Chilli and Cornbread

Finally only a week behind now! Last Tuesday saw the return of a hearty Winter favourite, chilli from 'Appetite for Reduction' and delicious cornbread to go with it. We continued with the healthy theme and this didn't disappoint. 

Chilli and Cornbread

Wednesday evening saw the return of a pretty Wintery dish. Chilli and cornbread. I used the recipe from Appetite for Reduction and made this veggie-packed wholesome chilli. The cornbread didn't disappoint either. 

I always forget just how filling the chilli is. The recipe says that it serves six, Mr VST and I had a portion each for dinner and then again for lunch on Thursday and the rest has gone in the freezer. The other thing with this chilli is that it tastes better the next day when all the flavours have had a chance to develop properly, yum!

Chilli with Sweetcorn and Spring Onion Cornbread

Dairy free week continues with a hearty, vegetable packed chilli. The summer here is doing its usual thing which includes raining and being cold. It really isn't traditional salad and ice cream weather! I made the cornbread again, which didn't disappoint (please make it!) and this time with wholemeal flour as the original recipe suggests and it was so good.

To continue the cold theme I had rhubarb and custard for pudding while Mr VST had carrot cake and custard for his. 

Five Bean Chilli with Rice and Tortillas

Sounds good doesn't it? Unfortunately it was a Wetherspoon's chilli. It was flavourless and salty, the rice was bright yellow! The company more than made up for it though. Always good to have a catch up with a friend.

Classic Chilli with Spring Onion and Sweetcorn Cornbread

Made this again on Tuesday and managed to get the portion size right this time. There's still some leftovers in the fridge!

Classic Chilli

Spring onion and sweetcorn corn bread

Classic Black Bean & Veggie Chilli with Spring Onion & Sweetcorn Cornbread

Both of these dishes are from my new cookery book called Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. It is a vegan cookery book that promised a lot. I'm not planning on going vegan by the way, not at all, but I wanted to broaden my food horizons a bit and thought that this was a tasty filling way to do it.

The book and it's reviews promised the following:  between 200 and 400 calories a portion, filling, nutritionally balanced meals, low fat, tasty meals that don't take very long to cook. That really is a lot. The reviews on Amazon were all really good so I thought I'd try it out. The book came through the post a couple of days ago and I started reading through the recipes. I chose a combination of the classic black bean and veggie chilli and cornbread.

The chilli recipe has a massive long list of ingredients, most of them spices. I'm not usually too good at following recipes but as I felt completely out of my depth with these I followed it (almost) to the letter. The recipe called for three tablespoons of chilli powder and I put in 11/2 teaspoons instead as I knew that Mr VST wouldn't cope with that level of chilli. I also left out the call for a cup of freshly chopped cilantro aka coriander. Mr VST and I both seem to have the gene that makes it taste like washing up liquid. I think I was justified in my slight adjustments. The chilli was as nice as a veggie chilli can be, it wasn't particularly special but it was filling. The portion sizes were certainly generous and it's only 200 calories per portion.

The recommendation is to serve it with either rice or cornbread. I thought I'd go with the cornbread. When I went shopping to get all the ingredients I realised that cornmeal is in fact polenta and my spirits dropped. I can't remember ever really enjoying polenta but I went with it. It makes me think of the Deep South in America and all the John Grisham novels I've read! The cornbread was really easy to make.

Ingredients:
130g polenta (aka cornmeal)
250ml milk of your choice
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
63g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp sunflower oil
2 tbsp agave nectar
160g (drained) sweetcorn
10 spring onions, finely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and spray an 8 inch square baking pan with spray oil.
2. Whisk together the milk and cider vinegar and set aside to curdle.
3. Sift together the polenta, flour and baking powder.
4. Create a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the milk, agave nectar and oil, mix until just combined and fold in the sweetcorn and spring onions.

5. Place the mix into the pan and bake for 30 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.

6. Slice and serve

 

I can't tell you how good this cornbread is. It's awesome! Light and filling at the same time, sweet and a perfect complement to the chilli. It is the first time I can put my hand on my heart and say that I've enjoyed polenta! Try it please, it's so good.

Going back to the promises that the book made this first outing certainly ticked all the boxes. The food was tasty and very filling. I checked out the calorie count for the cornbread and my calculation came out as one calorie less per portion than the recipe says (160 calories) which is much better than the BBC Good Food calculations that's for sure!

