Chili and XO Cornbread

Last night dinner was all about using up ingredients in the fridge which included:

2/3 of a yellow onion
refried black beans
whole plum tomatoes with juices
remainder of a jar of salsa

I decided that those four ingredients combined with a few other staples I had in the kitchen were the perfect ingredients to make a nice and hearty black bean chili.

 Towards the end I remembered that I had a bag of frozen corn the freezer and decided to add a few handfuls to add a little sweetness to the spicy chili (I was a little heavy handed on the chipotle chili powder). The end result was a nice big bowl of spicy rich black bean chili, so good!

To go with this tasty black bean chili I decided to try out the Gluten Free Corn Bread Mix that  Lindsey of XO Baking Co. sent me to try out.  The mix calls for milk, eggs and butter but I veganized it by using unsweetened almond milk, flax “eggs” and soy free Earth Balance.

I was a little nervous about how it was going to turn out with the flax “eggs” but the end result was something delicious.  The cornbread was slightly sweet, just how I like my corn bread and it was the perfect pairing to the spicy chili.  I ended up having two slices of cornbread dunked in my chili- the perfect pairing!