Dad's Chili

I've been eating this chili for-ev-er and I still love it a ton. It's quick and simple and feeds a crowd super easily. It also freezes like a boss so I love to make a big pot and once it's cooled down throw the leftovers in a heavy-duty gallon ziploc bag and freeze that baby for another time! 

Most of my recipe posts will go like this:
A) Recipe ingredients and steps with llllooootttts of blabbing and handholding and pictures. ooooooo lala!
B) Recipe ingredients and steps yet again but super quick so you can print it out and do it with minimal blabbing at you.


Dad's Chili:
serves 10
(you can totally halfsies this recipe. Note at the bottom)

Ingredients:
2 lbs ground beef or turkey (I used turkey tonight because it was cheaper!)
1/2 an onion - minced - any type will do (definition of basic terms in my first 101 post)
1  28oz can crushed tomato
2  16oz cans tomato sauce
3 cans red or white or a combo kidney beans (honestly any beans will do as you will see!)
1-2 tablespoons butter
1 Tablespoon at least onion powder
1 Tablespoon at least garlic powder
salt & pep
1 Tablespoon at least, Spike

If you need fancy - you can garnish with some of the following:
raw onion, crackers, shredded cheese, sour cream, hot sauce, etc.

Instructions:

1) Toss your chopped onions in a big pot that has been heated up about medium heat - a touch higher actually, see picture. Add about 1 tablespoon butter. Add some salt, about 1/2 teaspoon. atch out - I am breaking ALL THE RULES tonight because I didn't have the proper ingredients - but ya know what? It was still totally delish!

Above is what my medium flame looks like. Notice my knob is slightly more than half way. This is how I cook pretty much everything.

2) You are gonna cook these babies for about 3-5 minutes. If they seem like they are drying out and getting too crispy looking, throw some more butter in there. Never be afraid of adding more butter. Never ever. Everything is better with butter.....and bacon........ Anyway, you want them to brown but not burn.


3) Toss your meat in there and start breaking it up. My older daughter loves how these stringy pieces look :) they totally gross me out. LOL I like to use a bamboo flat spatula thing (not pictured), but really anything will do. Break this up a lot. This is the annoying step. You want the pieces small. Also, here's a pic of the wrapper in case this helps....

4) Add some spices to your meat. I like Spike, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Salt and Pepper. I use quite a bit. Probably about 2-3 teaspoons or more each. Don't be afraid of spices. They are your BFF for yummy food, especially meat. Because seriously, meat is pretty gross on it's own. As you are getting to the end and the meat looks cooked SMELL YOUR MEAT. Yes, put your sniffer down low and sniff really well. Does is smell yummy?? If not add more spices! Then taste test the HECK outta this meat. It must taste so, so, so yummy. If it doesn't start adding more spices until it does. This is where you learn what your favorite spices are.

5) After the meat is cooked through and tastes great - about 7ish minutes - you can EITHER dump all yours cans of goodies in there and add more spices. I start with Spike and Salt and go from there. OR you can dump the meat and all the cans in a crock pot and put on low for 4 hours and skip step #6 if you are crockin' it. As you can see I was completely out of kidney beans and my crushed tomatoes came from Amazon. RULE BREAKER! :)





6) Cook this baby until heated and you can eat now OR turn down the heat to low and let it simmer for 30-45 minutes to get things "marinate." 

Done. Beautiful!!! This is sans any fancy garnishes. I was in a super rush.

BTW one serving is about 300 calories.

This full recipes makes our family 2 dinner and one lunch. Here is our second dinner fready to freeze!!!

Halfsies Chili recipe:

(usually you would just cut it in half (duh) but this is different 

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef or turkey 
1/4 - 1/2 an onion - minced - any type will do
1 28 oz can crushed tomato
1 16 oz can tomato sauce
2 cans red or white or a combo kidney beans (honestly any beans will do as you will see!)
1-2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons at least onion powder
2 teaspoons at least garlic powder
salt & pep
2 teaspoons at least, Spike


Steps are the same.


QUICK Chili Recipe with minimal blabbing:
serves 10

Ingredients:
2 lbs ground beef or turkey (I used turkey tonight because it was cheaper!)
1/2 an onion - minced - any type will do (definition of basic terms in my first 101 post)
1  28oz can crushed tomato
2  16oz cans tomato sauce
3 cans red or white or a combo kidney beans (honestly any beans will do as you will see!)
1-2 tablespoons butter
1 Tablespoon at least onion powder
1 Tablespoon at least garlic powder
salt & pep
1 Tablespoon at least, Spike

Garnish ideas:
raw onion, crackers, shredded cheese, sour cream, hot sauce, etc.

