Crocktober

October brings in the chili weather, which essentially leads to my overuse of the crock pot. Soups, cabbage rolls, overnight breakfast casseroles, chili, and more. Which is why I've adopted the theme "crocktober"! Last week I used my side kick crock pot for both vegetable cabbage rolls, and this beautiful chili pictured below. The chili was to die for...ok, well maybe not literally, it's loaded with so much color and nutrition yet so few calories that it's everything you'd need to LIVE for...but the taste- that's killer for sure! We invited the couple that lives next door over for dinner too- and there was ZERO leftovers. An entire crock pot filled nearly to the rim, GONE! I'm not going to lie, it was so good that I was looking forward to eating it for a couple days and kind of secretly wished we hadn't been so generous;)

This was the finished product!

Okay so this is a dump recipe, pretty hard to mess up, and completely versatile. Add to it, take out what you want and odds are you'll still end up with a finger & bowl licking chili.

2- 28 oz of whole peeled tomatoes crushed (I used tomatoes that we had jarred ourselves)

2- 15 oz cans of tomato sauce

2- 15 oz cans of chili beans

2- 15 oz cans of other types of beans drained and rinsed (I used dark red kidney and black)

2 zucchinis chopped

3 bell peppers chopped (I used yellow, red, and orange)

1/2 bag fresh spinach chopped

1 large onion chopped

1 bunch fresh parsley chopped (dried would work too but doesn't hold as much flavor)

1 tbsp dried oregano

2 tbsp of olive oil

2-3 tbsp of minced garlic

1/4 c Chili powder 

 2 tsp Cumin

Salt & Pepper

Saute all of your chopped veggies in a large skillet over medium-high heat with the olive oil, 1 tbsp of the garlic, 1 tsp of the cumin, and about 1tbsp of chili powder. Only saute for about 5 minutes, this just unleashes the flavors. This is where the "dump recipe" comes into play. Dump this and remainder ingredients into a crock pot and let it cook for 6-8 hours. 

This was right after my "dump"...sounds wrong on so many levels!
But it's so pretty!

My advice:  Start with the measurements given, taste test along the way and add to if necessary. If you like a spicier chili you might need another tbsp of chili powder. I added a dash more chili powder, garlic, pepper, salt, and cumin as I went along.

Possible add ins: carrots, corn, celery, potatoes, yellow squash, other dark leafy greens.

This is what it looked life after about 5 hours. MMM!

This recipe is VERY clean, high in protein, and very low in calories, yet with the amount of fiber it holds it will fill you right up! Not to mention it will warm you right up too!

My husband and I love to run together. We both run better when we run together- we push and motivate each other to go harder, and go longer...seeing as he is about to leave we are trying to get in as many runs as possible. We pulled a 5 miler the other evening, then came home to this wonderful high protein chili. It was AWESOME! No body else who we served it to is a vegan, but I didn't get a single complaint about there not being any meat or not enough substance. Instead I got the remarks: "this is the best chili I've ever had". Point being: RUN (and find a good running partner), and try this chili out NOW!

Enjoy!

Simply-Healthy-Nikki