Three-bean chili

This is an easy recipe. I made it for a potluck. Since I don't add salt, I added things to make it taste sweet. I think regular people would like this (hence, a good potluck dish). I put the amounts as ranges because it depends on what you have an hand and what you like more--it's hard to ruin it with too much or too little of something.

Ingredients:

1-2 onions

1-4 garlic cloves (to taste)

1-2 large sweet potatoes

2-3 large carrots

2 16-oz cans of tomatoes

3 cans of beans, different kinds: I used black soy, red kidney, and chick peas. pinto would be good too, and black beans too.

1-2 red or green bell peppers (optional; I didn't have any today).

2-3 Tbsp chili powder

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp oregano

1/4-1/2 tsp cinnamon or cinnamon stick

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

2 cups frozen sweet corn

1-2 Tbsp date syrup (optional)

Run the carrots, and onions through a food processor. The resulting texture after cooking is a bit similar to the ground meat in chili. Add the spices (except cinnamon), and some water and start cooking the carrots and onions. Run the sweet potatoes, peppers, and garlic through the food processor too (or chop with a knife if you prefer). Add the tomatoes, veggies, and water to the pan and cook for about 20 minutes. Add the beans, cook some more. Add the cinnamon stick for about 5 minutes (then remove), or add the ground cinnamon. Add the corn and date syrup in the last 5-10 minutes. Total cooking time is about an hour.

this week's meals

My weekday meals are very repetitive but that is because I love them. I've been making micro-salads lately, still following this recipe. I love how every season has a fruit that I love. Right now it's pomegranates! man o man, they are so good. This post describes how to peel them and extract the seeds. So I have one of these microsalads for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I supplement 2 of the meals with a bowl of bean soup. And I add some yummy carrot and kohlrabi sticks, both locally grown and very yummy. However, I think kohlrabi season is ending as there were none in the store this morning. That is very sad. Then I need a snack before bed usually (otherwise I lose weight and I'm already thin), so I eat orange remainders (weird I know), or some frozen peas and corn. This brand of corn is very sweet, like candy. I like this way better than anything else I've tried (except fresh-picked corn on the cob). Their peas are also good and have no added sodium, unlike almost every other brand.

Weekends are less structured. I eat lots of fruit on Saturday while making house-mate's smoothies. I savor eating a pomegranate all by itself. And then whatever is in the fridge that I feel like cooking up. I still have a lot of soup in the freezer so don't have to make that this weekend. I'll make another big batch next weekend.

salsa or tomato soup

It's football season so I've been making housemate dips for her tostada chips on the weekends: guacamole, salsa, bean dip. Salsa is probably the wrong word for today's tomato dip, but it was a yummy dip. It also would make a good cold or hot soup.

Ingredients:

1 16-oz can tomatoes, drained (from the garden, if you are so lucky)

little bit of onion or scallion (to taste)

little bit of garlic (1/2 or less clove)

little bit of parsley or cilantro or chives (or nothing)

little bit of carrot (say, 1/4 medium carrot)

1/3 cup frozen sweet corn

1/3 cup frozen sweet peas

Blend the tomatoes and carrot until smooth. Add everything else except peas and corn, and blend enough to chop them but don't need to pulverize. Add the corn and peas. serve.

final garden harvest

Today I decided to harvest the rest of the produce from the garden. Here it is!

That's two garbage bags and a big bowl of collard greens, kale, swiss chard, brussel sprouts and their greens, parsley and dill. Here are the brussels sprouts uncovered:

I washed everything, chopped (not finely, just enough to pack), and stuffed into ziplock freezer bags. I wonder how long they will last. They will definitely get eaten before they get too old. Then I'll finally have to resort to buying collards and kale at the grocery store--not nearly as good. No surprise that dinner tonight was steamed brussels sprouts and greens.

brussels sprouts

Today I harvested a brussels sprouts plant.

I chopped the leaves in the food processor, cooked them for a bit and added them to tomorrow's micro-processor salad. Steamed the brussels sprouts and had them for dinner.

Fall microsalads

Here's what my microsalads have been like lately.

Chop in a food processor and stir into a big bowl:

1 head romaine lettuce (about 1/2-1 lb total)

1/4-1/2 lb broccoli

1/4 - 1/2 lb cauliflower

1/4 - 1/2 lb purple cabbage

1/4 lb bok choy or baby bok choy

puree in a food processor and add to the bowl:

1-2 oranges (2 if small), peeled, remove seeds

1 banana peeled

1 apple and/or 1 pear (or 2 small apples)

Then stir into the bowl:

1 oz ground seeds (pumpkin, sesame, sunflower, hemp) and pignolias

pomegranate seeds from 1 pomegranate

optional

add 1/2 cup edamame

This fits into three 3-cup tupperware bowls. Total calories (without edamame) is about 1000 so it's substantial! This tastes like dessert to me. It's crisp, fresh, inviting, zingy (from the pomegranate), and sweet (banana, orange and apple!). It's real yummy! This post describes how to "peel" a pomegranate and extract the seeds.

Here's the fruit I used one day. At left is a persimmons--I left that off the ingredients list because I use it rarely but it's a nice treat when you have a ripe one.

Here's the final product. It may not look like much but boy is it tasty:

this week's food

For the last few weeks, I've been in this sort of pattern for my weekday meals--that is, salads and bean soup, and my wonderful local carrots and kohlrabi. The salads have fruit in them along with veggies. This week I'm changing it up a bit.

Breakfast is bean soup, and a delicious pomegranate, and today I added in a kohlrabi because I realized I like them so much I may as well have two a day while they last. Oh, the pomegranate is soooo yummy. It's hard to believe, but this beats out ice cream from the old days.

Lunch is micro-salad--that post I'm linking to was written in the summer when fresh berries were plentiful. Now the fruit is apples, maybe an orange or grapefruit, maybe a pomegranate. I haven't had these in a while and I'm in the mood for them again. And I might have a little bean soup or a piece of fruit.

Dinner depends on how much of a hurry I'm in. Tonight will be a more rushed, so I will have a smoothie and some bean soup. When I have more time, like tomorrow, I'll have micro-salad and bean soup. Wednesday will be rushed again so another smoothie/soup day.