Tri Colored Southwestern Chili

Dun! DUN! It's my first ever food post!

Last night I made Megan's Tri Colored Southwestern chili! Or Megan's Three Beans Corn Green Chili New Mexico Chili.

I was born in the Southwest and I crave authentic New Mexican food now that I live in the South.  Green chili enchiladas, corn tortillas, and peppers peppers peppers!

Two nights ago, our power went out because of the heavy winds in our area. It has been unbearably cold in our home. We heat our house with space heaters and since we got power went out, our house has slowly been warming up.  The only way to survive is chili!

Posting a recipe for chili is kind of silly (ha) since making your own recipe is half the fun!

Ingredients:
1 tbs olive oil
One diced Scallion
One small sweet potato, cubed
One diced garlic clove
1/2 cup of fresh diced mushrooms
One package of fake ground meat ( I used Lightlife's Smart Grounds Mexican)
One can each of reduced sodium kidney beans, pinto, and butter beans, drained*
One can of corn
One can of no salt added diced tomatos.
One can of green chili!
1/4 cup of water

For the seasoning:
Instead of those chili packets you see at the grocery store, use chili powder since it has no sodium.  Season to taste, though I used 4 tbs.
1/2 tbs Cayenne pepper
optional 3 tbs of Sriracha Sauce

  You can find can make your own Sriacha sauce, also here is the photo credit

First, cook your sweet potatoes, garlic, and scallion on medium heat until the potato becomes tender. I didn't saute the mushroom with the potato, garlic and scallion because the mushrooms become more tender and 'meaty' if cooked with the rest of the chili.  Add the rest of the ingredients incrementally starting with the packet of Smart Grounds.  Spice as desired. Reduce heat to low.  Once you combine ingredients, let simmer for about an hour.   While simmering, you can make cornbread, which I used a box variety mix but added almond milk and flax seed egg replacer instead. It turned out delicious!

*I hope this post inspires you to make your own chili. However, when buying canned vegetables, always look at the sodium content.  If you bought a regular chili seasoning packet, and added three cans of beans plus one can of corn, you are eating well over your daily sodium recommendation. Most brands have reduced or no sodium which is what I used. I usually drain all the canned beans/corn in a colander and wash the beans/corn before adding them. Dont rinse the canned tomato! :D

Happy Eating!