a bean counter's food blog
A few months back, I posted a recipe for Three Bean chili. It’s a straightforward, tasty recipe that can be cooked in a crockpot.
I just got wind that this recipe is featured in the January/February 2013 issue of Epicurean Charlotte Magazine. Cool beans, no?!
This post might be more appropriately titled “HOLY COW, I COOKED!”
After months of neglect, I dusted off the crockpot and kicked off the arrival of Fall, my favorite season of all, with a hearty chili recipe. What I like most about this chili, besides how tasty it is, is that it’s equally delicious with or without meat. Over the past six months or so, I’ve drastically reduced my meat consumption, a change that was (unintentionally) spurred by a sausage making class I attended. Since then, our food focus has shifted substantially, and meat now serves as more of a side dish than the main event.
I love to cook, but sometimes all I want is to dump a bunch of ingredients in a pot and come back an hour later to a piping hot bowl of flavorful comfort. I need my unproductive internet perusing and phantom shopping time, which means I can’t spend every ounce of my free time in the kitchen. That’s what I love about this chili. You simply brown the turkey then dump everything in the pot.
Perhaps, at first glance, the name Brown Dump Chili is unappealing to some. Given the two-step process behind the chili, I’m sure you wholeheartedly agree the name is appropriate (or, at the very least, foretelling).
Hope you guys got some quality football viewing in this Sunday! The Browns were VICTORIOUS as was my first ever attempt at making chili!
Any time I’m trying out a new dish, I like to find a fairly basic recipe to help guide me through the process. After some googling, I decided to go with this recipe for “easy chili” because it had a high rating and because any recipe that has “easy” in the title gets extra brownie points in my book. And I think we all know how I feel about brownies by now.
Even with this “easy” recipe in hand, there were a couple of obstacles I needed to overcome: I happen to LOATHE kidney beans and the BF happens to LOATHE red meat. Yet, we both claim to LOVE chili. ??? I’m not sure how that works exactly, but it reminds me of being a picky eater as a kid and refusing to try guacamole just because it was green. Kermit said it best. It ain’t easy being green.
I had an appointment to get my hair cut this evening FINALLY. Is it just me, or is there a thin line between being happy with your hair and your hair looking like the coat of a baby wildebeest? Same thing goes for cutting my nails–one day they are a fine, respectable length, and the next day they’re so long I feel like a neanderthal 😯
Hmmm.. hair and fingernails… not exactly the best segue to dinner, are they? (PS – no clue that’s how you spell “segue” til I googled it)
After the hair appointment I headed to the grocery store. A couple times a year, our local grocery store has a huge meat sale, and I kid you not, it is literally the talk of the town. And I don’t mean just for the week of the sale, it’s a highlight throughout the year. You can be at a cookout several months later, and the BBQ’er will proudly announce “got these here ribs at the meat sale (insert head nods here). Buy one, get one free. Can’t beat it. Just can’t beat it.”
Case in point, check out the text I got from my friend Tim this evening:
At the grocery store, I picked up a random assortment of veggies and all the meat I could carry 🙂
It was already 7:30 by the time I got home, and I have a ton of work to get done tonight so dinner was a hodgepodge, albeit a tasty hodgepodge.
I picked up something new at the grocery store:
Chili Garlic Sauce (found in the Asian food aisle). I also picked up a yam. I recalled seeing a recipe somewhere for chili yam fries so I figured I’d give that a shot tonight.
I scrubbed up the yam and chopped it into big bite size pieces, then tossed with:
Into the bowl:
I sprayed down a cookie sheet, tossed the yams on topped, and cooked in a 415 degree oven for 25 minutes, stirring once. The chili garlic sauce smelled SPICY. I had a momentary flashback to my brief encounter with chipotles in adobo…. My face hurts just thinking about that!
Meanwhile, I sprayed down another cookie sheet and threw 6 halved brussels sprouts on it. Then seasoned with S&P. These also roasted at 415 degrees, but only for 17 minutes.
While all that was going on, I peaked in the fridge and found that I still had a grilled chicken breast from last week and some classico fire roasted tomato sauce that I had defrosted. So, one thing lead to another, and here’s what I ended up with for dinner:
Two thumbs up on the chili yam fries bits:
Roasted brussel sprouts rock my world:
More brussel sprouts for good measure:
Stats on the hodgepodge*: 325 calories, 40g carbs, 5g fat, 29g protein, 9g fiber
*hodgepodge consisted of 4 ounces chicken breast, 1/4 cup classico fire roasted tomato & garlic marinara, 1/2 of the chili yams, 6 roasted brussel sprouts
