Chilli - Mild

I've never posted my recipe for chilli before because it one of those I'm actually a little embarrassed to admit that I use. Ideally, I would gather a variety of beans and soak them for a day or two before cooking them and then slow cooking them to tender perfection. However, I'm not that prepared! It takes most of my memory to start a chicken slow cooking in the morning if I want it for dinner that night. lol!

SO... this is one of those recipes where it's mostly add a can of this and a can of that, heh heh...

Also, keep in mind that we don't like to eat spicy things, so you can add more spices to taste :-)

To start, I usually take about 3 pounds of ground beef and brown it, adding a generous amount of salt, organic all seasons salt (kinda like Lowery's), and onions. Today, I was too impatient to chop up and add the onions, so I omitted them. Also, I had a little over a pound of beef and a pound of sausage on hand, so I used that instead. It added to the flavor, but was noticeably light on meat, lol.

To the browned meat mixture, I added 2 big - 28 oz - cans of organic crushed tomatoes, and then liberally seasoned it with salt (RealSalt), organic garlic powder, and organic onion powder.  Next came 2 cans of kidney beans, 2 cans of pinto beans, 2 cans of black beans, and 2 cans of Maple and Onion baked beans - all organic. The cans say that they prepared the beans, which usually means that they soaked them, so I consider this an acceptable compromise food :-) I added a little salt to each type of bean as I added it to the pot because they weren't made with salt.

Lastly, I added 1 (yes only one) 28 oz can of diced tomatoes. (I'm not a fan of tomatoes or I would have added more. Feel free to add as you like!) Then I sprinkled a bit more garlic and onion powder on top before mixing thoroughly.

I had my huge pot (6 quart? not sure) on lowish to medium heat while I was combining all of this, so at this point, it was warm enough to eat and already pretty tasty. The pot was also FULL!!! lol!

So, I dished up my boys who prefer their food warm rather than hot, then I dished me up a small sample to munch on while I waited for the rest of the chilli to simmer for a bit. Since I actually remembered to add seasoning as I added each can, it came out perfect. Usually, I forget to add seasoning until the end, and then I add maybe half of what I did today - though it looks like a LOT - so it ends up a bit on the bland side.

As with any chilli, it only gets better with age :-)

I remembered to take a picture after we'd eaten about half of what I'd made, lol!

Enjoy and have a happy day!