Recipe: Super Easy Vegetarian Chili Mac

I don't like to cook. It's just one of the things about me that's always been true. I don't like to have to keep my eye on multiple things at once, to decide when something is cooked "enough", to either hurry up and do something or wait around for something to happen. I like to bake because baking largely consists of dumping things and mixing them together, then putting them in an oven and letting them cook til they are done. All the work happens at the same time and all the waiting happens at the same time.

But sometimes I get a certain kind of food in my head and I really have to have it.  Sunday night, I remembered chili mac. We used to cook it at the summer camp I worked at in college--it's easy, tasty, fortifies you, and you can easily make as much or as little as you want, depending on who you're feeding. But...road block. I'm a vegetarian. Usually with chili mac, you're throwing some ground beef/turkey in there. And I couldn't find any super-easy vegetarian chili mac recipes online that didn't have like 12 ingredients and required a lot of chopping and sauteeing. Not my thing. So last night I improvised and came up with this:

Super Easy Vegetarian Chili Mac
(This recipe makes enough for 2-3 hungry Sarahs. You can easily adjust it as you see fit.)


You'll need:
1/4ish white onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 can vegetarian chili (I love Amy's Kitchen brand!)
1 can stewed tomatoes
1/2ish box elbow macaroni
olive oil
shredded cheese

Start the water for the pasta a-boilin'.

Heat a little olive oil in a big skillet over medium heat. (Like, a BIG skillet. One with sides. 'Cause everything's gonna go in the skillet after you cook the veggies.) Once the OO is heated, add the onions & garlic and cook til they're softened (like 7-8 minutes).

When the water is ready, add the pasta. You'll probably only need to cook it 7-8 minutes. Once it's done, drain it and put it in a big bowl and toss it with a little OO. (The big bowl is where you'll combine everything. And tossing the pasta with the OO will keep it from sticking together.)

When the veggies are cooked, add the chili and tomatoes to the big skillet. This is just to heat it all up and mix it together, so you can turn up the heat a bit so until the chili/tomato sauce starts to bubble, then you can take it off the heat.

Add the chili/tomato/veggie mixture to the big bowl with the pasta and combine it all together.

Serve it with lots of shredded cheese (or as much as you want).

That's it! Pretty easy, huh? Let me know if you try it and if you add other things like veggies or spices!