When there's a chill in the air I'm always craving something warm, hearty, and in a bowl. Soups and stews generally take the place of salads and sandwiches. Herein lies the problem, though - Time. You can throw together a salad and sandwich in a few minutes, but your only quick soup and stew options are from a can, right? Wrong.

Soup From A Can Sucks

Where do I begin with the suckage that is soup from a can? How do they pack so much sodium and preservatives in canned soup yet it still tastes like dishwater? Flavorless and containing few quality ingredients, you're lucky to get the amount of veggies and meat inside the whole can that are floating in the picture on the label.

With Fall upon us and a nice chill in the air it's time to get ready for holidays. Everyone is pulling out their decorations from storage, putting grocery lists together, and preparing for gatherings of friends and family. It also happens to be squash season and the king of all squash is our friend, the pumpkin. You are most likely going to be inundated with pumpkins this time of year - Jack-o-lanterns, pumpkin bread, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, and pumpkin ice cream are just a few things you might be surrounded by.

The cool days of Fall are now upon us and that means one thing to me - chili season. I love chili in all of it's traditional formats. Meat, beans, tomatoes, and strong flavors of cumin and dried chiles are what I consider to be key for a delicious bowl of red. Lately however, I've been leaving out the meat to make the dish lighter and I really haven't missed it.