boil until pressure level pops, turn down, and cook for 11 minutes.  Turn off heat and wait until pressure goes down.

5) If using a traditional pot: bring to a boil, cover, and turn low for about 1-1/4 hours (until tender)

6) Drain beans

7) Beans can be stored frozen once cooked

Benefits of making your own beans:

• no BPA from cans (all cans are lined with BPA, a chemical compound linked to cancer causing agents)
• no added sodium
• much less expensive
• much better taste!

Try this recipe that will surprise everyone you know: Black Bean Brownies