day 44: everybody's got a chili recipe, here's mine

Today's Food:
Breakfast: smoothie (frozen strawberries, blueberries and banana with flax)
Lunch: romaine, red onion, ceasar salad dressing
Dinner: chili

Exercise: 45 minutes on the treadmill, 15 minutes weight training upper body

So here's how I do it (ETL style)

5-6 cloves of garlic minced
2 onions grated (I used the food processor)
2 green bell peppers grated (also used the food processor)
4 14.5 oz cans of no salt added whole tomatoes, 2 cans drained and all tomatoes chopped (in the food processor)
1 14.5 oz can no salt added corn
8 oz dry black beans, soaked and cooked
8 oz dry cannelini beans, soaked and cooked
2 14.5 oz cans no salt added red kidney beans
1 lb dry lentils
3 small-medium zucchini, cut into big chunks
2 cups green beans
water
barley or cooked brown rice (optional)
chili powder
cumin
cayenne
garlic powder
onion powder

In a BIG soup/stew pot, saute the garlic, onion and peppers for a few minutes. Add in the spices and saute for another minute. Add in tomato, corn, beans, zucchini, and barley/rice and add water to just cover. Simmer for 1 hour until lentils and barley are cooked.

I don't have amounts for the spices because it ends up being different every time I make chili. This is the first time I've made chili with no salt added beans and tomatoes so the overall flavor is a little more bland than I used to make (although still good). Next time I will add more spice to liven things up a bit.

This recipe makes A LOT of chili. I got 10 very generous servings out of this batch. It seems like a lot of ingredients but comes together very quickly (after cooking the beans) and it feels really good to eat something that I know is free of unnecessary salt and fat.