Vegetarian Chili

Even though it was actually pretty nice out today, I still felt compelled to make some vegetarian chili after work today. I've made it once before, and I didn't really think that I liked chili that much until I tried this one. I mostly remained loyal to the recipe, although I added in a red pepper, which adds an extra hint of sweetness. Even though the recipe says it serves 6, it makes a huge batch. Very generous servings!

I served my chili with some shredded cheese on top and some garlic bread (a little strange, I know, but it works). It's also really good with a few crushed tortilla chips. Overall, it's a deliciously healthy vegetarian take on chili.

Six Ingredient Chicken Noodle Soup

It's been good soup weather in Iowa lately, so I thought I'd try this easy take on a classic- Six Ingredient Chicken Noodle Soup. As the title might suggest, it was pretty basic, and I actually made it even easier than the original recipe. Since I had some shredded chicken left over from making a roasted chicken awhile back, I just used that instead of poaching raw chicken in the broth. While poaching in the broth may have added more flavor, I thought the soup still turned out pretty tasty. I did stick with the recipe on the vegetables front and used only carrots and frozen peas. It'd be easy enough to add in whatever you like and have on hand though.

Overall, the soup was pretty good- not the best chicken noodle soup I've ever had, but a far cry from the worst, and  it was definitely better than canned. The main thing that I would alter if I make this again is substituting some egg noodles for the spaghetti- the spaghetti did not want to stay on the spoon.  As a bonus, I also discovered that it made way more than 4 servings- I'll get more like 6 out of it. As a result, I have some extra waiting in my freezer for a quick weeknight meal.

Pasta e Fagioli

Tonight for dinner I made Pasta e Fagioli from the December 2010 issue of Everyday Food. It was a perfect hearty, vegetarian winter meal- just some veggies, beans, pasta, broth, oregano, and the secret ingredient- a parmesan rind. If you have one, I really do recommend adding the parmesan rind- it adds so much flavor.

The soup only took about 45 minutes, and it made a huge batch. Since I didn't want to eat it every day for a week, I decided to freeze about half of it. The key to freezing this soup is doing it before you add the pasta, since the pasta becomes nasty upon freezing and reheating. The portion I froze will make a nice, quick weeknight meal sometime later- all I'll have to do is add a handful of pasta and heat it until it's cooked, and I'll have this: