Vegetarian Chili, With Meat

Last Sunday, I busied myself with the bittersweet task of preparing food for Sam's cross-country team dinner. Bittersweet, because I love doing this every Fall, but this was for the last time. He's graduating next May, and his competitive cross-country days are over.

Yeah, I'm a complete sap when it comes to my kids, and their first-time / last-time milestones.

You should have seen me on his first day of Kindergarten. And wasn't that "just" a few years ago? I remember it like it was the proverbial yesterday.

Anyway, my contribution to the team dinner was to make a big pot of chili, two pans of cornbread, and his favorite "made from scratch" chocolate brownies.

Inspired by my dear friends Maven and Angenina, I grabbed my digital camera to record my chili-making progress. Let's see if I can get photos to upload to my blog. This oughta be interesting!

VEGETARIAN CHILI

2 T olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

1 green bell pepper, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup dry red wine

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes

1 can each of black beans, red kidney beans, and white northern beans, drained and rinsed

Spice blend:

4 t chili powder

1 t each of garlic powder, ground cumin, oregano, and basil

2 t sugar

1/2 t salt

1/2 t freshly ground black pepper

WITH MEAT

1/2 lb. lean ground beef

(I double or triple this recipe for a large group)

1. Assemble everything, and blend the spices in a small bowl.

OK, now I'm laughing because I tried to upload multiple photos at once, the result of which you see here. They "appeared" in the wrong order, at the beginning of my post, and will not be moved to their intended location no matter what I try!!!

Oh, well, you get the idea.

Here's what the chili looks like completely finished and ready to serve:

OH NO!! My picture appeared at the beginning! Aarrrgggg.............

I give up.

So much for my big dream of creating a blog like Mave's and A's. The chili was good, though. Those kids ate every last bit.