Recipe: Vegetable Chili

This recipe is from Chef Jenny Brewer, guest contributor to the Tender Palate.  See her meal planning article that includes this Vegetarian Chili, and how you can plan your week around it.

Ingredients

 Serves 6

This chili is easy to make, low in fat and loaded with protein and fiber.  It is inexpensive, filling and makes great leftovers.

1 Tablespoon olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 large onion, chopped

1 large green or red bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1 1/2 cups (about 4 ounces) fresh mushrooms, chopped

1 medium zucchini, diced

1 Tablespoon cumin powder

2 Tablespoons chili powder

2 chipotle peppers canned in adobo, minced

2 Tablespoons tomato paste (save rest of can in another container)

1 28-oz can diced tomatoes, not drained

1 15-ounce can red kidney beans, drained

1 15-ounce can black beans, drained

Salt and pepper to taste

Put it Together

Heat oil over medium heat in a large soup pot. Add garlic and onion; saute for a minute or two, then add peppers, mushrooms and zucchini, saute for a few more minutes, then add seasonings and tomato paste, stirring to make sure tomato paste is dissolved.

Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30-45 minutes (or longer, this is a great recipe for a crockpot!) and serve.

About Chef Jenny Brewer

Chef Jenny Brewer is passionate about making healthy foods flavorful and fun. For free recipes and more meal plan information, visit www.jennybrewer.com.

More from Chef Jenny

Not Your Mamma's Chocolate Mousse Tart (super allergen-free)

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Soup (Vegan, DF, GF, Soy-free, Nut-free)

Plan Your Meals, Change Your Life! 

Plan Your Meals--Change Your Life! (plus a vegetarian chilli recipe)

Too Busy To Plan?  (Nah)

We all know that eating nourishing, healthy food can give us more energy and keep us feeling great in our bodies, yet have you found that the busy-ness of life got in the way of eating healthier? Have you ever felt so rushed for time that you ate something unhealthy just because it was convenient?  Isn’t it true that the times when we think we don’t have time to eat healthy are the times that we need healthy foods the most? The first way to start eating healthier is by planning out your meals and snacks for the week.

I truly believe that planning your meals is the key to making healthy eating a lifestyle instead of something you do occasionally. Planning meals can greatly reduce the stress in your life by preventing those last minute shopping expeditions or trips to the take out place down the street.  But more importantly, when you have healthy food to look forward to it becomes easier to make healthy food choices.  And when you make healthy food choices you feel better, increase your resistance to stress and have more energy to be active.

I know what some of you are thinking, but how much time is this going to take me? I suggest you INVEST 30 minutes at the beginning of each week to plan your meals and snacks and write your and shopping list for the week.  

Two Steps to Better Meal Plans

When deciding which meals and snacks to plan for, here are two things to keep in mind:

#1: Plan your meals according to how many nights you want to cook

Yes, you have to eat 7 days a week but you don’t have to cook everyday.  Instead of planning 7 nights of meals, getting overwhelmed and diving headfirst into a pizza, how about starting off with three?  This way, you can make large quantities and have a plan for your leftovers. No, putting them in a huge Tupperware container with a plate on top because you can’t find the lid is not a plan (am I the only one who has done this?).  Instead, take the time to separate out individual servings and freeze them for this week’s lunches or future dinners. 

Example

Night One: Vegetable Chili.  After dinner, pack up 2 containers of leftovers, keep one in the fridge and freeze one.

Night Two: Baked Potatoes with Vegetable Chili on top

Over the Weekend: Nachos made with the chili from the freezer

#2: Have a high protein refrigerator staple in the fridge.

Protein is what keeps us satisfied and keeps us from grabbing tons of food, yet it is typically the last thing (besides maybe broccoli?) that we reach for when we are really hungry. Be sure you have a high protein fridge staple, like hummus or pate that you can enjoy when you come home and are really hungry.  This way, instead of reaching for chips or cookies, you can have your delicious spread with some raw veggies as a powerful snack.

Example

Snack Planned in Advance:  Sunflower Seed Pate on cucumber slices—YUM!

Snack in the Moment:  Peanut butter spread on anything crunchy--even on stale rice cakes you found in the back of the pantry.  (Come on--admit it, I know it is not just me who has eaten this!)

Remember, planning your meals will insure you have satisfying, healthy food prepared and ready to go. This advanced planning will help you to make healthier choices when you are super hungry…a very good thing! 

Start with This Easy Recipe

Vegetable Chili

 Serves 6

This chili is easy to make, low in fat and loaded with protein and fiber.  It is inexpensive to make, filling and makes great leftovers.

