Slow-Cookin' in January

I was so excited that we had comfort food as our dish for January.  I have been meaning to buy a crock-pot for quite some time and it was the perfect motivation!  The Sunday after New Year's I headed to the closest Bed, Bath, and Beyond with my coupons in hand and bought me one fine slow cooker.

Now, the big question, what to cook?  Originally I had talked to JJ about hosting dinner parties for every meal.  But I was so excited to use my new toy that I just found a recipe that day and got cookin.  I decided on A Slow-Cooker Vegetarian Chili with Sweet Potatoes from Real Simple magazine.  For those of you who don't know, Real Simple magazine offers the most amazing recipes.  (They can also be found on their website, realsimple.com)  The beauty of these recipes is that they are easy, have few ingredients, and taste amazing!

For my chili, I made a couple of adjustments.  I didn't have cocoa powder at home so I omitted it.  It tasted just fine without it.  The fire-roasted tomatoes I bought had garlic in them, so I also reduced the amount of cloves I used from 4 to 2. I loved the nice little kick that the sweet potatoes gave this meal.  I bought a bag of blue tortilla chips to scoop up remaining chili bits.  The result...sooo comforting!  Here are some pictures of my dish and the recipe below.

The spread

Slow Cookin'!

I heart comfort food!

Serves 4| Hands-On Time: 20m | Total Time: 8hr 20m

Ingredients

• 1 medium red onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 1 28-ounce can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
• 1 15.5-ounce can black beans, rinsed
• 1 15.5-ounce can kidney beans, rinsed
• 1 medium sweet potato (about 8 ounces), peeled and cut into 1⁄2-inch pieces
• sour cream, sliced scallions, sliced radishes, and tortilla chips, for serving

Directions

1. In a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker, combine the onion, bell pepper, garlic, chili powder, cumin, cocoa, cinnamon, 1 teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Add the tomatoes (and their liquid), beans, sweet potato, and 1 cup water.
2. Cover and cook until the sweet potatoes are tender and the chili has thickened, on low for 7 to 8 hours  or on high for 4 to 5 hours (this will shorten total recipe time).
3. Serve the chili with the sour cream, scallions, radishes, and tortilla chips.