Sunday, April 14, 2013

Veg'n Chili - Cooking for Camping Series

veg'n chili
Cooking...???
So far most of this blog has been concentrated on raw living foods.
Sometimes though, it's just nice to cook some favorites.
Although some of my favorites aren't raw or living foods, I still think they qualify under the nutritious category :)
I love to cook big batches and freeze for ease when I go camping!! yippee!
One of my favorites is veg'n chili.  This recipe can be made vegan or lacto-vegetarian.
Use ALL organic ingredients when possible.

=I use a large crockpot-slow cooker and, of the two settings on my crockpot, I set on high.
=Then I put directly into the crockpot the following:
~2 cans black beans all contents, which means including the water the beans are in, and a small amount of can rinse water*
* can rinse water means that, after emptying the contents of the can, I add a small amount of water and swoosh this around to try and pick up any remaining can contents
~1 can spicy tomatoes** all contents, which means including juice, and small amount of can rinse water
** my favorite spicy tomatoes to use is Muir Glen fire roasted tomatoes with medium green chilies
~2 cups spaghetti sauce***
*** my favorite spaghetti sauce is 365 Organic brand pasta sauce classic
~1 can corn all contents, which means including the water the corn is in (prefer 2 cups fresh or frozen corn)

=Add spices to the crockpot blend and stir as follows:
~2 Tb chili powder (somewhat heaped)


jalapeno finely chopped
~1 Tb cumin powder (somewhat heaped)
~¼ tsp cayenne pepper powder
~1/8 tsp chipotle  chili pepper powder

=Chop and add directly to the crockpot blend the following:
~6 ounces portabella mushrooms, stem removed, chopped
~1/3 cup finely chopped mild/sweet onion
 ~1 beautiful red pepper**** (~ 1 cup) chopped

chopped red pepper
**** of note, only red peppers are ripe peppers, eat ripe :)
~1 and ¾ cup chopped carrot
~3 cups chopped zucchini
~1 cup chopped celery
~2 jalapeno peppers, seeds removed and finely chopped (3 if not using spicy tomatoes).

=If you would like to add cheese, I recommend the following organic valley cheeses.
These cheeses do not contain animal rennet.
~4 ounces of raw mild cheddar self-shredded
~4 ounces of mozzarella self-shredded

=It takes me about an hour and a quarter to chop and add all the veggies and grate the cheese.  This volume of ingredients fills my large crockpot up to the brim.

=Once that is complete, sit back and let the crockpot crock for another 1 hour, stirring every so often to get the flavors well mixed.
=Turn off crock-pot and let cool.

If you're going to freeze for later, divvy contents into storage containers for freezing.

Camping tip: When I go camping, I put the frozen food containers directly into coolers.  They thaw during the trip and I simply reheat at the campsite.  For the veg'n chili, I usually serve over rice.  I actually bring my rice cooker with me camping.  We camp at sites with electric.  I plug the rice cooker in and away we go.  Serve reheated (re-delicious'd) veg'n chili over rice.  Wa La! 

Omega 8006 Juicer made a cracking noise....

One day, a couple months or so ago, my nice expensive (but well worth the price) Omega 8006 Juicer made a sickening cracking noise...
I was afraid to take apart the juicing parts to see what I might find broken...
Luckily! Nothing had broken!  However, the auger looked like it had been stripped a bit on the hard plastic part (not the metal part that attaches to the machine turning mechanisms).  Still workable though!
I decided that I did not want my nice Omega Juicer breaking anytime soon and that I should be more careful how I used it... 
I had been putting the first round of vegetable pulp back into the juicer to be juiced a second time...
While at Hippocrates Health Institute in the wheatgrass juice bar, I had heard someone say that they put the pulp back into their juicer to get more juice out (and save money obviously...).
This seemed like a good idea to me...  So, when I returned home and started juicing, I also started putting vegetable pulp back into the juicer for what I thought would be the utmost in efficiency of juicing vegetables!
However, after the machine bogged down and made the sickening cracking noise...  I have since stopped putting vegetable pulp into the juicer for further juicing.  I figure it's not worth breaking the machine for a little extra juice from the pulp.
Since I stopped juicing vegetable pulp, my machine has been happily juicing away.  I'm also more careful about how much and size of vegetable junks I put into the machine.
The other thing the day of the sickening cracking noise made me realize was that, if I broke one of the parts, I wouldn't be able to juice until new parts arrived.  Never mind the cost if I broke the machine itself (beyond the exterior juicing parts)! 
That day I decided it would be a good idea to have a second set of parts....
Two plus months later, I finally ordered them!
I looked on www.amazon.com to see if I could find the parts for less than direct ordering from Omega but, I didn't find them.  I admit, I didn't look too far beyond that.  I decided to order directly through http://www.omegajuicers.com/
I ordered the following:
ItemSkuQtySubtotal
Drum Clear (8003/8004/8005/8006) PDRM821$24.00
Plunger (8003/8004/8005/8006) PPLUNG8351$6.00
Auger Black (8004/8006) PSCREW8461$60.00
Cleaning Brush Masticating Juicers PBRUSH82354$16.00
Drum Cap Black (8006) PDRUMCAP861$12.00
Juicing Screen (8003/8004/8005/8006) PSCRN835P1$26.00
Straining Sieve (8003/8004/8005/8006) PSIEVE82351$9.00
Juice Bowl (8004/8006) PBWLP846J1$8.00
Subtotal $161.00
Shipping & Handling $5.95
Grand Total (Excl.Tax) $166.95
Tax $9.66
Grand Total (Incl.Tax) $176.61
Omega 8006 parts - pulp bowl, juice bowl, straining sieve, plunger,
hopper, juicing screen, auger, drum cap, cleaning brush, drum
Obviously, the parts add up.  You don't necessarily need to get all of the above for a second set.  In my humble opinion, the most important items for a second set are the drum, auger, juicing screen, and maybe an extra straining sieve.  I also ordered a handful of the cleaning brushes since these do start to fizzle out when washing the juicer parts every day.
Perhaps ordering a second set may seem like a silly financial thing to do... after all, any part can be ordered for overnight delivery.
However, the other fantastic thing about having a second set of juicer parts is.....
I discovered, at least for me, that I don't have time to wash the juicer parts in the morning when I'm running around trying to get out the door; and then, when I get home, I don't feel like washing them before making a second round of juice for the afternoon.  This means that I normally don't end up doing the second round of juice, which is recommended by Hippocrates HI. 
I'm hoping that having a clean second set of juicing parts ready to go will help me follow through with afternoon juicing!!!!
In the scheme of things, the above cost is miniscule compared to doctor's bills.