Chili Day

I popped home for lunch today. I finally got rid of the laziness I'd been dealing with when it came to making lunches. I made up a big pot of chili. It's pretty filling and tasty too! No dead cow in there either. I now have lunch for the next few days as even just a small batch fills up the big pan. On one of the drives up to the cross races in New England a couple years ago, Gunnar, Betsy and myself cooked up a batch of this and by the time we got into New York, we all still had some. I take a box of Fantastic Foods vege chili mix and put it in the water after bringing it to a boil. Then I add in 1 can of chili beans, 1 can of black beans, chop up a big batch of vegetables. I usually use zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes, and peppers. I'm not much of an onion person so I leave those out. A quick zip of extra chili powder and it's ready. One thing I also started doing a couple years ago is adding a half pound of rotini noodles to it as well. It makes for an interesting mix. Make sure you use the big pan when cooking it. My base recipe will feed 4 people unless they are really hungry. If there are 6 people, toss in a bit more of the rotini noodles and an extra can of beans. My concoction might even make it onto the menu at one of the cafes here in Greensburg. I'm searching for a name for it, maybe Mexican pasta? Hmmmm, not sure about that but I'm open to suggestions.