Danielle’s Guest post: Recipe: Vegetarian Black Bean Chili

Thank you Danielle for guest posting this fabulous sounding recipe today!  My kids are huge bean lovers so this is perfect.  For those who prefer not to keep the dish vegetarian, I suspect that subbing ground beef or even turkey for the ground vegan round meat would work too!

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I will not defend our choices that we take as parents on what our kids eat. We have been vegetarian before I was pregnant. I remained vegetarian through out my two pregnancies as the thought of meat made me feel ill. We decided to raise our kids the same until they ask us for meat.

I get a lot of flack from my doctor, family and friends on why we raise our kids on being vegetarian. What the naysayers do not see is how healthy our kids because they are not ingesting the steroids and hormones that are contained in meat. We all enjoy our milk, cheese, eggs along with our vitamins.

If you ever thought of even going meatless one day a week, give my not-so-secret recipe a try. I bring it to parties as our meal and share. Meat eaters swear there is meat in it.

Vegetarian Black Bean Chili

2 15oz black beans drained and divided

Two 8 oz cans tomato sauce

2 cups vegan ground round meat

1-cup chunky salsa

1 tbsp chili seasoning mix

½ tsp ground cumin

¼-cup sour cream

½-cup shred cheese

Drain and mash one can of beans. Combine mashed beans, other can of beans, sauce and next five ingredients in large saucepan.

Stir well. Place over med heat and cook until well heated. (about ten minutes)

Top with sour cream and shred cheese. Enjoy!!

Four servings.

One heartfelt benefit from raising vegetarian kids is seeing my compassionate young daughters with animals. It solidifies our decision for what goes on their plates. One day they might ask for something different. I will comply because that is their choice. It is part of my job as their mom. I make the choices that I need to make and let them make theirs.

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Danielle Christopher is a stay-at-home mom of two daughters, ages one and three.  She blogs for The Momoir Project and writes book reviews for Women’s Post. Danielle’s work has also appeared in The Yummy Mummy Club and other mom sites.  She lives with her husband of seventeen years and her girls in Langley, B.C.  Follow her on Twitter @justdworld or her blog: www.justdworld.wordpress.com

Here is a link  to my recent work on The Momoir Project:

http://www.themomoirproject.com/?p=1213

My latest Yummy Mummy Club piece:

http://www.yummymummyclub.ca/when_breastfeeding_does_not_work_danielle_christopher