Slow Cooker Enchilada Chili with Absolutely Delicious Holiday Cornbread

It's really feeling like fall in Chicago.  We had a mostly gray, cool weekend.  Temperatures hovered in the upper 50's on Saturday afternoon and were in the lower 60's today.  I ate the last of my chili from the freezer months ago.  It was time to put some more in the crock pot.  

I've enjoyed the chili that I made before.  Actually, it was an enchilada casserole recipe for the crock pot from the FatFree Vegan Kitchen website.  It's very good, but I wanted a different flair for my chili.  I made up a recipe as I went along and it turned out quite good.  I topped my bowl of chili with shredded Follow Your Heart cheddar cheese, Tofutti Better than Sour Cream, and a splash of spicy taco sauce.  I usually throw a few jalapeno slices on my chili, too, but I didn't want to take the time to search for my unopened jar.

I also made Absolutely Delicious Holiday Cornbread from vegweb.com.  I made a few changes to the recipe. It calls for ¼ cup of natural sugar (Florida crystals), and I didn't have that.  So, I used ¼ cup of light brown sugar instead.  I don't buy soy milk, so I used 1 cup of coconut milk instead.  I also used a deep muffin tin, sprayed it with olive oil baking spray, and only made 6 muffins.  They were not huge muffins, so had I made 12, they definitely would have been small.  I didn't have any canned corn, so I threw in about a cup and a half of frozen corn that I had run under water to help thaw.  I cooked them for about 25 minutes and although they look very light in the above picture, they were cooked perfectly and turned out absolutely delicious!

 Slow Cooker Enchilada Chili

1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes

1 24 oz. jar of chunky salsa 

1 6 oz. can of tomato paste

2 15 oz. cans of black beans, rinsed and drained

1 15 oz. can of corn, drained, or 1½ cups of frozen corn, rinsed

1 4 oz. can of green chilies

1 10 oz. can of Rotel tomatoes with green chilies

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 yellow onion, diced

1 cup TVP

1½ tablespoon ground cumin

1½ tablespoon chili powder

2 teaspoons hot sauce

Garnishes

crushed taco shells or tortilla chips

shredded Follow Your Heart or Daiya cheddar cheese

Tofutti Better than Sour Cream

Taco Sauce

Jalapeno slices

Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker.  Cook on low 6 to 8 hours (or cook on high for 2 hours and low for 4 hours).  Serve hot with garnishes of your choice.  May be frozen.  Thaw and reheat.

Tonight's dinner was very good.  I really liked the addition of TVP, as it really gave the chili a "meaty" feel.  It looks like there is ground beef in the chili.  My oldest son asked me why I added meat to the chili and if I was cheating.  That made me chuckle. He won't eat it, though, as he doesn't like chili of any kind.  My younger son will be digging into it.  He's already snagged a corn muffin.  I had to stop him so I could take a picture of the cooked cornbread without any missing.  As soon as I snapped the photo, he grabbed one.  Kobe, my black lab, was waiting patiently in the middle of the kitchen floor (in my way, of course), in case I decided to drop any of the chili or corn muffins.  Unfortunately for her, I did not.  Chili is definitely NOT an acceptable food for a dog and I didn't make enough corn muffins to waste any.  :::smile:::

This chili freezes and reheats very well.  I will be freezing a significant portion of the chili for future enjoyment on nights that I just need a quick dinner. It's definitely a repeat dinner!