I've picked out a few more recipes from this book to try out over the weekend. I'll keep you posted....

Veggie Mexican

A nice easy, filling veggie Mexican after my run this evening.

Veggie Mexican

I've finally managed to motivate myself to get back onto the fitness wagon and started counting my calories again today after I weighed in and realised that I have gained 4lbs over the Christmas period. I've also signed up for a half marathon and started running again. Tuesday's run made me feel as though I was broken, today's was much better thankfully. When I got back I grabbed all the veggies out of the fridge and fried them up with a spray of oil, added some quorn pieces too, some cumin, paprika and chilli powder and a tin of chopped tomatoes and let all the flavours simmer away together while I had a shower.

The result was a tasty, easy to cook low calorie dinner (one wrap with veggies is about 200kcals).

Weekend Posts - Friday, Saturday, Sunday

This vegetarian ate a lot over the weekend! There was a big family gathering in Wales to celebrate a big birthday for my Mum as well as three other December birthdays and my Uncle coming over from New Zealand with his wife. Lots of celebrating and eating was done.

So Friday night we ate at The Angel in Llandeilo. Mr VST and I shared some delicious nachos with salsa and cheese and then I had a spicy mushroom and bean tagine (with chips) and Mr VST had some stuffed mushrooms both of which were delicious and for pudding we shared an a chocolate fudge cake with ice cream. There was such a lovely warm, friendly, Christmassy atmosphere in there, it was a great way to start the weekend.

Saturday all the family and a few friends came over to the cottage we were staying in. Everyone brought some food with them and WOW! Although there were 26 of us altogether there was still too much food! We baked some potatoes and I made a vegetable chilli but there was also meaty chilli, cheese and biscuits, chocolate muffins, birthday cake, cherry lattice, apple crumble pie. This meal was then repeated for lunch on Sunday!


Nothing better than lots of good food and good company. A lovely time was had by all.

Quorn mince tortilla stack

Thought I'd try a new recipe for meat-free Monday today. I don't know why I feel the need to make extra effort for Mondays as all my days are meat free but I'm sure I've had curry a few times on a Monday (it's so easy!). So tonight I went for a new recipe from my Quorn Kitchen cookbook. Not too difficult to make and surprisingly tasty, its one I'll be making again and it even looked like it did in the book!

It's quite high in calories per portion though which is the only thing that put me off. The recipe says to put cheese in each of the layers and to be honest I don't think it needs it so will try it without next time, just putting some on the top.

Dahl with Naan Breads

Tonight's delight was good old dahl with naan breads. Simple but delicious and plenty left for lunch tomorrow.

Veggie Mexican

Veggie Mexican tonight. So quick and easy to make after my run and delicious and filling too.

Red lentil, chick pea and chilli soup

I made this for lunch today and am still full up so won't be cooking supper tonight. It was a nice soup. I'm never sure about blending lentils, they always seem to go bitty to me. Might not blend it up next time. Second time of making the spelt bread was more successful though. The tin was well greased and the bread came out easily!

Sweet potato and chilli soup with home made spelt bread

Two new recipes tonight. The one for spelt bread was printed off ages ago and never got around to making.

I also got a bit over-enthusiastic on the sweet potato buying last week as they were on special offer at my local market stall. I found this recipe for sweet potato and chilli soup on the BBC Good Food site to go with my bread.

I made a schoolgirl error with the bread in that I didn't grease the loaf tin well enough. The three minute preparation was very easy. I didn't have all the seeds but made a plain loaf instead. The problems came when I tried to turn the loaf out before putting it back into the oven for the last 5-10 minutes. I destroyed it getting it out of the tin and patched it together before putting it back into the oven. It came out a bit hard on the outside and doughy on the inside but that might be because I didn't make adjustments for my fan assisted oven. It was still tasty though and went well with the soup and mature cheddar.

The soup was really more like a sweet potato purée. Mr VST likes it this way but I think I would add more stock if I made it again to make it a bit thinner. I made it with chilli flakes and it had a nice kick. Good for a chilli Autumn evening.

Vegetable Chilli

This evening's meal was a vegetable chilli with jacket potato for me and rice for Mr VST.










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