Vegetarian Chili / Vejeteryan Chili

This week I will expose my husband's super secret vegetarian chili recipe!
It is really awesome and it yields a lot (perfect for summer parties.. most perfect for cold snowy nights too..)!
This recipe takes longer than most of my recipes (about 40 - 60 minutes) but it is worth the effort and time.

Ingredients
1 large onion
1 large red bell pepper
1 large orange or yellow bell pepper
1 large green bell pepper
6 tbl spoons of butter (or olive oil for a healthier version)
1 (and a half) handful carrot sticks
1 tbl spoon chili sauce
1 teaspoon spicy brown mustard
3 cans of beans
5 cans of 15 oz. tomato sauce
1 can corn
1 tbl spoon tomato paste
1 bag (morning star) ground beef (beef-less beef of any kind could be used)
garlic powder
onion powder
smoked paprika (optional)
cayenne pepper (optional)
chili powder (can be used to replace the chili sauce) (optional)
salt

Directions:

Cut and saute the large onion with 3 tablespoons of butter in a skillet until they turn brown in medium heat.
Dice the red, orange (or yellow), and green peppers and saute them with the remaining 3 table spoons of butter in another skillet.
After 10 minutes you start your vegetables, add the tomato sauce and the tomato paste into a deep pot.  Add your carrot sticks, beans, beef-less beef, corn, chili sauce and mustard to the tomato sauce.
Combine the peppers and onions in one skillet and let them cook for another 10 minutes.

Add seasoning (we add a lot of garlic and onion powder a touch of cayenne pepper and salt) to the deep pot and allow them to cook for about 10 minutes.

Add the sauted veggies to the large pot and cook for another 10-15 minutes. Remember to stir your deep pot because you don't want your beans sticking to the bottom. 

I like to add more seasoning in the last 5 minutes. 

Serve it with sour cream, scoop tortilla chips, shredded Mexican cheese and your choice of salsa.

Afiyet olsun 

Super Easy Homemade Kale Chips / Kolay Evyapimi Kara Lahana Cipsleri

This is the super easy and ad-hoc way that I came up with for making kale chips at home.
I have read on various sites how people make their own chips at home and theirs look quite professional with attention to detail, mine is a more "busy-mom" way..
The recipe can be improved in the ways that I will list, but this simple, least-possible-effort way that I used also worked perfectly.
Ingredients:

• Bunch kale (I used a version called farmers market bunch, I assume it's for cooking, it's not baby kale, I thought the thicker the better for chips)
• Chile-lime seasoning from Trader Joe's (as desired)
• Olive oil (3 table spoons) ( I used olive+grape seed oil)
• Aluminum foil

Directions:

Wash the kale and cut it into smaller pieces with hand, almost in the shape and size of potato chips.
Try to dry the dry the pieces as much as you can ( I left them in the strainer for a few minutes and shake them well, but recommended way would be use a paper towel to pat them (almost) dry).
Transfer the kale pieces to a bowl and add the olive oil and seasoning.
Stir to make sure all pieces are oiled and seasoned.
Cover the bottom of your trays with aluminum foil.
Transfer the kale pieces separately on to the aluminum foil.
Turn on the oven in the broil-high setting.
Bake for 10-15 minutes until they look brownish on top.
Enjoy immediately, they are not as good when kept over night.

I didn't add any salt or herbs in addition to Trader Joe's seasoning. It turned out amazing!.
Afiyet Olsun! Enjoy!

PS:
As mentioned above this recipe can be improved. Here are some ways I thought would help better chips:
- dry your kale throughly using paper towel
- use cooking spray to oil your chips
- use the seasoning separately on each piece instead of putting the oil and seasoning in the bowl