What's For Dinner

I had to get up half an hour earlier this morning to do some dinner-prep for the Crock Pot... okay, in reality I got up 10 minutes earlier and left for work 20 minutes late... Anyway I tried out a new recipe for vegetarian chili.  It's from Robin Miller on foodnetwork.com, but I made a few modifications.  I've posted my version of the recipe below, but feel free to check out the original.  I love when the house smells like chili in the winter.  Mmmmm....  Oh, and did I mention it's only about 240 calories a bowl?

Vegetarian Chili (Adopted and Adapted from Robin Miller on www.foodnetwork.com)

Ingredients: 

• 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 (15-ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 cup frozen lima beans, thawed
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper seeded and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 tablespoons dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 tablepoon Frank's Red Hot sauce
• 1 cup elbow macaroni
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (or "fiesta cheese", preference of my husband, Will)
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker except for the macaroni, cheese, and cilantro (mine was SUPER full once I got everything in, but didn't overflow all over the floor like I expected it to).  Turn the slow cooker to low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 3-4 hours.  Since I'm at work for 9 1/2 hours, mine went a little longer.  Add the macaroni to the slow cooker about 10 minutes before you're ready to eat, then turn the cooker off to prevent the pasta from getting mushy.  Dish it up in a bowl and top it with cheese and cilantro.  I'm also a saltine fanatic, so I pretty much substituted crackers for a spoon.  YUM!  AND the husband loved it too.  

Disclaimer: Don't eat this with plans of jogging, hitting the gym, going to yoga, or doing anything else remotely active within a few hours afterwards.  We were pretty much heart-burning it up on the couch the rest of the evening.  Curse our acidic stomachs, but hooray for Tums!