1 Tablespoon olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 large onion, chopped

1 large green or red bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1 1/2 cups (about 4 ounces) fresh mushrooms, chopped

1 medium zucchini, diced

1 Tablespoon cumin powder

2 Tablespoons chili powder

2 chipotle peppers canned in adobo, minced

2 Tablespoons tomato paste (save rest of can in another container)

1 28-oz can diced tomatoes, not drained

1 15-ounce can red kidney beans, drained

1 15-ounce can black beans, drained

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil over medium heat in a large soup pot. Add garlic and onion; saute for a minute or two, then add peppers, mushrooms and zucchini, saute for a few more minutes, then add seasonings and tomato paste, stirring to make sure tomato paste is dissolved.

Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30-45 minutes (or longer, this is a great recipe for a crockpot!) and serve.

If you're thinking this kind of meal planning would take too much time, you might like to try my free meal plan which will make it easy for you to shop and cook healthy, delicious gluten and dairy free foods.  Allison from Santa Cruz recently tried it and says,

“I love this meal plan! My grocery bills have actually come DOWN, we’re eating healthier, and I don’t have to think about what I’m going to make every day- that part is done for me!”

About Chef Jenny Brewer

Chef Jenny Brewer is passionate about making healthy foods flavorful and fun. For free recipes and more meal plan information, visit www.jennybrewer.com.

More from Chef Jenny

Not Your Mamma's Chocolate Mousse Tart (super allergen-free)

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Soup (Vegan, DF, GF, Soy-free, Nut-free)

To Degree or Not to Degree? My Tour of the Secchia Culinary Institute

Culinary Degree?  That is the Question.

The sound of clinking steel, the uber-visible hats, the TV battles and people calling you "Chef"...  it all has no small amount of sex appeal these days.  But the siren song of culinary school for me is this:  learning about food is creative, intersesting and endless. 

As my secret desire to hob knob with culinary experts bubbles up, so do the holes in my own self-training.  My palate has been lucky to have tasted extraordinary cusine throughout the world - especially in New York City.  I've read, I've watched and I've experiemented with brilliant success and with miserable failures.  A few of my friends who braved my first Easter Brunch; and who endured the deafening commentary of the smoke alarms in my tiny New York City apartment can attest to the miserable failure part.  Needless to say, I have improved. I've learned.  People seem to really like it when I cook for them.

But when it comes to the art and science of food, I would love to go beyond my current foodie status and simply ... learn more. And do so in the presence of people who really know what they are doing.  

On the Institute tour, I discovered something wonderful.  I don't have to get a degree.  I don't have to become a working chef.  I can pick a program and simply take classes without having to be super woman or go into the poor house.  I could take a week or two off for the technical labs.  My training could happen over several years.

I also discovered that the chef professors will work with my food allergies.  Although they require you to taste everything, the school makes real exceptions.  If you are allergic to an ingredient in a dish, or if you have religious reasons against that ingredient, you are exempt from its consumption.

They, like most culinary schools around the world, do not yet provide any formal food allergy training, however.  But I think this might change.  After speaking with Dan Gendler, the owner of San Chez and the upcoming head honcho for the Secchia Culinary Institute, I have some hope.  It might take a while, but I have some hope.

Salad Day

Our tour group had the privilege to walk in on a salad class that day.  It looked like they were learning about different vinaigrettes.  The kitchen was spacious and every chef-in-training had a place to work comfortably.  Apparently, this is not true in many culinary schools where students have to wait in line for a chance to give their newly learned skills a try.  At the Secchia Culinary Institute, everyone has a place at the stove and at the chopping block -- all under the personal and watchful eye of their class professor.   

It was in the salad area, however, that I noticed that, contrary to my earlier perception, our tour group wasn't made up of a variety of age groups considering classes.  The older folk were parents of prospective students.  These prospective students were mostly just out of high school.  "Hmmm," I thought.  "I wonder if I would stand out?"  As one of the parents so kindly put it, "Are you having a mid-life career crisis?"  I hate it when people point out that I'm not one of the kids.  "No", I laughed (I didn't really laugh), "I love my job.  I'm a marketer who writes about food and just want to learn more." 

I'll show you a crisis, lady.  Just say "mid-life" one more time.

 

Retro Remnants,  Up-to-Date Training.

I loved running across some classic looking equipment in the meat area.  I have absolutely no idea what these things do, but they captured my attention and it gave me a sense that the school has a real history to it. 

 

But what impressed me on the tour, was the sense of discipline that the students seem to have.  We not only ran into students learning about salads, we met a few creating cake sculptures in the bake house, taking a break before serving lunch and setting up in the restaurant itself.  It was evident that they weren't just going to school, they were being trained.  Really trained (front to back) in the restaurant business itself.

