Date night

Today, the weather is still gloomy and cold and wet. The Superbowl is tomorrow. Sounds like a perfect day for some chili. I have a date tonight, and the kids are spending the night at my folk's house. David and I are going to a retirement party for one of my friends. This means I don't have to cook. YAY!!! I love to give you recipes, and I am hoping that eventually a few recipes will start showing up in the comments.

Anyway, I love a big bowl of chili, and I usually like to cook it all day and really smell up the house with the warm savory smells of the chili cooking. I also am trying to make this blog about saving time, and making things easy for myself and anyone else who chooses to read this and try to prep and prepare healthy meals for their family. This recipe only takes 30 minutes to make. Another option would be to make a double batch the next time you make chili, then freeze half of it in a big bag, or in individual serving baggies. This recipe came from my Taste of Home Simple and Delicious Cookbook.

When I fix it I either use grass fed beef, or ground bison. You can also use ground turkey to cut down on fat. I feel like bison is pretty lean, and very high in protein. Also, we're not huge turkey fans in my family. You can further cut down on time by using a food processor or slap-chop to chop all the veggies.

Speedy Weeknight Chili
Prep/total time: 30 minutes Yields: 15 servings

1 1/2 pounds ground beef
2 small onions, chopped
1/2 C chopped green pepper
1 tsp minced garlic
2 cans (16 ounces each) kidney beans, rinsed and drained
2 cans (14.5 ounces each) stewed tomatoes
1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes
1 bottle (12 ounces) beer or nonalcoholic beer
1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
1/4 C chili powder
3/4 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

In a large saucepan or dutch oven, cook the beef, onions, green pepper and garlic over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Add remaining ingredients; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncover, for 10 minutes.