South of the Border

I had a Mexican day ... well except for the biscuits and gravy I ate for breakfast. For lunch, I had leftover Chocolate-Chipotle Chili that I prepared on Sunday afternoon. I got the recipe from the Urban Vegan's blog (click on the link for the recipe).



If you adore dark chocolate, you MUST prepare this recipe! It's to die for. The chocolate gives the smoky chili a depth of flavor that is unexplainable. It doesn't make the chili sweet as my friend Greg expected. When I told him I was making chili with chocolate, he was like, "Ew, that's disgusting." But then again, Greg doesn't like chocolate (because he is not human).

But Greg came over while I was cooking and sampled the chili. He was pleasantly surprised. Apparently, adding chocolate to chili is pretty common in Mexican cooking traditions.

For dinner, I made a quick Taco Salad before heading out to see my friend Sooj's new band, Tricky Pixie.



Here's what's in it (and the order it's layered in):

10-12 tortilla chips, crumbled
Handful of arugula
Half a can of seasoned black beans (cooked in chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, and onion powder and then cooled)
1/4 can corn
Handful of vegan cheese
one green onion, chopped
3-4 sliced black olives
2 Tbsp. salsa
2 Tbsp. Southwestern Ranch

To make the Southwestern Ranch, I blended two tablespoons of Organicville's Non-Dairy Ranch Dressing (the best stuff ever!) with 1 tsp. chili powder, 1/2 tsp. cumin, and 1 tsp. nutritional yeast. Yum!