Chili

I have been making chili for years. I have always made my mom's version which consists of a pound of ground meat (hamburger or turkey-I've used lamb and buffalo before also), a medium can of Sun Vista chili beans, 2 small cans of kidney beans, 2 small cans of white beans and maybe another small can of pinto beans. I always mixed up the bean variation. It really doesn't matter, you can use whatever you'd like. Brown the meat and throw it in the slow cooker along with the beans and an envelope of chili seasoning. Cook on low for 8 hours and enjoy. This is a very simple and delicious version of chili. 

However...

As I have been trying to shy away from using canned food whenever possible (to avoid the toxic lining that leaches into your food), I have been making chili using dried beans. It is not the same as what we're used to but it is still really good! The other change in this "recipe" is that I no longer use the envelope packages. Instead I just whip up some homemade chili seasoning using spices in my cupboard---ah, much better than sodium and preservatives! My newer version of chili:

• 1/2 pound of ground meat-beef, turkey, lamb and buffalo are all great. Brown the meat the night before to save time.
• 2 cups (or more) of dried beans-Chili is usually pinto and kidney beans. On this night I used some soldier beans I had remaining in my cupboard (about 1/4 cup) as well as another 1/4 cup of white beans and just less than 1 cup each of pinto and kidney beans. 
• Chopped onion
• Chili seasoning-I don't have a recipe for this to share yet. So far I have just googled this and whipped up some variation of chili seasoning each time I've made it. 
• Veggie broth-Organic from TJs. I'm sure the chili would be fine with just water but I'm not brave enough to try it! I use one carton of broth and equal parts water. I pretty much just eyeball the amount of water I pour in. You want enough liquid for the beans to absorb but you don't want too much otherwise you're chili will be runny. 

Throw all of the above ingredients in your crockpot and cook on low for 8-10 hours. I think 8 hours is probably sufficient but bc I don't soak the beans ahead of time, I usually set my crockpot for 10 hours to make absolute certain that all the beans cook through.

Beans, ground beef and onion. Threw the spices and liquid in after this photo. Unfortunately I did not take any pics of the finished product. This dinner was on Thursday and on Thursdays we rush to get home from work/school, eat, clean up, get ready and get out the door to swim class in about 1 hour and 15 minutes. And on this day my husband's parents stopped by to say hello while they were in town for the day so I was distracted and forgot to take a picture of the chili we quickly ate! Whoops! Next time...