Recipes

  My Delicious, Healthy, Vegan Chili Florentine! 

     Hello and welcome back! Hope you all have been doing well. Spring is on the way!! I'm so excited. I certainly have had enough of this cold, how about you? Of course if you live somewhere nice and warm, you're lucky and I'm jealous!!  :)   
      Well, we aren't out of the woods yet, so I thought I would sneak my chili recipe in before it get to warm outside to enjoy it. This is a delicious, and healthy meal in a bowl. Even Dave(hubby) liked it and he is not a fan of chili! Little does he know I put mushrooms in it, shhhhh. He'll find out when he reads this! So without further ado, my Vegan Chili Florentine:





     2 tbls EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
     1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
     1/2 c. red onion, rough chopped
     2-3 cloves garlic; or how ever much you like.
     1  handful bella mushrooms, diced
     1/2 tbls oregano
     1/2-1 tsp cumin
     1 and1/2 tsp chili powder
     2-3 tbls organic dry cane sugar
     2 - 15.5oz cans beans of choice; I used pink and small red 
      3 - 28oz cans- 1 ea.: tomato sauce, diced and crushed tomatoes
     3 c. spinach, ribs removed (pet peeve: can't stand to wash spinach so I             buy the packaged, pre-washed and take my chances.)
     Salt, pepper and crushed red to your taste.

 1) Heat EVOO over MED heat in large sauce pan. Add red peppers. Cook        for about 2 minutes. 

2) Toss in the onion and garlic. Cook for 2 more minutes. Stir frequently.

3) Add mushrooms, stir, immediately add spices-cumin, chili powder and         oregano. Salt, pepper and crushed red can be added here. Let this             chill in   the pot for a few minutes, stir frequently, then add the beans*.

4) Let the beans cook with the veggies until heated through. Now add the     tomatoes. Doesn't need to be any particular order. Bring to a simmer         stir, you guessed it, frequently, for about 15 minutes.  

5) Add the spinach last and simmer 5 minutes more.

6) And that is it! You can serve this over whole wheat pasta, or mix equal
     portions of chili and cooked brown rice on a whole wheat tortilla, top          with  a lot of healthy lettuce-I like romaine or green leaf- and you have       a quick and healthy burrito for a snack. The choice is yours!
    

 *Notes*

Start with the lesser amount.
If you use black beans, add with spinach or they will be to mushy.


   So that is all for today. Still working on building this blog! Honestly, I haven't a clue what I'm doing when it comes to setting the blog up. Host, domain, feeds, burning feeds. Seriously, not a clue. But I'm learning more each day! 

   Well, hope you have a great day and nice weekend. I'm going to be a busy beaver the next few days planning, writing, all fun stuff! I hope you'll join me for my next post. Not sure what it's going to be about yet. I have so much to choose from. I guess it will be a surprise for both of us!

 Toodles!
  Kristine :)
   xoxo