24 Day Challenge: Day 7

"It's been 1 week since we ate cheese, poured some beer in our mouth to start chugging!" Ok, yea, I was a Barenaked Ladies fan. Have your laugh. Are you done? Ok. One more? Alright. Can we move on now? Great. So Sundays in our house are our #choreday. Since we have only 3 hours each weeknight awake together, we really like make as much of that time together quality time. So Sunday is our get-ready-for-the-rest-of-the-week-by-doing-chores-meal prep-and-relaxing day.

I really took that last part a little too seriously this week, and skipped my run that was scheduled for the day. Hey, nobody's perfect. Trust me I gave myself enough grief over it I don't need to hear it from you too. Really though, I'm not going to beat myself up about it, I'll just make it up later. So along with chores and binge watching a little too much United States of Tara, I did make a delicious pot of chili big enough to feed our whole complex! I've never really been too impressed by the chili recipes I've tried, and to be honest, I wasn't sure I was going to like this one either, but man oh man was I wrong!

So, to tell you how to make this delicious pot of peppery goodness, we'll have to go back to Friday night. I knew that I was going to make Chili this Sunday, thanks to my handy dandy menu planner:

To prepare for my own personal chili-fest, I started on Friday night with the beans. You can use canned beans (1 can each) for this, however, if you're trying to watch your sodium intake then making them from dry is MUCH better for you, AND if you prefer your beans to have a little more texture to them then most definitely you'll need to make them from dry. I find canned beans to be really mushy and really bland. So, start with 1/2 lb. (1/2 a bag in most cases) each of dry black beans, kidney beans, and red (aka chili/adzuki) beans. Place them in a crockpot and cover them with a few inches of water. You're going to let these soak overnight to rehydrate them. If you really want your beans to retain their distinct colors, then soak the two red beans separate from the black. The black on black beans is water soluble, which means that when you soak them, a lot of the color is lost in the water, and in turn, can transfer to the other beans. I soaked them all together because hey, it's going into a pot of chili anyway so who cares, but I just thought I'd let you know.

The next morning, you can either dump the cooking water and replace it with fresh, or just go ahead and cook the beans in their bath water. The difference you ask? Well you see, when you rehydrate beans, the process also breaks down the gasses in the beans and releases those gasses into the bath water. If you prefer your beans to be a little less "musical" in your digestive system, then change the water before you cook them. If you enjoy a good concert in the key of F#, or are trying to save on your household's water consumption, then just go ahead and cook them. To cook the beans, put your crockpot on low for 4 hours, and walk away. Once the beans are cooked, drain the water and dump them into a container to wait for your chili prep.

Chili con Carne y Frijoles

Prep time: 15-20 mins
Cook time: 1-2 Hours
Total time: 2:30 Hours
Yield: 25.5 Cups = 17 Servings

Calories per serving: 242
Fat per serving: 5

Ingredients

• 320 g(s) Onions, chopped (1 large)
• 22 g(s) Garlic, minced (5 cloves)
• 275g(s) Peppers (I used 1 Anaheim, 1 Pasillo, 1 Serrano, & 2 Jalapeños, but you could use bell peppers to lower the spice level)
• 2 tbsp(s) Oil - Olive
• 1 lb(s) 93% Lean Ground Beef
• 0.25 cup(s) Chili Powder
• 2 tsp(s) Ground Cumin
• 2 tsp(s) Dried Oregano
• 1 tsp(s) Garlic Powder
• 2 tsp(s) Ground Coriander
• 533 g(s) Black Beans, cooked from 1/2 dry bag (or 1 can, drained & rinsed) 
• 533 g(s) Kidney Beans, cooked from 1/2 dry bag (or 1 can, drained & rinsed)
• 533 g(s) Adzuki Beans, cooked from 1/2 dry bag (or 1 can, drained & rinsed)
• 56 oz(s) Tomatoes - Crushed, canned (2 large cans) 
• 30 oz(s) Tomato products - Canned, sauce (2 regular cans)
• 32 oz(s) Water (+ more to thin)
• Salt (to taste- I used 2 tsp)
• Cilantro (optional)
• Avocado (optional)

Cooking Directions

1. Heat an 8 qt stock pot over medium heat for about 2 mins. Chop onions, garlic, & peppers. Add olive oil to the hot pan (this will prevent your veggies from sticking) and add the veggies. Cook until tender (about 5 mins)
2. Remove the veggies from the pan into a bowl or plate, and add the ground beef. Cook until almost done, and then add all the spices and 1/4 cup of water. Simmer the beef in the spices for about 2 mins.
3. Add the cooked veggies, beans, tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, 32 oz of water, & salt to the pot and stir to mix.
4. Cover & let simmer for 1-2 hours (the longer the better). Add water as needed to reach desired consistency.
5. Serve in 1.5 Cup portions w/ chopped cilantro & 1/4 an avocado.

So there is a lot of measuring and weighing that went into this recipe. You don't have to be so exact, but also know that if you follow this one, then you don't have to do all that work, because I already did it for you! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did both in taste, and in the amount of work it eliminates for you through out the week in preparing food! MMMM leftovers!