Chili Recipe, with Photos!

Okay, so I have a chili recipe that I absolutely love and wanted to share. So, I took pictures of it as I was cooking and thought I'd share them. Here goes:

Recipe:

1 1/2 pounds ground beef or turkey

1 small onion (I add a green pepper and some celery)

3 cups water

12 oz. can tomato paste

12 oz. can tomato sauce (I also add a can of petite diced tomatoes)

2- 29 oz. (large) cans kidney beans (I add an extra small can of pinto beans)

4 tbsp. chili powder, this makes a nicely spiced dish. If you REALLY don't like spice, decrease it slightly, but even my kids are okay with it. You can add more chili powder to it (which I like) but it is a lot easier to add spice if you want it and nearly impossible to get it out.

2 tsp. sugar, don't leave it out!

1 tsp. oregano

2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. pepper

So that is the actual recipe, but as you will see in the pictures, I deviate quite a bit. That is actually one of my favorite parts about it- there are so many ways to change it up if you need/want to.

Step 1:

Chop (dice) onion. I also dice a green pepper and 3 celery stalks, but if you don't have them on hand, no biggie. You might want to experiment with other veggie choices, but these are my normal stand-bys.

Step 2:

Add a tablespoon of coconut (or olive oil or butter) to a large skillet. If I am only using the onion and no other veggies, then I don't take this extra step, I just toss the onions and ground beef in together; it's faster and you get about the same results. It doesn't work as well when you have this many vegetables though. Since I don't always let it simmer all day, it is good to make sure your veggies are already tender.

Step 3:

Saute vegetables until tender.

Step 4:

Add the ground beef. This recipe is really good with fresh ground turkey and if you are a little short in the quantity, it doesn't matter; it's all a matter of personal preference. I have even used a 50-50 mix of turkey and beef before. You couldn't really tell. I imagine that this would work equally well with any ground meat.

Step 5:

Add all the other ingredients to the crockpot, or if you don't use one, a large soup/stock pan. Since I am using canned beans, this is really a quick meal, because you only need to cook it long enough to allow everything to warm up and mesh together (about 30 minutes) or you can let it simmer on low all day long. If you choose to use dry beans, it would probably be best to soak and completely cook them before using t his recipe since I hear tomato products inhibit the bean's ability to rehydrate and cook properly. I like kidney beans, but I am sure this would work well with any other bean. Maybe a pinto/black bean combo would be good. I also normally make this a "bean-heavy" dish, meaning that I double up on the amount of beans I am supposed to have. It stretches this meal even further.

Step 6:

Add drained ground beef to the crockpot and stir to combine everything. You can see the plastic liner I have on my crockpot. I don't always use them, but when they work, they work well. I am not sure how I feel about cooking my food in plastic though...this was my last one and I won't be purchasing them again.

Step 7:

Cook as long as you want. I prepared this at night, after dinner and let it cook on low for a couple of hours. I am going to store it in the fridge tonight and let it reheat in the crock for several hours from lunch until dinner. I take the chance to cook whenever I get it. I easily could have done all this at lunch tomorrow for dinner that same night, but this chili really is better the second day. About 10 minutes before you serve it, mix in the can of tomatoes, I use petite diced.

Step 8:
Serve! We like to eat this with whole wheat saltine crackers. I dip them in, my husband crackes them up and mixes them in. (Which probably decreases the spice a little for him...ketchup is spicy for him...:) ) We also top it with some cheese. This would be a good baked potato filling too. Next time, I am going to try it with pintos and black beans and make a "frito pie" out of it...yummy! This recipe fills my large oval crockpot (I think it's 5 quarts?) so we usually eat it once and then I save a small amount for leftovers and freeze the rest in individual servings. It is really easy to reheat and doesn't lose any flavor!