Lucky for us, this delicious chili provides all five elements of satisfaction in a low calorie, protein packed serving. It also tastes awesome and takes only 40-minutes to prepare enough for an entire week of blissful dining.

Behold, your winter cure:

Get Started (What You Will Need):

1 can tomato juice
2 cans of beans. (You can use any kind, but I like doing one can of white and one can of black. Yum!)
1 small onion diced
2 cans of diced tomatoes (or a big 15 oz can)
1 package of taco seasoning (I go with mild, but if you like your chili SPICY, you can buy whatever strikes your fancy.)
1 cup Boca Ground Crumbles (You can find this in the frozen foods section. It’s a low-calorie alternative to using real meat and is packed with soy and other healthy protein.)

Stop. Chili Time.

1. Chop the onion and dump it into a large pot.

2. Pour everything else into the pot.

3. Bring to a boil, cover and let simmer for 30 minutes.

4. Eat it up. All week long.

It’s so easy, it fills you up and you don’t have to cook again until next week. This stuff almost makes winter bearable. Almost.

Breakfast: Oatmeal. Again.

Lunch: My quick-fix meal, a ham and cheese sandwich, is out, so I just munch on grapes, dried fruit, and nuts. I feel like a Greek god, but not at all full.

Dinner: I pull out the big guns for dinner. I go to Whole Food’s and do a massive shopping by following a list I compiled using recipes found on allrecipes.com. The total comes out to $120. Turns out tofu is more expensive than I thought it would be. I get home and I do the unthinkable: I cook for myself. I mix and simmer and stir. I make a total mess, but it actually feels really good to slave over a hot stove for an hour.

The end result? A meaty (thank you, Boca!), spicy, filling vegan chili. I put some of the chili in a tortilla for a vegan burrito thing, and it’s delicious. I pour some in a bowl and eat it, and when I go to put it in a Tupperware container, I end up eating some of it right out of the pot, always a good sign!

Late night: My hunt for dessert in my fridge ends up with me accidentally taking a bite out of a non-vegan friendly Fudgesicle and then spitting it out. Then, my late-night cappuccino run turns into a late-night black coffee when the café I’m at doesn’t have soy milk.

The year I spent as a vegetarian in high school seems like a cakewalk after the last two days. Skipping over the meat dishes on a menu or avoiding those aisles in the supermarket is easy; having to study ingredient lists and constantly be thinking about what goes into the foods I eat every day is much, much harder.