#cookease

Ingredients:

A slice (or however many you'd like to make) of any kind of bread (the thicker the better)

Enough cheddar cheese to cover the bread

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar

Spices: garlic (chopped cloves or powder is fine), basil, sage, and oregano

A baking pan

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350.

Pour some olive oil and balsamic vinegar onto the pan.

Soak the bread in it, face down, making sure to get a good amount of both on the bread.

Turn the bread face up and sprinkle the spices on the bread.

Layer on the cheese.

Put it in the oven until the cheese is melted and the bread is a little crispy (about five to ten minutes, depending on your oven).

This is a great dish for the winter and can be served plain or with bread, rice, or noodles (my personal favorite)!  This recipe is a combination of a few found in various places on the internet and my own personal tastes.

Ingredients: I'm going to list what I used, but really any vegetables you like will work!

1 large tomato (or canned tomato if you prefer)

2 bell peppers

A few carrots

Mushrooms

1 onion

Beans, any type, either canned or dried (I use black beans)

4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

3 tbsp of chili powder

A few sprinkles of oregano

A pinch of cayenne pepper

A pinch of salt

Olive oil

Flour (optional)

Method:

First, chop your vegetables and garlic.  It's important to get this all done before you start cooking, or you'll be scrambling to get it all done during and something might burn!  Also, if you're using beans that need to be cooked (dried) make sure you do that before you start the chili because they take a long time.

Heat some olive oil in a large pot.  When it is hot, add the garlic, onion, and chili powder.  Stir and cook for about five minutes or until the onion is a little browned.

Add the other things that generally need to be sauteed.  In this case it's the peppers and mushrooms. At this point also put in the things that will take longest to cook, in this case it's the carrots. I've also made this dish with acorn squash, which also needs a bit longer in the pot.  Stir and cook for about five minutes.   Note: Don't worry if at this point your chili doesn't seem very chili-like (i.e. it's dry) the tomato takes care of that. 

Add the oregano and cayenne pepper. Stir and cook for a few minutes.

Add the tomato and salt and stir and cook for about ten minutes. 

At this point your chili should be getting liquidy.  If it's too watery for your taste, slowly add flour until it reaches your desired thickness.

Add the beans and cook until they are warmed through.

Serve with cheese and whatever side you like!

I'm Savannah, one of the co-runners of this blog (along with my BFF, Mary!).  We've been planning on starting this since the end of the summer, but we're both college students and homework kinda took priority over blogging.  I actually should be writing an essay right now, but sometimes procrastination takes priority over homework! The recipes coming from me will all be vegetarian (since neither I or my boyfriend who I live with eat meat) and will be primarily dinners.  However, I'm a little bit sick right now, so I thought I'd just start off with something simple that I made this evening to help me feel better: Nutella hot chocolate!  I got this basic recipe from various places on the internet, but added more Nutella than most of the other recipes call for.

Ingredients (for one serving):

1 mug of milk

2 generous spoonfuls of Nutella

Process:

Pour the milk into a saucepan and turn your stove to medium/medium-high heat.

Spoon in the Nutella.

Stir or whisk the mixture until all the Nutella is dissolved and the liquid is as hot as you'd like it.

Pour back into mug (I'd recommend pouring it over the sink, since it's easy to spill) and add whipped cream or marshmallows if that's your thing.

This actually makes the best hot chocolate I've ever had, but it's very rich so beware of drinking too much.  It's also super nice for a sore throat!