Instructions:
1) Toss your chopped onions in a big pot that has been heated up about medium heat  with some butter.
2) Cook for about 3-5 minutes. adding butter if they get dry.
3) Toss your meat in and break up in small bits.
4) Add some spices to your meat. I like Spike, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Salt and Pepper. Taste test to get it right.
5) Once meat is cooked, dump in everything else and heat.
6) Eat now or turn down to low and wait 30ish minutes! xo

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy Dinners 101

Hello Party People!!! Welcome to Dinner Is Easy Peasy Lemon Squeasy! In this first post I thought I would introduce myself and explain a few terms, etc.

INTRO:

    To start - my name is Allie (HI!) and I am totally NOT a professional cook/chef or anything official. I just love to create in the kitchen with simple ingredients mostly purchased from Trader Joes. I live in CA with my husband and four children, two of which I homeschool, so that means we have a set weekly food budget and no extra time or patience for weird/expensive/obscure ingredients. Most of what I cook and will feature are simple recipes, so this blog is for lovers of simple.
     I apologize in advance because almost all of these photos will be taken with my iPhone....so nothing fancy! 
    We LOVE Trader Joes for their awesome prices and quality & unique foods. I also love knowing that anything with the Trader Joes private label is NON-GMO - this makes shopping Easy Peasy for us. I shop there about 97% of the time so this blog is for peeps that love that place. The rest of my supplies come from Amazon.com or Vitacost.com.

Basic Items NOT at TJs: 

(I'm not going to cover every basic item under the sun, just the ones I really, really, really thing are essential)

Spike: This is an all-purpose spice I buy from Vitacost. You need this. You need it now.

Onion Powder: I also purchase this from Vitacost. It's one of those darn spices TJs just doesn't carry (yet). I also purchase just about all spices from Vitacost actually. Why? I love how the matching Simply Organic bottles look on my self. Nerd alert!

Better Than Bouillion: This is awesome stuff! I buy 6 at a time, also from Vitacost. It's basically chicken broth that has been cooked down to form a thick paste. It's flavor is incredible. I use this allllll thhhhheeee timeeeee. And when my girlfriend turned me on to it - i never went back to regular stock/broth again. What's the difference between stock and broth anyway??

Salt: TJs has salt but this salt is better. Way better. And CHEAP!

Chef Knives: I don't really know the technical definition for that and I don't think I care? But here's a link to the ones I own that I LOVE. I used to cook with regular little crappy knives and my girlfriend turned me on to a chef knife and it really does make a difference. I've tried other kinds at everyone's house I go to (I'm weird) and I really love mine the best. They are from Ikea and are very economical. ($14.99) I also bought the sharpener and have had both for 4 years and they are still magnifico! Oh and their bread knife in this set is the bees knees for cutting tomatoes or persnickety things that shred and turn ugly with a regular knife....




Pans: I cook almost exclusively with a plain ol' set of stainless steel pots and pans. Get whatever ones are in your budget. I 've had them for 11 years and they are fabulous except when you really want non stick....like cooking eggs.

I bought this "green" version on Amazon after buying a super cheap version that fell apart ridiculously fast. Anyway these enamel pans are fab and healthy and seriously people....cooking an egg on stainless steel pans is just a friggin pain. So get this and become so so happy with me!

Crock Pot: Hot dang a crock pot is so friggin key for making your life easy peasy lemon squeezy. As one friend put it "it's like having a personal chef" and it really does feel that way. I suggest one with automatic turn off BIG TIME. This way you can prepare your meal, turn it on, and forget about it. It will turn itself off and "keep warm" until dinner. This is the one I bought from Amazon.

Q and A!

Q: Why did you start this blog?

A: My little sister made me. :) She loves my posts on Instagram about our easy Trader Joes dinners and wanted more details.

Q: Who is this blog for?? What kinds of people?

A: This is for anyone who fits the following criteria....

        1) Love Trader Joes a lotty lot.

        2) Hate to Cook

        3) Love to cook but have little time and/or money

        4) Have no clue how to cook, but wanna!

        5) Have ankle-biting minions....aka children under 5. This could really come under the  
             heading of #2 but seriously - it deserves it's own category. 2 of my 4 fit this. :)

Q: What does "chop" mean?

A: cut something in small pieces - think "bite-sized"

Q: What does "rough chop" mean?

A: Not a precise cut, a rough chop is a random cut that in the end, will not matter what it looks like after cooking. I do a whole looootta rough choppin'

Q: What does "mince" mean?

A: cut up in tiny pieces - you can do this with a knife or a chopper/food processer.

Q: What does "T" mean?
A: Tablespoon. It's a pain to constantly type this out. 

Q: What does "t" mean?
A: teaspoon (the smaller one)

Q: WHY IN THE HECK don't you use proper measurements for some of the spices?

A: Aw shucks - I used to hate when recipes did the whole "to taste" thing. I had no idea where to even start! I will try not to do this to you guys but something my sister taught me is that when it comes to meat - you go by smell. So I can't always tell you how much you will need. You have to actually smell your pot/pan and taste test. Every step should taste yummy in my opinion.