Well hello... it's been what six months since I last posted. Phew with all the college visits, AP coursework and GRADUATION (Woot! Woot!) it sure has been a hectic few months. But as of a week and a half ago I am officially graduated from high school and now I can't wait until September when I'll be headed to Oakland University to study Spanish and Psychology! And did I also mention that I got a job? I'm working as a lifeguard at a local swim club and it is turning out to be a blast. As it turns out one of the perks to being a lifeguard is that when club members have a party at the swim club and they end up with a lot of extra food that they don't want, guess who ends up with it? The lifeguards. This is how I ended up taking home what was left of a veggie tray (also because none of the other lifeguards wanted it) and today I made some white bean hummus to dip the veggies in as part of my lunch.
The real star of the show, however, is the veggie chili that I made and served over mashed sweet potatoes. Back in February I attended a scholarship competition at Albion College, and the night
before the competition there was a special dinner for the competitors and their families, and they had a mashed potato bar. I wasn't able to eat the mashed potatoes (or sweet potatoes) because they had butter, but they had a vegetarian chili and sautéed vegetables, and that was what I had. After the competition, I ended up staying overnight with a student host and attending a preview event the next day, and one of the things that I was particularly impressed with about Albion was their food. They actually put out signs that state whether or not the food is made without any particular allergens, what exactly is in the food, and whether or not it is prepared with any allergens. I really hope that other colleges consider this model because of the increased amount of students with food allergies. I remember the two summers that I went to a debate camp at Michigan State and how difficult it was to find food that I could eat (most days I was living off the salad bar and Jell-O). I did notice that MSU started to phase in some labeling of dishes as gluten-free or containing dairy during the second time I was there, but I still believe that colleges need to do more to ensure that students' dietary needs are met.
With that said, I want to introduce my spinoff on the mashed potato bar at Albion. This afternoon I peeled and then boiled some sweet potatoes. I used a potato masher to mash them and thinned them out with some almond milk, and that's all I added to them. Later I did a Google search for vegetarian chili, and a recipe from Whole Foods popped up. I made this recipe with a few small changes. I didn't have an onion, so I used extra celery and a scallion. I didn't have a red bell pepper and only half of a green bell pepper so I used the green bell pepper and also used and orange and yellow bell pepper. I didn't have any chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (not to mention the most adobe sauces contain wheat) so I used a dash of chipotle powder that my mom got at Penzey's Spices. I also only had cumin seeds so I used a coffee grinder to grind the seeds myself. Other than that I followed the recipe to the letter. I put a scoop of mashed sweet potatoes in the bottom of my bowl and then topped it with the veggie chili.
