Vegetarian Chili

A few months back, I took a trip to my friend's Pennsylvania vacation house. Since I love to cook, I usually do all the cooking during our stays. This time, my girlfriend's sister asked if she could make a dish for dinner, in which I obliged. She said that she was going to make vegetarian chili. My first thought was that this dish was not going to turn out good. I was totally wrong. I would have never guessed that this would be one of the best chili dishes I had ever eaten. I asked her for the recipe and have made this chili on numerous occasions. I hope you enjoy!





Vegetarian Chili
1 can of black beans (drained)
1 can of white beans (drained)
1 can of kidney beans (drained)
1 can of corn (drained)
1 can of bush's baked beans
2 cans of stewed tomatoes
1 large pepper or 2 small\medium peppers (red, orange or yellow are best)
1 onion
2 jalapenos
chili powder
red pepper flakes
garlic salt (or minced garlic)
cumin
cayenne pepper
frank red hot sauce

-In a large pot, fry chopped onion in oil
-Add all cans & stir (stewed tomatoes first, and baked beans last; you can drain 1 can of stewed tomatoes to make it less watery)
-Add peppers (if you want the pepper to be mushy add with onions, add after cans have been stewing a bit if you want them crispier)
-Add spices to taste
-Let stew about 30-50 minutes
-Let stand for 20 minutes to thicken

Add shredded cheddar when serving.

You can also add about 1 - 1.5 lb of ground beef or turkey.

Vocabulary
vacation - noun - a time when you take off from work and school to relax
stay - noun - a place you visit for a short a mount of time
dish - noun - a type of food
obliged - verb - to do (say yes) with kindness
vegetarian - noun - a person who does not eat meat
numerous - adjective - having done a lot
stew - verb - slowly boil
stand - verb - to take something that is cooking off of the heat
Cloze Sentences

My ________ was for two weeks when visiting Ireland.
Let the tomato sauce ________ on the open fire.
I _______ with his request for a day off.
My sister will not eat that steak, she is a _________.
What _________would you like me to bring over for Thanksgiving?
Take the tomato sauce off the open fire and let it __________ for 15 minutes.
I am taking off of work and going on a ___________.
I have played that video game __________ times.

Grammar Point
Write 3 sentences with exclamation points. Explain why you used them.

Cool Breezes Ahead

It is that time of the year when Mother Nature decides to bring on the cooler weather. If you are anything like me, you cherish this weather. There is nothing like opening the windows a slight amount in your house and allowing a cool breeze to enter. People will argue that warmer weather trumps cooler weather, but I disagree. Here are some of the reasons that I prefer cooler weather over warmer weather.
The cooler weather provides an array of things that I personally enjoy. Sunday is one of those things, because there is football on the television all day. I also love how the leaves on the trees change color. This is one of the most beautiful sights, and luckily being from New York, trees are all around us. The fall and winter also play host to my two favorite holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Another reason for my preference of cooler weather is my love for jackets and dressing in layers. I have a lot of jackets. Ones to wear in cool weather, others to wear in the coldest of weather. They all look great, and you can wear different styles for different occasions. I have this saying, "If I walk outside in my shorts and t-shirt and it is 110 degrees out, there is no way to make myself cooler, but if it's very cold out and I am not dressed appropriately, all I have to do to stay warm is put on another layer."
Now that you know what type of weather I prefer, I would like to hear about the type of weather that you enjoy. Hopefully it's not warm weather, I don't think my allergies can take it!

Grammar Point
Style or styles?
Do you know when to use a singular or plural noun?
Write three sentences using a singular noun and three sentences using a plural noun.

Vocabulary
decides - verb - to solve
cherish - verb - to feel love for
slight - adjective - a small amount
trumps - verb - to outdo
provides - verb - to make available
array - noun - a large grouping
styles - noun - a type of fashion
occasions - noun - a particular time
allergies - noun - a bad reaction of the body to certain things

Word Scramble

galelrsie - ___________
mpurts - ____________
higlst - _____________
yrara - _____________
cacoisnno - __________
ytssel - _____________
hsechri - ____________
vdiesopr - ___________
cseddei - ____________

Post 1

The following is an assignment that I created for my 4th grade advanced level ESL class to be used after reading book Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters:

During the course of our lives, we will all have to make choices. Some choices can be considered easy, such as what we want to eat for lunch. Some choices can be difficult to decide on, such as what type of new car we want to buy.

In the book Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, the King was faced with a tough choice; who would he choose as his wife? Ultimately, the King decided on Nyasha over her sister Manyara. This was a decision that the King was carefully deciding on over the course of the book.

After reading and discussing the book, you must decide if you were the King would you have chosen Manyara or Nyasha to be your wife and what are some of the factors that led you to your decision?

Vocabulary

carefully (adverb) – to do something with skill

considered (adjective) – to decide with care

difficult (adjective) – hard

faced (verb) – to deal with

decision (noun) – to choose between two or more things

factors (noun) – elements that help you towards a final result

Use the vocabulary words to complete the following sentences:

The test was not easy, it was __________.

There were many __________ that helped the detective solve the crime.

I ask my mother for help when I am __________ with a tough choice.

When I was hungry, I had to make a _________ between fried chicken or a piece of fruit.

I moved the box filled with glass very __________.

I __________ leaving the party because I was not having a good time.

Grammar Point

Write a short paragraph using three of the vocabulary words listed in my blog.