Vegan Lunch Box- Chili Con "Carne"

My Long day!

I had a long day yesterday. Up at 4am drive into work with John to pick up our car from his job. Went to Walmart to kill some time because I needed Dog food and the pet store didn't open till 10am. Had subway at 7am. Its in our Walmart. Spent Almost $8 at Walmart in 2 hours. lol.. Then went to Target about 20 minutes away. Got there at 8:30am. Spent about $15 on kitchen stuff they had on sale. Then went to Krogers and 9:30am and spent about $4. Wow right.... In 3 hours time I spent including Subway $31. Not bad right. Finally I go to the Pet store at about 15 till 10 only to find out that I have been wasting time for nothing because that have been open since 9am.... I wanted to scream! Wow. So then I can back to Fairmont and John was working and wanting to have lunch. He didn't know I had ate at Subway.. Shoooooo.... :) So he wanted Taco Bell. Which I don't normally do. So I went and got a Plain Bean Burrito & he had 3 Fresco Bean Burrito and and two cups of water. O'yeah I forgot to mention I swear off Soda yesterday. Haven't been feeling good and have had sinus drainage and it gets worse when I drink my beloved Diet Caffeine Free Pepsi. So. I was drinking water all day. After we ate I came home. Did have much time to waste though. We keep Roxie in the bathroom when we are not home. I got ready to leave again. I was going to Chey's Schools Christmas Party. School has been cancelled so many times because of the snow that they just not had it. So I went up there for about 2 hours. Then finally came home. Then I started on the Chili Con "Carne". It was about 4:00pm. I sauteed the onions. Couldn't find the frozen bell peppers so I skipped them. Boiled 5 cups of water. Chopped up 2 tomatoes (Not in the recipe). And put everything in the pot. Luckily I had measured everything out except the water the night before. I was so tired by 4:30pm. I don't work good on 2 hours of sleep. Anyways. Then I flopped down no the couch. Ate a bowl of cereal. Watched a couple tv showed that had taped on the DVR and then fell asleep 5 minutes short of the 3 show ending. Oops. :) So i slept for about an hour on and off till John got home a little after 8pm. The Chili smelled great. So we had chili at about 9pm.

Chili Con "Carne" Click the Link!

This recipe is simple to make and easy to throw everything together and leave it in your crock pot. I wasn't sure about the spice blend. I am a little picky about my chili. Growing up I always had the pre-seasoned canned beans mixed with kidney beans, and with a packet of Chili seasoning added. So I really like it that way. For the most part that is how I cook it. I mean I add veggies, etc to it. But, other wise its store bought.

The texture to this chili is really nice. I really like the TVP in it. I have never cooked with TVP because I just wasn't sure how to cook with it. This recipe showed me that it is simple and I will definitely cook with it more often. It gave a great texture to the chili. I normally only have beans and veg in my chili. But for now on I will add TVP. But back to the herbs. It calls for Thyme, Sage, & Oregano. Measuring the spices the night prier I knew that the one herb was really fragrant compared to the others. But I decided that was the recipe so I am going to make it that way. I think it is the Oregano. It is really pungent to me. To over powering to the other spices in the chili. You could definitely smell it over everything while it was cooking. But when I took the first bite I could tell it was just to much for me. so I added another tsp and a half of paprika and a half tsp of cumin. That didn't really help it. The oregano was still very strong. I made a bowl. Added some more paprika, smart balance light, and crackers. ate a couple bites and them gave it to John. He said it was pretty good. He ate my bowl and another bowl.

I tried it again this morning. After the flavors had more time to meld together. Its a little less pungent this morning but still a little to strong, Oregano wise, for me to eat. I think I will make this again. Well I am going to mix up the herbs & spices a little bit But I am going to make something similar in the future.