A sneak peek into the ice sculpture case

I enjoyed seeing this discipline, because it felt like these students will be entering the food world with a deep and wholistic understanding.  An understanding that goes above and beyond whatever job they choose to do.  When they graduate, they will understand how to work with customers -- happy ones and not-so-happy ones.  They will know how to budget for and order food and beverages.  They will have participated in video conferencing with Scotland and other areas of the planet.  They will have learned from chef professors who have trained and worked within a few different cultures.   They will have witnessed customers responding to the food they cook and serve, because they worked in restaurants and catering facilities right through the school.   The Heritage Restaurant is one of them, and I had no idea that it existed before the tour.  The restaurant decor could use a solid facelift,  but what I witnessed in the attitudes of the students as they set up the dining room was an up-to-date knowledge of what service is all about.   Plus, the 180+ degree view provides an atmospheric element that is always in style.

Leading the Way in Food Allergy Training?

I felt satiated with information about the Secchia Culinary Institute after the tour -- and a little excited.  From what I understand, food allergy training has not been incorporated into most culinary educations thus far, including the Secchia Culinary Institute.  But I have a good feeling that Grand Rapids and its Culinary School might be responding to this need -- I'm hoping in the nearer future. 

Why am I so concerned?  If you have food allergies, you know why, because you have experienced this first hand.  A recent study in Great Britian (April, 2011) showed a shocking ignorance and a huge gap in the education of restaurant workers  when it comes to food allergies.

•  Almost 25% of those surveyed labored under the impression that drinking a glass of water could diffuse an allergic reaction when an individual consumed an allergy-triggering food.
  
  
• 23% believed that consuming a small amount of triggering foods, such as tree nuts or shellfish, would not harm the allergic individuals.
  
  
• 21% believed that diners could “pick out” allergy causing foods and still consume the dish without risk.
• Catered foods provide the most risk
• 1/3 had any kind of food allergy training, but 80% of these same respondents felt confident in serving customers with food allergies.

“Staff with high comfort and low knowledge are potentially dangerous, as they may convey an exaggerated sense of competence to their customers, giving them false reassurance.” _the researchers from the public health division of Brighton and Sussex Medical School

Sources: 

The Inquisitr

Science Daily

With the growing numbers of food allergic customers entering restaurants today, food allergy training is an essential addition to any culinary curriculum.  Could The Secchia Culinary Institute lead the way?  I'll keep you posted.

And who knows, perhaps I'll be jumping in at some point next year to learn a few thousand more of the billions of things there is to learn about this wonderful thing called food.

A Surprise Gluten- and Dairy- Free Party

Chef Tommy Fitzgerald after he revealed his secret Tender agendaThis past Saturday night I went to a surprise birthday party for a couple of super guys and great friends. 

There was also a nice surprise for me, however, when the chef prepared a meal that was nearly entirely gluten- and dairy-free. 

You see, usually, my party protocol includes appropriate primping and then some frozen Applegate Farms lunch meat thrown into my purse.  Usually, at a party, and after I've circulated and socialized ... and after my knees get weak ... but before I feel that alien invasion called low blood sugar, I find a quiet corner in which to hide (a.k.a.) my car or the nearest bathroom).  I then peel open the pack of meat and stuff my face with a few of the unfrozen slices before going back out and resocializing like a human.  Once all proteined-up, I usually pretend that I'm not at all jealous of the party-goers' oohs and ahhs as they sample the tastiness of the table.  I ignore their glazed over eyes as they take that first bite of that cheesy, buttery, puffy thing or that chocolately chewy brownie concoction (my favorite food).  And when I get home, I pretend that it is perfectly heatlhy to eat a fairly full meal at midnight -- because I'm hungry as heck.  And then further tell myself that its really not such a big deal (and in the light of world peace, devastating disease, and people with real hunger, it really isn't a big deal at all.  I'm seriously quite content with these small problems).

And I usually forget to take the left over lunch meat out of my purse when I get home. 

But Saturday night was different and fun.  Because of my "new best friend" Tommy Fitzgerald, I had a full plate.  I licked that plate clean.  I went back for seconds.  I had such an abundance of mexican food that I had to leave a little behind; I just couldn't possibly take another bite.  The salsas were incredible, the chicken was so juicy and tasty that I raided the party refrigerator later in the evening for more.  That was a nice surprise indeed.

 

So my biggest thanks and a big shout out to Tommy -- and to The Leonard at Logan House for taking care of their Tender Foodie for the evening.  It was so nice to be able to relax, not worry and just enjoy some great food and great people.

And a big happy birthday to John and Bill.  You are surrounded by so many folks who love you (because you are so darn loveable).  May your years be filled wtih great happiness, joy, health and many more years of fun in the great out-of-doors.  Keep feeding me like this and you might actually get me out camping.

Tommy Fitzgerald owns Cafe Stella in Grand Rapids, MI, is a favorite chef at The Leonard at Logan House, and caters all kinds of events.  Take a trip to his web site for more info.

The Leonard at Logan House is an historic bed and breakfast that specializes in peronal or business stay, weddings and events, corporate events, meetings, parties and more.

These guys know how to throw a great and memorable party.