Cornbread - There's Somethin Wrong With That

(Edit: It has been pointed out to me that the Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix contains animal products. I truly apologize for including it in the recipe. It was irresponsible of me to not read the label and just assume there would be no animal fat in corn muffin mix. I'm still learning to read EVERY label. Thanks VeggieTofu for pointing that out!)

Today is Chili & Cornbread day.

I love chili. Seriously, I could eat chili every day and be a happy camper. One of the things I miss most about eating meat is eating my mom's chili. So when deciding to give up the beef I knew I'd have to learn how to make a rump kickin vegetarian chili. I think I succeeded with this one.

Vegetarian Chili

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 to 1/2 chopped white onion
3 packets Boca Meatless Ground Burger (= 1 1/2 pounds ground beef)

(this stuff is truly wonderful... I use it in everything)
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 teaspoon garlic salt
2 1/2 cups tomato sauce (or a can of Manwich)
1 8 oz jar salsa (as hot as you like)
4 or 5 tablespoons Chili seasoning
2 15 oz cans chili beans or kidney beans, rinsed & drained
1 can corn, drained (I like Del Monte's southwestern corn for this)
salt & pepper to taste
grated cheddar and sour cream to top

1. Heat oil in large pan and saute onion.
2. Add everything else and reduce heat to low for 1 hour.
3. Serve in bowl, topped with grated cheese & a dollop of sour cream.

YUM.

Everyone ate this up like it was their last meal.

As for the cornbread! I like my cornbread moist and sweet. Don't give me any of that dry stuff that sticks in your throat and crumbles off when you pick it up. I don't want to have to add a vat of butter to it to make it edible. I don't know if you've ever had Boston Market's cornbread but that stuff is just what I love. So after several attempts to make my own like theirs, I finally hit upon the right recipe. Someone had suggested this on a forum years ago and I've been making it this way ever since.



1/2 a box of yellow cake mix and one box of Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix some other actually vegetarian corn bread mix. Follow package directions on each box for the batter. Half the ingredients needed for the cake mix, of course, since you're only using 1/2 the box. Mix the batters together and bake according to the corn muffin mix directions. (If you can find Jiffy Yellow Cake Mix, which I can't seem to anymore, you can use a full box of that to the full box of Corn Muffin Mix... just makes things easier.... not that it could get MUCH easier. leave it on the shelf because it probably has animal fat in it, too!)



Sean calls is Corn Cake but I don't care. It's delicious and absolutely PERFECT with the chili.



Please comment if you've tried or plan to try any recipes, let me know what you changed and how it tasted! Thanks!

My new sweetener

I had a dilemma. A sugar dilemma. We all know sugar is bad. Not just for our bodies but for the fact that most of it is processed through animal bone and that makes me sort of feel icky. (I did learn, though, that Florida Crystals which is the company that provides most of the sugar in my area and I can literally drive a mile to bask in the endless fields of sugar cane they grow does not use animal bone to process their sugar. Yay for them!) So I'm trying to decrease the amount of processed sugar I take in.

Then there was Equal. Aspartame. I've heard so many evils about aspartame I could write a book. In fact, I think people have written books. Oh look, yes they have. So that was out.

Next I looked into Sweet N Low. Saccharin. Cancer causing saccharin. What a deceiving little pink packet! Who coats cancer in baby pink?

Then we have Splenda. Sucralose. My current chemical of choice. Sucralose has been found to cause a shrunken thymus gland and therefore lower immunity and also enlarges the liver. Yipee... next.

There is also Stevia which evidently isn't bad for you but I find the taste to be nose scrunching.

So yesterday while shopping I noticed this Blue Agave Sweetener located next to the honey. I figured, what the heck? It's even vegan! It does have calories but a really low glycemic index (27) so definitely not bad like sugar.

Today I sort of forgot I bought it actually. I had my first cup of coffee the way I always do. Splenda with Fat Free Creamer. Bring on the chemicals! But then I went for a second cup and as I was reaching again for the Splenda I remembered. So I grabbed the new Agave stuff.

I squirted a bit into my cup... probably about 1/2 a tablespoon so only 30 calories. I stirred, I tasted.

It is heaven. I didn't even need the creamer. The syrup took all the bitterness out of the coffee and made a nice smooth sweet beverage. Delicious. I can't wait to try it in other stuff!