Hearty Vegetable Chili with Lime and Cilantro

I came up with this recipe years ago. We will try other fun chili recipes but we always come back to this one. To this day it is still a family favorite and by far the chili we make most often.

So I'm not really sure it's taken me all these years to get a decent picture of it. It's far from professional but I think the tips I learned from Tasty Food Photography has helped me to greatly improve it. That old picture was the only one I had before and it has bugged and bugged me that it looked like.....ummmm who knows what. But I kept forgetting to take a picture every time we had it. Which like I said has been often. ;)

If you want to see the original post you can go here. I also got an updated baked potato bar picture that isn't super but I know will look better than the one on that post. I can't decide if I just want to update that post with new pictures and add the new with the old or just get rid of it entirely.....I don't know that could cause broken links. I'll have to think on it. The old pictures are kind of fun to compare with. I actually get hungry when I see this picture.....the other one mostly made me nauseous.....maybe I will take it down. ;)

I don't really consider myself a food blogger because I refuse to make a dish just to get a picture of it and blog about it. I make food for my family to sit down and have a meal hopefully more nights than not. If it's a recipe I have been wanting to share I try really hard to remember to get hopefully a decent looking picture of it.

I consider myself a wife and mother who likes to make healthy food for her family and share it with others.....maybe you could call me a share my recipes wife/mom blogger.....mostly I hope you will just call me a friend.

Anyway enjoy this good old recipe with a much more appealing picture and be sure to share it with your friends!

Hearty Vegetable Chili With Lime and Cilantro

2 cans black beans (I usually use 3-4 cups cooked black beans, I like the more homemade flavor it gives it)
1 can pinto or garbanzo beans
1 can kidney beans
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic minced
1 large or 2 medium onions
1 orange bell pepper or color of choice
2 stalks celery w/ leaves, chopped
½ summer squash, chopped
1 small zucchini, chopped
2 cans diced tomatoes
1-2 cups frozen corn
1/4 cup Sucanat
2+ Tablespoons chili powder
½ -1 ½ Tablespoon sea salt (to taste)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pepper
Juice of ½ -1 whole lime (to taste)
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Be sure to drain the beans well you can use canned or cook your own dry. Use whatever variety of beans you want. In large pot saute garlic, onion, bell pepper, celery, squash, and zucchini in olive oil for a 3 or 4 minutes. Add the drained beans, diced tomatoes (DON'T DRAIN), and corn. Add rest of ingredients except cilantro, bring to a boil and boil off a bit of the liquid until it is a chili consistency. Remove from heat stir in the cilantro, can reserve some to sprinkle fresh on top. We had this chili on baked potatoes with sesame dip, some fresh sliced tomatoes. With fresh cilantro on top!