I decided to get a head start on Dinner today since both kids (Bean and MiniMonster) were down for a snooze, something made possible by us having tortilla chips and all the ingredients for my husbands fantastic, beanless Chili.
For some of you this may be heresy, but I have to admit I've never been a big 'bean' person, and never even really big on Chili, though I like spicy food, so being introduced to Tilmani's chili for the first time when we were still dating was virtually a religious experience for me. It was Chili, WITH BACON IN IT. It was chili full of meat and smokey goodness, tomato sauce and a touch of salt from the chips, and just a little heat. Enough that I could enjoy it, not so much that Tilmani, who's not so big on Spicy food, couldn't.
Since I've got a batch simmering in the Crock Pot now, to continue cooking until we're all ready to dive in (or until my willpower caves and I go after it early), I thought I'd share it with you, my patient handful of readers, that you may experience this godly stuff for yourselves.
What you Need to cook this amazing stuff is the following:
1 lb or so of Ground Beef, 90% lean ((A little more or a little less is just fine, depending on your preference, but you don't want to get too fatty a meat for this.))
1 small can of diced Chili's.
1/2 jar of -REAL- bacon bits. Screw the artificial stuff. ((You can use and crumble regular bacon, but this works just fine for me and I'm a bacon nut. .... actually I cheated and put in the WHOLE bottle of bacon bits. He doesn't need to know if he doesn't notice.))
1 6oz can of tomato paste
1 29oz can of tomato sauce
1 onion (we use sweet), chopped
and 1 pack of McCormic's Chilli seasonings: OR mix Black Pepper, Red Pepper, Garlic and a Dash of Mustard Powder. ((this is my twist on the original seasonings.))
and Tortilla Chips if you like Chili with Chips. Use your favorite brand.
Put everything except the seasonings and ground beef into your crock pot and set it to start heating up. It can start to simmer together while you take the ground beef, put it in a pan, season it with the above seasonings, and brown it carefully. When it's nice and brown and chopped up into smaller bits to your liking, drain off the fat carefully and put the meat into the crock pot. Set it to Low (or Warm, if your crock pot runs hot.) and let it simmer with the lid on for as long as you'd like. Technically since everything's ready you could eat it as soon as it's hot, but Chili's one of those meals that's really great when it has time to sit and converse with itself, so why not let it do so?
Have a blast and try not to think too much about what it might be doing to your arteries. ((Hey, the bacon bits have lower fat than pan cooked bacon, you can always comfort yourself with that. And more Chili.))
Serve
