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