Of Crockpots and Chili

As the school year goes by, inevitably I get busy. Even the most busy person needs to eat, however, and with a bit of forethought it is entirely possible to eat well, even when swamped. For example, I am a huge fan (and owner of) the crockpot. Slow cookers mean tossing food in the pot in the morning and returning to a delicious stew when you drag yourself home in the evening. Crockpot meals can be as simple as tossing some random pieces of chicken in with rice, water and a few bouillon cubes and coming home to a delicious Chicken Congee. (Though normally when I do so, I also add some ginger, a generous dollop of soy sauce, and pepper, too!). And if you want something more complicated, it can involve multiple steps like slicing, dicing, or precooking your ingredients.

One of my favorite crockpot meals is a delicious homemade Chili. I modified my father's chili recipe somewhat for the crockpot: mostly this involves reducing the amount of liquid, since it doesn't cook off as well. Every fall, I make a point of making a HUGE batch of chili in the crockpot early in the season. This is because it is very tasty and freezes quite well. This brings us back to my starting point: late in the fall, I tend to get BUSY. This is the case currenty, in fact - I  am catching up with a lot of things, since I've been traveling around between Baltimore, Boston, New York and New Jersey for Thanksgiving, Weddings, and visits with friends and family. So it was the perfect week for me to dig through my freezer and emerge triumphant with a big container of frozen chili.

Here is the recipe:

Chili

2 lbs ground beef

2 large diced onions (DON’T skimp on the onion)

2 cans dark kidney beans (1 lb cans for all)

1 small can tomato sauce

1 chopped up tomato (optional)

1 can corn

Salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder to taste

(Hot sauce and salsa can be added as well, for extra flavor)

Brown the beef, drain, put into crock-pot. Sauté onions in olive oil. Add all ingredients. Leave crock-pot 4-5 hours on high, adding corn for the second half. (If you want you can add the corn at the beginning, but it will not be as firm.) If there is too much liquid, take the lid off for the last hour of cooking or so. If there is not enough liquid, add more tomato sauce.

Now, while chili IS delicious enough on its own, one still might not want to eat it plain for several days in a row. So, while my parents were still in town for Turkey Day, my father and I gussied up the chili just a bit to make Chili enchiladas. This is what we always call them, mind, we don't actually use any enchilada sauce or whatnot though. A slightly better descriptor might be Baked Chili Tacos.  This is a really easy way to make your chili a bit more interesting. Once you have the chili, all you really have to do is chop up some veggies and grate some cheese - and if you are REALLY feeling lazy it's pretty easy ot get lettuce and cheese pre-grated.

The recipe is straightforward: chop lettuce, tomato, onion, and any other toppings you might like. Grate a LOT of cheddar cheese. Layer them all into a taco shell (chili, lettuce, onion, tomato, cheese would be MY preferred order!), with perhaps a bit of hot sauce if you wish, and lay those out on a cookie sheet (with foil to make easy cleanup!). Top the whole thing with more lettuce, onion, tomato and cheese, and bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes until its nice and hot. Then, just enjoy!

So busy week or not, I had some very tasty enchiladas for dinner twice, and some straight up chili for lunch a couple other days, finishing it off. So I'll have to do a nice batch of something when I get a bit more time, to resupply my designated "don't feel like cooking" freezer space!

Delicious tacos!