Black Bean Chili & Cornbread

I don't really remember eating cornbread before about a year ago. I really enjoy it with chili now. I've seen the light! Now, one day I'll buy a cast iron skillet and make it in a more traditional Southern manner. I was flipping through Appetite for Reduction last weekend when I was trying to plan a menu and write a grocery list. I saw a black bean chili with lots of vegetables, which was a great way to use up most of the dried black beans lurking in the pantry. I soaked 1 cup dry black beans two days ago and cooked them in my little slow cooker yesterday. That made it easy to make the recipe today, which called for canned beans. The recipe also called for agave nectar, but I left that in my mom's fridge in February. I used sugar instead. I decided to serve the chili with cornbread, so I went back to the table of contents to look for a cornbread recipe. The one in the cookbook uses corn kernels and green onions, which sounded like a good mix. This recipe called for agave or maple syrup, so I used maple syrup. For the non-dairy milk, I used the new Flax USA flax milk! This has lots of omega fats, which are good for you. I add Flax USA milled flax seed to my post-workout smoothies (bought in bulk at Costco! woot!), but I *had* to buy this new non-dairy milk at the store last weekend. It was something new! I think the milk has less omega fats per cup than the 2 Tbs serving of flax seeds that I add to my smoothies, but it could be a great option for people who need healthy fats in their diets. Overall, this was very good, but I think a pinch of chipotle chili powder would spice things up. I wanted a little kick, so I'll add a pinch of that to the leftovers. This made a lot of food, so I'll be eating this for three days total.