"Vegetarian" chili and homemade rolls

Thank you Spark People for sending us delicious recipes everyday. Actually, every night at 12:30 my phone gives me a lovely little "ping" to let me know that it's sitting in my inbox for me to read/delete at first glance if it seems gross at soon as I wake. I'm feeling a little too plugged in now that I have written such a sentence. Anyway, this recipe came to us (Todd and I both get them) and he took the initiative to make it. Here is the recipe.

Alyson's Vegetarian Chili

This vegetarian chili can be made on the stove top or in a slow cooker. It's great for cold winter days - serve with fat free cheese and sour cream as garnish!

INGREDIENTS
1 (15 oz) can pinto beans - drained and rinsed
1 (15 oz) can black beans - drained and rinsed
1 (15 oz) can light red kidney beans - drained and rinsed
1 (15oz) can dark red kidney beans - drained and rinsed

2 (28 oz) cans crushed tomatoes
1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes

2 cups celery, diced
1 small red bell pepper, diced
1 small yellow bell pepper, diced
1 medium red onion, diced

2 T ground cumin
3 T garlic powder
4 T chili powder


DIRECTIONS
Heat a large sauté pan over medium high heat, spraying with cooking spray. Cook vegetables until they are slightly soft - about 6-7 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine tomatoes, beans and spices in a large dutch oven or slow cooker. When vegetables are done, add them to the mixture and combine thoroughly.

For Dutch Oven: Simmer for 3-4 hours on low, stirring every so often.

For Slow Cooker: Simmer for 6-7 hours on high.

We added 3 jalapeños and some chicken stock and omitted the tomatoes. The stock is why it's "vegetarian". Plus, we put in some garlic and cut as much as we could in half. We didn't need to feed 8 people.



After Todd started to let it simmer, I thought we could use some bread to go with it. I used a recipe I found in a free Cuisine magazine sent to me because...I don't know. But I know I like free things. I may make Boston Cream Pie also found in there, but that's for another day. The bread recipe.

Ingredients
1 packet of yeast
1 cup warm water
pinch of sugar
1 egg
1 T salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
3-3/5 cups flour

Directions
1. Water, pinch of sugar, and yeast go in a bowl and foam up.
2. Whisk the egg
3. Whisk in sugar, salt, and oil
4. Whisk in foamy yeast
5. Stir in flour, 1/2 cup at a time until it is hard to stir.
6. Turn it out on a floured surface and knead until smooth and soft
7. Let rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours, or doubled in size
8. Punch down
9. Grease a pan and make ping-pong sized dough balls to place 1/2 inch from each other
10. Cover with towel and let rise until doubled in size.
11. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown on the top.
12. Brush with butter and top with
-Equal parts dill, salt, and sugar
-Parmesan cheese
-Toasted Fennel or sesame seeds
-Cinnamon sugar

These rolls were so good! I will for sure make them again and the whole batch. The one up there is a half batch.





So, lots of information. Enjoy!