Chili For A Cold Night

It's the Midwesterner in me, when it gets super cold outside, I think of making chili.  I've also been easing my kids into full-on chili since we have started camping a lot and bringing chili along to heat up on the fire is a lot easier than the "gourmet" camping meals that I've attempted this year.  But we'll get into that when camping season starts!

I also convert almost any chili, soup, or stew recipe into a slow cooker recipe because I just believe that smelling that wonderful dinner aroma when you walk in after school or work really gets you in the mood for eating a good dinner.  So tonight it was chili mac with a little shredded sharp cheddar and it was a success!  It helped that I had some blondies cooling on the counter for dessert--I'm not beyond a little bribery to get my kids to try things for the first time, but there wasn't any bribery involved tonight. 

The great thing about chili is that every family has a different recipe.  This is the one that works for us, but if we didn't have ground beef, ground turkey or chicken would work, and vegetarian is even better!  I made a recipe once that had peanuts substituted for meat, and after they cooked all day they really did have the texture and protein of a meat.  My daughter is allergic to corn and soy, but you could also add roasted corn, polenta, or corn meal to thicken it.

Down Home Chili

• 1 lb lean ground turkey (or lean ground beef, ground chicken or chicken breasts)
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 28 oz fire roasted diced tomatoes with green chilies (Rotel, or Trader Joe's)
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground red pepper (cayenne)
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tbsp lime juice

Brown meat with onions and garlic, drain, add to slow cooker.  Add the rest of the ingredient and mix.  Cook on low in the slow cooker for 6-8 hours, serve over your favorite pasta--elbow macaroni is always good--with grated sharp cheddar to top, and cilantro to garnish.