Vegetarian Chili and Cornbread

I felt like chili and cornbread today. Well, I've been feeling like it for awhile, to be honest. I plan my meals 2 weeks in advance, so it's not like I woke up today feeling like chili.

Last night, I soaked the beans. This morning, I cooked them. Then I fired up the crockpot. I make my chili a little different every time. This was excellent, and needed a teensy bit of salt because I used dried not canned beans.

Vegan Chili
1.5 cups dried pinto beans, cooked: 0.44
1 cup dried kidney beans, cooked (I cooked separately in the pressure cooker): 0.44
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes: 1.29
1 cup frozen corn: 0.25
3 carrots, shredded: 0.30
1/2 large onion or one small onion, diced: 0.50
1 bell pepper, diced: 1.00
1 clove garlic, minced: 0.05
"some" cumin, oregano, salt, chili powder, and garlic powder: 0.10
1/2 a packet of low-sodium taco mix ('cuz I had it): 0.30
1/2 cube of chipotle in adobo, pureed: 0.25
1/4 cup bulgur: 0.08
1/2 can tomato paste: 0.15
Total: $5.15 for about 13 cups, or $0.40 per 1 cup serving.

Cook beans first. Saute onion and pepper until soft and carmelized.

Put beans and some of the cooking water, but not all, in the crockpot. Add remaining ingredients. Cook on low all day.


Vegan Corn Bread:
My spouse ate an egg sandwich for lunch, then realized that we needed 6 eggs for two batches of cupcakes and 1 batch of cornbread. But we only had four. So I looked up a recipe for vegan cornbread, and found one at the ppk here. I have two cookbooks by Isa, and this recipe did not disappoint, even though I didn't make it vegan. I added two TBSP of sugar to the recipe, and used regular milk in place of soy milk.

Cost:
2 c. milk (from dried): 0.25
2 c. cornmeal: 0.50
1 c. flour: 0.16
2 tsp baking powder: 0.15
2 T. maple syrup: 0.54
2 T. sugar: 0.05
2 tsp vinegar: 0.05
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 c. canola oil: 0.20
Total: 1.90 for 20 slices, or $0.10 per slice, not counting the honey that my honey douses it in.

We topped the chili with sour cream and cheese, and had the whole thing with chips, guacamole, and salsa.

The guac was AWESOME. There's the one guy, at the farmer's market, and his avocados are so rich and creamy. 2 weeks in a row, he hasn't let me down (sometimes, there are issues with avos anywhere). I wish I'd bought two. They were only 50 cents each. Next week: two.

Salsa is my new fave - Trader Joes garlic chipotle.