Vegetarian Chili

I have made this recipe many, many times and it is super good. One of my old roommates joked that she was going to stage an intervention if I cooked it one more time. Guests always seemed to enjoy it too. The picture at right is the batch I made tonight, all stacked up in my snapware for lunch next week.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 tablespoon salt
2 green bell peppers, chopped
2 jalapeno peppers, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 (4 ounce) cans chopped green chile peppers, drained (optional, but tasty)
3 (28 ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes, crushed
1/4 cup chili powder (to taste --- I like lots)
1 tablespoon ground black pepper (I forget to add this sometimes and it's still good)
1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained
1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained
1 (15 ounce) can black beans (choose whatever beans you like)
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn

DIRECTIONS
Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in the onion, and season with bay leaves, cumin, oregano, and salt. Cook and stir until onion is tender, then mix in the green bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, garlic, and green chile peppers. Reduce heat to low, cover pot, and simmer 5 minutes.
Mix the tomatoes into the pot. Season chili with chili powder and pepper. Stir in the kidney beans, garbanzo beans, and black beans. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 45 minutes. Stir in the corn, and continue cooking 5 minutes before serving.

I like to serve it with a little dollop of sour cream on top and a sprinkle of shredded cheese.

Tahini

One of the ingredients in the hummus recipe I have on here is tahini. I've bought that at the store before but never made it from scratch, and it looked like it would be pretty simple to make, so I decided to give it a go. Besides, it is pretty expensive if you buy it pre-made. I bought the raw, hulled sesame seeds in the bulk section of a local grocery store.

Ingredients
-1 C sesame seeds
-1/4 C vegetable oil (I used olive oil)

Directions
-Preheat oven to 340°F (170° C).
-Spread your sesame seeds on a roasting tray, and toast in the oven for 15 minutes, stirring regularly to toast evenly. Do not allow to brown.
-Remove the sesame seeds from the oven and allow to cool briefly.
-Put the toasted sesame seeds in your food processor, with metal blades fitted, and add the oil.
-When the mixture is evenly smooth, transfer your tahini to a tight fitting glass jar using a flexible spatula, to reduce waste.
-Tahini may be kept in the refrigerator for many weeks in a well sealed jar.

One thing though, is that I do not have a food processor. So I'm trying it with a Magic Bullet MBR-1701 17-Piece Express Mixing Set instead. My kit came with two blades, and I tried the normal mixing one first but it wasn't doing the job. The flat blade did much better.

Hummus

I've been looking at hummus recipes around and about, and decided I'm going to try one tomorrow, keeping the ingredients I like and nixing the ones I don't. Here goes:

Ingredients

5 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups cooked chick peas (or one can)
1 tsp sea salt
1/3 cup tahini
3 lemons, freshly squeezed
1 T olive oil
½ tsp freshly ground pepper

Directions
Combine all ingredients, blend until smooth.

My parents have a lemon tree, which might have some fruit on it right now. I'm not sure where my pepper is right now, as I just moved, so I'll need to find that. And tahini...I guess trader joe's might be the best place to find that? Not sure. I'll also want some pita bread :)

Will update this post after I've tried it.

Here's the nutrition information for a 2 tbsp (1/8 cup) serving

So I just finished making the hummus and it's delicious. It was a little difficult to get it fully blended; I was using my Magic Bullet and it was mixing well in about half of the vertical volume but the mixing action didn't reach the other half, so I kept reaching in there with a spoon and trying to integrate the layers. It seemed to work out in the end.

Very yummy!

Ginger Glazed Mahi Mahi

I tried this recipe for the first time last week. I was having my parents over for a celebration dinner (I just moved into a new place). Neither of them is really into fish, but they both said they loved it, and kept taking a little bit more. Here is the recipe I was loosely following:

Ingredients
* 3 tablespoons honey
* 3 tablespoons soy sauce
* 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
* 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger root
* 1 clove garlic, crushed or to taste
* 2 teaspoons olive oil
* 4 (~6 ounce) mahi mahi fillets
* salt and pepper to taste
* 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Directions
1. In a shallow dish, stir together honey, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, ginger, garlic and olive oil. Season fish fillets with salt and pepper, and place them into the dish. If the fillets have skin on them, place them skin side down. Cover, and refrigerate for 20 minutes to marinate.
2. Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Remove fish from the dish, and reserve marinade. Fry fish for 4 to 6 minutes on each side, turning only once, until fish flakes easily with a fork. Remove fillets to a serving platter and keep warm.
3. Pour reserved marinade into the skillet, and heat over medium heat until the mixture reduces to a glaze consistently. Spoon glaze over fish, and serve immediately.

This basic recipe is from allrecipes.com; I was working with still semi-frozen fillets (didn't realize it takes so long to defrost!), so I cut them into 1-inch cubes, tossed the fish along with all the marinade in a pan, and stir-fried it that way. Yummm. Maybe I'll try it the traditional way next time!

Oh yeah, here's the nutrition info: