Rock Star Lifestyle Design

Welcome to the 1st Rock Star Recipe, a weekly look into eating like a Rock Star. Every Wednesday, we will take you into the kitchen of our rock star mom (my wife’s mom to be exact) as she shows us some amazing organic and vegetarian recipes for young rock stars. We will also be interviewing some LIP’s, World Travelers and Backyard Grillers for some of their top picks and what keeps them going through culture changes, a healthy living and feeding themselves and their families. I hope you enjoy this series and please feel free to share photos, stories, ideas, tweaks and comments to make Rock Star Recipes something special.

Vegetarian Chili

For my first recipe I decided to do one of my husband’s favorites. I try to use as many organic ingredients as I can but feel free to use non organic if that’s all you have. This is a great recipe to make on a Sunday afternoon and eat that night, or save for later in the week for a quick easy meal. Tastes great reheated.

For leftovers you can always put some heated chili and rice in a fajita, add some salsa and cheese, shredded lettuce and/or chopped tomatoes. It is also good to freeze portion size containers for future use – defrost in the fridge overnight and just heat and eat when you get home from a hard days work.

Ingredients

• 3 Tablespoon olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic crushed or chopped – or use 1 T of jarred chopped garlic
• ¼ teaspoon crushed chili peppers
• 1/8 teaspoon chili powder
• 3 - 15oz. cans of beans – I used black, pinto, and kidney
• 1 - 28oz. can whole peeled tomatoes you can also use a can of chopped tomatoes
• 2 - Tablespoon chili seasoning mix (I use Simply Organic Vegetarian Chili Seasoning packet) – try to use one with healthy ingredients.
• 1 package Mori -nu or any other vege based “chopped meat product” about 2 cups
• 1 large onion
• 1 sweet red pepper
• 1 24oz. jar tomato sauce – I use Bertilli Organic olive oil, basil and garlic but sometimes I use ½ jar of Classico Spicy Red Pepper mixed with another sauce – depending on how spicy I want my chili. If you like it very spicy use a whole jar of the Spicy red pepper sauce!
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• ½ teaspoon salt
• *Optional – brown rice (brown rice cooks in 15 minutes in a pressure cooker or follow directions on package)

Getting Started

• Chop onion
• Chop garlic
• Chop red pepper
• Drain tomatoes reserve juice – if using whole tomatoes cut them up discarding the top core part
• Rinse beans well, discard juice, put beans in large pot

Directions

• Put 2 Tablespoons of oil in large fry pan – heat oil on medium heat about 1 minute – add garlic.
• Mix with spatula then add chopped onions and ¼ teaspoon chili peppers
• Mix and cook covered for about 5 minutes.
• Turn heat to low and add chopped red pepper, ¼ cup of the reserved tomato juice mix and cover.
• Cook till tender – stirring every 5 minutes or so (total cooking time varies with your cook top- approx. about 10 – 15).
• When this is cooked add this to the pot of beans along with the chopped tomatoes.
• Add 1 Tablespoon of oil to the fry pan (you do not have to clean the pan) and heat on medium for about 1 minute.
• Add the chopped “meat” mixture and 2 Tablespoons of the vegetable chili seasoning packet and the rest of the reserved tomato juice. Mix together and cook on medium low for about 10 minutes – stirring occasionally.
• When this is done add this to the bean mixture in the pot. Add 1 jar of sauce, 1/8 teaspoon chili powder, ¼ teaspoon black pepper, ½ teaspoon salt and stir it all together.
• Heat thoroughly on medium /low about 15 minutes. Keep on low for another 15 minutes – stir to make sure it doesn’t stick to the pot.

Give it a taste test – if you like it spicier add more chili powder or add more of the vegetable chili seasoning powder – be sure to add a little at a time, stir and give another taste. Cook about 30 minutes on low for all the flavor to absorb.

Rock Star Secret:

I always make brown rice and put a few spoons of rice in the bottom of the bowl then serve the chili on top – serve with home made corn bread and yumm you have a great nutritious meal. And leftovers too. Can also be served with whole grain pasta for the chili mac fans.

Photos

And that’s it for Rock Star Recipe #1. If you would like a PDF downloadable version of this recipe, just enter your email address in the box below and we will shoot it right over to you.

This recipe comes from our Rock Star Mom, Janet Heyden. You can learn more about how she continues to live a healthy life by clicking here. For recipe questions Janet can be contacted via email.