My Favorite Chili

I thought this would be an appropriate recipe to go with the weather we have had in North Carolina lately – it started last Friday night with heavy snow and low temperatures and continued today with freezing rain that fell on top of the still icy roads. I have been out of work for the past two days and haven’t even started my car since last Friday afternoon. Since I’m someone who really likes to get out of the house, you know that is some pretty bad weather.

Tomorrow I have to go back to work (although the students will still be out), and I pulled some of this chili out of the freezer to take with me for lunch. Usually when I make this chili, it will yield two large servings for Scott and I to enjoy for dinner and three smaller portioned lunches for me to take to work.

When it comes to chili, for a long time I did not have a consistent recipe. It was something that I would play around with and had a different result every time. A few months ago, however, I made the best batch to date and immediately wrote the recipe down. Since that day, it has been my go-to recipe.

My Favorite Chili

- 1 T. olive oil
- 1 lb. lean ground beef
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 T. chili powder
- 1 T. hot Mexican chili powder
- 1 t. black pepper
- 1 t. salt
- 1 12 oz. beer (I use Blue Moon.)
- 2 15 oz. cans chili beans (I use one mild, one medium.)
- 1 15 oz. can crushed tomatoes

Brown the beef, onion, and garlic in the olive oil over medium high heat and then drain:

Then add in the seasonings and stir until fragrant:

Pour in the beer, let it come to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the liquid is reduced by half:

Add in the beans and tomatoes and let simmer for at least 30 minutes so the flavors can combine:

Serve plain or with toppings (I like diced red onion and cheddar cheese).

Enjoy!

White Bean Burgers

This recipe was an experiment, one of those where you throw things in a bowl and hope that it all comes out. Fortunately, I think this recipe for bean burgers was fantastic!

According to my weekly meal plan, we were scheduled to have hamburgers on Wednesday night. When it came time to cook dinner, though, the idea of eating beef did not appeal to me at all. I decided to go ahead and make the burgers for Scott and find something else for myself. Unfortunately, I could not find any thing that could be prepared as quickly as the burgers and I wanted to eat dinner at the same time as Scott.

Finally, I dug around to the back of my cabinet and found a can of butter beans that I had planned to marinate and use in salads. I decided to try my hand at a bean burger. How hard could it be? I thought it should be pretty simple, as long as I stuck to the formula for regular burgers or meatloaf: protein, seasonings, and a binder. This is what I came up with:

1 can white beans, rinsed and drained
1 T. olive oil
3 T. panko breadcrumbs
seasoning salt
pepper
hot sauce
Worcestershire

I mashed the beans slightly with a potato masher, then threw in the rest of the ingredients and stirred it all together. Finally, I formed the mixture into two patties and cooked them in a skillet with cooking spray for approximately 3 minutes on each side, until browned. Then I topped them with cheddar cheese slices and placed them in the oven (which was on to bake fries) just long enough for the cheese to melt.

I think this was a nice combination of flavors – the oil kept the mixture moist, and the Worcestershire lended a slight meaty flavor. I tasted the mixture before forming the patties and ended up adding more hot sauce for a total of approximately 1 teaspoon for the whole mixture.

I am also proud to say that I convinced Scott, a.k.a. Hater of Beans, to try burger. His official review? “Not for me.” At least he tried!

If you are looking for an alternative to regular beef or turkey burgers, I suggest you give this recipe a try!

CEiMB: Mexican Tortilla Pizza

This week’s CEiMB recipe was Mexican Tortilla Pizzas, hosted by Joanne of Apple Crumbles (who has a beautiful new site, check it out!).

I wasn’t sure how this one would go over with Scott, who cringes when he hears the words Mexican or beans. However, he eats at Taco Bell like it’s his job. He’s weird.

After I read the recipe, though, I realized how similar the toppings are to the ones I use on my fish tacos. For the first time, I decided to modify the weekly CEiMB recipe completely in order to satisfy both myself and Scott. Instead of baking them as pizzas in the oven, I turned them into soft tacos and added some grilled tilapia for extra protein.

I made the bean dip with only two modifications (left out the cumin and mashed it with a potato masher instead of using the food processor). I grilled the tilapia with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and chopped the toppings. It was very easy and very good!

Bean dip:

The toppings (onion, tomato, red cabbage, and cilantro):

My favorite tortillas:

Even though I have tried them several times, I just do not like corn tortillas. I think they have a raw flavor or something – I can’t pinpoint it but I just don’t enjoy them. These flour tortillas are great, however, clocking in at only 80 calories with 2 grams of fiber each. Pair that with an ingredient list with nothing suspicious, and I think they can’t be beat.

Thanks to Joanne for another great CEiMB pick!