Vegetarian
We made this the other day and the older kids gave it cautious approval (e.g. a "once a month" rating).
This is loosely based on a recipe from Vegetarian Times.
"This version thinks its better than everyone because it contains no meat. And there’s no soy, either."
Janel got this recipe from a friend (Becky Lehman) and when we make chili, this is the recipe we usually fall back on. You can adlib with a few things (we've added corn and mushrooms, for example) and if you need a little protein, you can add ground meat easily.
This was the suggested pairing to the Mushroom Pork Loin in the supermarket sample booth. Both were very good and this one doesn't take a lot of preparation.
We bought a huge bag of apples from an orchard so we were looking for apple recipes. This was a request from Janel so I found a recipe online and modified it slightly based on quantities we had on hand.
"I cooked some black beans last night for a lunch burrito today...and made sure there was enough left over for this. I hadn't flavored the beans while cooking yesterday. After cooling and pouring off all the water, except just barely enough to cover them, I added garlic powder, onion powder, olive oil, balsamic and oregano. Today, after they'd been marinating for a while, they were so delicious that I could have had them over some white rice and called that dinner. Instead..."
From a friend: "Here's an original that I made a few months ago. Definitely takes some planning ahead for all the soaking that you have to do but well worth it. It's filling and fun to try out whole wheat - something that I don't think I'd had before. Don't forget - salt well only after it's fully tender. There's something with salt which prevents beans from every getting soft."
I thought I'd share a recipe for mushroom lentil burgers that I made this past weekend and really enjoyed.