Chili!! with or without meat!

so on tuesdays Dipak doesnt eat meat.. its a religious thing, and i respect it. it also gets me off my red meat obsession once a week lol which couldnt hurt. so while dipak was slaving away at school, i was schlepping on the couch trying to think of a vegetarian meal that would fill us both up AND (not to be too immature but) wouldnt make me gag :|

my friend Natasha said that the one healthy meal her bf likes is this turkey chili she makes. her bf and i have the same unhealthy taste in food. so it got me thinking.. i could do veggie chili and make corn bread that would un-health-ify it so id like it more too :)

ive never made chili so i was stressing it wouldnt turn out good, so i got two lean cuisines just in case hah. but it turned out great!! and i know it'd turn out even better with real meat. (i got fake ground beef for the meal- i prefer Morning Star brand for my fake-meat products btw) - oh! and i almost had a bean-catastrophe! so i had a packet of dry red beans already in my pantry so i thought ill try and use it in the recipe. the back of the packet of beans said "soak in hot water for 2 minutes" - i thought omg how easy! ive been avoiding this for no reason! ... yeah. i was wrong. i ended up soaking the beans in boiling water for like... over an hour! maybe even 2 hours! it was nuts! after two minutes, the beans were as hard as peanuts! and they looked so gross.. i ended up texting my friend and my neighbor asking how im supposed to do this.. basically you just wait. lol so it IS easy, but it just takes forever. BUT dipak was stuck in lab for just long enough, so its all good hah

okay so for meatless chili i used these ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil 
1/2 an onion (minced) 
1 tbsp garlic (minced) 
1/2 of a green bell pepper
1/2 of a red bell pepper 
1/4 cup of vegetable broth or stock (i have learned now that stock is more saturated than broth, so it tastes more flavorful but also has more calories.. just fyi lol)
about 2 cups or 16oz of crushed tomatoes (they come in these huge cans that are like 32 ounces, but i only used about half of it for this recipe- but you can also eye-ball it. the tomato sauce will be the base of your chili. so add as much as you want to make yknow? itll make more sense when youre doing it)
1 packet of McCormicks Original Chili spices (im pretty sure thats cheating, but ive never made this before and it was on kinda short notice lol)
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp chili powder
about 1/4 cup of red beans (okay iiim pretty sure you can also just buy a can of pinto beans or kidney beans in a can, drain them and dump them in your chili and let them sit in the pot bc the ones in the can are already smushy bc theyve been soaking for months.... ew. i just grossed myself out hahaha... i mean theyre fine to use. so im assuming you can do that too! drain them, and use however much you want. im not the biggest bean fan in general, so i tend to use less) 
1 packet of Morning Star crumbled meat (which also sounds gross lol so if you want to use real meat, i dont blame you haha but it was pretty good! its NOT meat! so even tho it looks like it, dont expect a meat taste or texture. but its not gross.. and it doesnt take away from the flavor. so really its just a little more substance in the chili to make it more hearty)

IF YOURE COOKING DRY BEANS: begin your whole journey by soaking your beans in hot water! put a pot on the stove, turn the heat to high and dump in your beans. once the water starts boiling, turn it down to med/low and let them sit there forever! check on them in an hour and see how firm they still are. im PRETTY sure mine soaked for over an hour and a half! if you want to use canned beans, ill just write that into the recipe below :)

TO ACTUALLY CREATE THE CHILI: start with the first ingredients. heat on medium. oil in your pot, throw in your onions. sprinkle a little salt on your onions. i saw on a cooking show that salting the onions while theyre cooking makes them more flavorful, and dipak loooves his onions. so i figure, why not! then add your garlic and peppers. let them simmer together and get smelly and delicious! (that takes about 5 minutes in my opinion lol.. make sure to stir frequently so they dont burn) Then throw in your vegetable stock. turn the heat to medium/low and let this all sit for about 5 minutes.

then pour in the whole packet of chili spice. i was wondering what makes chili that color... this combination of spices does. mystery solved. so pour in your spice and mix mix mix. once its all dissolved into your veggie broth concoction, add your crushed tomato sauce. stir that all around and then turn the heat to low and let it sit there. add all of your spices to this; garlic powder, salt, garlic salt, cayenne... let it simmer.

if youre using canned beans, i think you should drain and add them now. if not, wait until your beans are smushy enough and then add them whenever theyre ready.

IF YOU USE REAL MEAT: i think what i'll do next time is take a packet of ground beef, chicken or turkey.. throw it in a skillet with a little oil on the bottom. hit it with garlic salt, pepper, cayenne and maybe a sprinkle of your chili spice packet (optional) and let it brown up while you break it apart. then when its fully cooked, throw it in the chili you just made and let it all simmer together for a while. 

when you have all your chili pieces in one pot.. let it all simmer together for 10 minutes on super low. after i was completely done with my chili, i had to turn off the heat and wait for dipak to get home, so i had to re-heat it, but it was AWESOME anyway :) and i grated cheese on top and made corn bread (which is like my 4th or 5th recipe on here) and it was soo gooood!

let me know how it goes :) and what you added to make it better! i need more tips!