So, I am sitting here chillin out with my four bean veggie chili…which isn’t to say this an un-spicy chili.  I used pepper (my favorite way to spice up a dish is just keep-on shaking the shaker until the food is covered in it), red pepper flakes and the Tofurkey chorizo-they added just the right amount of heat in this big ole crock-pot of goodness.

I have wanted a chili for over a month now, but living in San Antonio hasn’t brought on the cold weather so I haven’t wanted to heat the house up…but I just couldn’t wait any longer.

Yum crock-pot chili.  I bought too much to make a small pot of something, so into the big pot it all went.  It always makes me feel piggish when I am putting these meals together, but by the time I have made it all and portioned them all out I am so proud of the money that I can save.  Luckily this made 10 days worth of meals; 9 for two weeks worth of meals (with a special takeout lunch with coworkers) and one for the day of cooking – I mean who wants to make a whole other meal after spending a day cooking?  Even if it was just half the day, and the crock-pot did the rest?

This was definitely one of my successful meals.  It was just so good, I want to make it again…even though I am only in my second week of the meals!

4 Bean Veggie Chili-10 Servings (about 2 cups per serving)

I list the ingredients in the order I put everything into the pot.  I got out the crock-pot first and turned it on high with the lid on to get it heated up fast .  I got everything out and ready and on the counter so it would be easier to get through everything.  I chopped the onion into small chunks and dropped that into the pot with olive oil to start cooking.  The peppers were next and then I added the garlic, garlic powder, pepper and red pepper flakes. I gave it all a big stir and put the lid back on.  After that everything else went in a I chopped and dropped. Be sure to keep the lid on after every drop-in so it can cook more easily and the pot stays hot.

Just a side note-I added the last (3rd) can of diced about an hour before I turned off the crock-pot.  Mainly because the pot was so full when everything went in, so there wasn’t a lot of room.  After everything got to cooking I added the last one to get more tomatoey goodness in the chili.

I let the ingredients rock and roll in the pot for about 3 hours.  I wanted the veggies to have enough time to soften up, but not too long to mush them out.  It turned out perfect-the right amount of crunch.  I think next time I will try to make my own cornbread to go with this…mmmm.