Chili and Brown Sugar Caramel Pound Cake.

When it comes to homemade chili I am all about semi home made. Really, what is chili, beans, tomatoes, spices and where I am concerned meat. Depends on what part of the country you come from if meat is part of your favorite chili recipe or not.

I made a HUGE pot of chili for the guys to eat while they roasted the hog and got everything ready for our big yearly Capricorn Party. I made the chili the afternoon before they were going to eat it because anything with cooked tomatoes or tomato sauce ALWAYS tastes better the next day. For some reason it adds a level of flavor fresh cooked goods don't have.

So, if you're looking for a great tasting, slightly spicey, fast chili recipe here it is ...

Chili Jere Style

3 - pounds of lean hamburger, cooked.

1 - pack McCormick Tex-Mex Chili Seasoning

1 - pack McCormick Original Chili Seasoning

2 - 15oz cans of Light Kidney Beans, with the liquid

2 - 15oz cans of Dark Kidney Beans, with the liquid

2 - 15oz cans of Black Bean, with the liquid

Stir it all together until completely mixed.

2 - 28oz cans of Ro-Tel Original Diced Tomatoes with Green Chili's

5 - 14oz cans of Hunts Diced Tomatoes with Green Peppers, Celery & Onions

Stir again and bring to a rolling boil while gently stirring.

Turn down heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Cool down and put in fridge until ready to serve (next day or two) reheat and serve.

Makes about 8 quarts. The recipe can be easily cut in half.

http://www.free-online-calculator-use.com/recipe-conversion-calculator.html

Serve with Whole wheat cracker & real butter or shredded Mild Cheddar Cheese, or homemade sweet coarse cornbread baked in a cast iron skillet.

I know I preach clean eating. Tomatoes from a can are still clean eating, the Hunts brand a I use are actually 100% Natural. Hamburger can be organic. The beans I use both ways. If I plan a meal with beans I use dried beans and plan other meals to use up the whole bag. For this recipe and my time frame it was just easier to use canned beans. By not rinsing them I know it adds salt, but I don't add anymore to the recipe. I use either the premade chili mix or I make my own, I have recipes for all kinds of mixes you can buy, but I figured most people would just buy a mix and I wanted it to taste the same so I used a mix this time.

Make up a batch one weekend and you can have a couple dinners through the week with it. Eat is as chili with crackers one night, mix it with your favorite cornbread recipe and bake it one night, and pour it over baked potatoes another night and add the shredded cheese to it.

The Caramel Cake recipe will be in the next post.

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My 2015 Dinner's So Far ...

New Year, Slow Start ... The cooking is coming! Lol

12/31 ... Quality Inn Resort - Clearwater, Florida - Nacho's; a hurried dinner/snack while starting to partake of New Year's Eve adult beverages after a 10 hour drive and the only food in our bellies was a rushed Cracker Barrel breakfast at 9 am somewhere in Georgia. Oh, Don't forget the Starbucks an exit later ... LOL

1/1 ... Crabby Bill's - Clearwater, Florida - Crab & Corn Chowder, Cold Boiled Shrimp, Sweet Potato Fries with BBQ Sauce; a great dinner with great friends. We also had the BEST Bloody Mary's at Jimmy's Iguana Bar for brunch. The Wisconsin Burger was damn good too! But, then, who doesn't LOVE cheese.

1/2 ... Salt Life Food Shack - St. Augustine, Florida - Backyard Beer Can Chicken, Island Style Ribs, Grilled Whole Corn, Tropical Fried Rice & Black Bean Orzo; We stumbled across this neat place while looking for another. So glad we came back and tried it for dinner. Dinner was good, but the ambiance was awesome. We will be back. We ate at IHOP for breakfast in Clearwater then lunched with my Dad and his lady friend in Arcadia before hitting the road for St. Augustine.

 

1/3 ... Little Caesars - Sumter, SC - Sausage Pizza & White Cheddar Popcorn; luckily we had a great day walking around the historical district of St. Augustine and we grabbed a bite at Ann O'Malley's. The Guiness was top notch. The pizza for dinner was about all we could handle after being stuck in traffic for a several hours!

1/4 ... Leftover Irish Stew from Boxing Day. Really tried to kick back and enjoy my last day of winter break. Unpacking and laundry was a must. Hubby roped me into some holiday decoration chores and I was nice and helped with a smile. I might not have cooked dinner, haven't been shopping, but I did make a rustic apple pie from scratch. Yummy. Have to get those apples used up in the crisper from the fall.

1/5 ... China Wing - Beef & Broccoli with Rice. First day back to work. Lots of stuff to finish up months end and year end. After a bad nights sleep and a very early morning I just wasn't feeling cooking. Then I babysat for a hour or so. Hubby came home late and had to leave again to finish some work. So we both decided Chinese sounded good!

I have been sitting here flipping through and sorting recipes. I will remember to throw my food bags in the car, in the morning, so I can shop after work. Something with shrimp sounds good. Something with just a few ingredients. Something healthy. Something FAST and EASY!

 

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New Year, New Ideas, New Beginnings

I have not really cooked a decent week day meal since August. I started a new job and had a huge learning curve thrown at me. But I am ready and excitied about starting 2015 off by getting back in our groove. We have commented to each other so much lately about how much better we both feel when we are eating healthy and clean. Time to jump back on that wagon.

I have acquired so many new cookbooks and I want to try so many new recipes ... I also renewed my membership to The Fresh 20 so I will be getting weekly recipes and shopping lists from them also. I have decided this year to document what we cook, what we really like and what we want again in a personal cookbook so I have some great go to recipes available. I am trying to figure out just how hard that will be to make it weekly/shopping friendly when all is said and done.

I also want to pursue finding or reworking recipes to make them Kosher. My son and his family are Jewish and my daughter-in-law is a very busy working Mom. I bought her the The Fresh 20 kosher subscription and she just loved it. But it is only 16 weeks and not the full year. They also don't have a new addition for 2015.

First things first. I have until January 5th before I head back to work. We are leaving to spend New Year's Eve and our Anniversary, January 1st, in Florida. We should be back the 3rd. I will start then. But still keep an open dialogue going on what we are consuming. I have lost several pounds and have several to go, so I am excitied about eating clean again and feeling the rewards from doing so.

Tonight, our leftover Lasagna from Christmas and a nice full flavored Zinfandel is "What's on the menu!"

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