Fall Fest Chili Cook-Off

This year, our church decided to have a chili cook-off at our Fall Fest.  I must admit, I enjoyed last year's competition more.  We baked pies and that yielded some delicious competition.  The issue with chili is that its traditionally meat based.  Now, for most everyone at our church, that is not a problem. The problem is only which meat to use; cow, chicken, deer, squirrel, etc....  Well, maybe not squirrel but, I wouldn't be surprised by those meat loving peeps.

Since myself and both boys are vegetarian, we decided to make a vegetarian chili.  The good thing, is that the chili cook-off entries are lined up with no indication of what's inside or who made it.   So you may have already guessed, we didn't win the prize.  I think we won the great veggie prize though.  No one had any idea that there was a tofu chili in the line-up and our chili was eaten!  Take that meat eaters!  You ate tofu & didn't even know!!!

In other news, my husband made a meat chili, he used dead cow.  He didn't win either.  He didn't even win the great veggie surprise award that we gave ourselves.  Take that double, times 3, meat eaters!

In case you're curious, the recipe we used is below.  We didn't have any chili powder in our spice cabinet so, I made my own.  Its really super easy.  Just google that.  I also didn't have onion powder so I left that out of the chili powder mix.

Scrumpdiliscious Tofu Chili
Ingredients:

1/2 yellow onion finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves of garlic,minced
1/2 jalapeño pepper
2 teaspoons cumin
enough olive oil to saute your onion, peppers and garlic
14 ounces, extra firm tofu, frozen and thawed
2 large cans of crushed tomatoes
4 tablespoons of chili powder (recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/237172/chili-powder/)
2 (14oz) cans of pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 (14oz) can of corn, drained
salt and pepper

In a large stockpot, saute onion, bell pepper, jalapeño pepper and garlic in the olive oil over medium-high heat until onions are starting to soften. Stir in cumin. Crumble the thawed tofu into the mixture and saute 5 minutes more.

Reduce heat to medium. Add all tomatoes, chili powder, pinto beans, corn; mix well. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Add salt and pepper, to taste.