Comforting Chili

It's now officially fall, and with it comes cooler weather. With cooler weather comes warm homemade soups. I'm really the only one in the house who eats soup (though Lu may when she's a bit older) so I tend to freeze quite a bit of mine and munch on them all year long. However, the one "soup" my husband loves is my chili. I tried making a Cincinati chili once, and it was awful. I came across this recipe, adjusted it to our tastes, and this is our go-to chili from now on. I know Dylan likes a bit more of a kick to his, but honestly, I can't take that much more. So, I figure if he wants more, than he can add some jalapñeos or something. ;)

Ingredients

• 2 pounds lean ground beef or turkey
• 1 (29 oz) can tomato sauce
• 46 oz petite cut canned tomatoes not drained
• 1 (15 oz) can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (15 oz) can light red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/4 cup chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder

Directions

• Brown ground meat in a large pot. Season with the onion powder. Drain and place back into the pot.
  

• Into the pot, add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, kidney beans, cayenne pepper, sugar, oregano, ground black pepper, salt, cumin, and chili powder. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to low. Simmer for 1 1/2 hours.

My Take

As you can see in the pictures, I have several cans even though my ingredients just state one. Sometimes I can't find the right size of can, so I just get however many ounces I need, no matter how many cans it takes. Ha! I also tend to use 1 pound of ground beef and 1 pound of ground turkey. I usually use ground turkey in everything, though Dylan isn't a huge fan of it, so I compromise in this dish, and it comes out great since you cook them all together.

I'm sure you can cook this in the slow cooker, yet I've never done this before. I would cook it on low for 8-10 hours. That would be great for a dinner coming home from work during the cold weather days.