Spill the Beans: What's for Dinner?

Posted on January 19, 2023

Last week we flipped the cleaning routine for the new year. This week is the first of the "Spill the Beans: What's for dinner?" eries.

My New Year’s resolution for 2023 is to do better at meal planning, including more multi-day meals, to reduce food waste. The City of Calgary estimates that half of the food waste thrown away could have been eaten. This is an estimated $2000.00/year per household loss. We are pretty good in my house at making sure leftovers are eaten for lunch or dinner the next day, but there are still too many days we are not prepared and end up eating out or eating something frozen and quick. I would also like to mix up the old staples and try more vegetarian meals. To start off the new year I am trying this Sweet Potato Black Bean Chili that checks the boxes for both multi-day meal planning (double or triple the recipe based on the size of your family’s appetite) and vegetarian.

Ingredients:

-2 medium sweet potatoes

-1 medium yellow onion

-2 cloves of garlic

-2 tbsp olive oil

-1 540ml can black beans

-1 798ml can diced tomatoes

-1 cup frozen corn

-2 tbsp chili powder

-1 tsp cumin

-Salt and pepper to taste

-optional: hot sauce of your liking

Directions:

Rinse and peel sweet potatoes, dice medium sized (about 1.5 cm square). Dice onion small (about 0.5 cm). Chop garlic.

Drain and rinse black beans. Set aside.

Pre-heat a large pot over medium heat then add 2 tbsp olive oil and sauté onions and garlic for 1-2 minutes. Add diced sweet potato and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes.

Add black beans, diced tomatoes, frozen corn, chili powder, cumin, and salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to simmer for 10-15 minutes or until sweet potatoes are fork tender.

Serve as is or with tortilla chips. For a little added kick, add optional hot sauce or chili garlic sauce.

Let us know what you think! If you have a favorite recipe for multi-day meals or leftover creations you’d like me to share with the world, send it to crystal@greencalgary.org. I’d love to learn how you keep food waste down in your home.