Chili!

I got creative today and made chili for the first time. I didn't have a recipe (I couldn't find one I liked) so I made my own. I thought I'd share it with you so that perhaps you can enjoy it.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of ground beef
• 2 cans of navy beans
• 2 cans of kidney beans (I used one light and one dark)
• 1 can of tomato sauce
• 1 can of stewed tomatoes
• 2 cans of diced tomatoes
• Oregano -- probably about 2 teaspoons
• Basil -- probably about 2 teaspoons
• Garlic powder (I didn't have any garlic on hand) -- probably about 2 cloves worth
• Cayenne pepper -- to taste

Brown the ground beef in a frying pan. Meantime, put all of the other ingredients in your slow cooker. Once the beef is browned, mix it into the slow cooker with the rest of your ingredients. Turn on the slow cooker and let it cook for about 8 hours on low.

If you had dried beans that you wanted to use, by all means do! I'm just lazy in my cooking methods sometimes and wanted to try chili out for the first time the easy way. As for the spices, I haven't measured how much I put in things for the last decade or more. The amounts I have listed above are rough estimates. You can always do it to taste. The spices I used were dried (if you're unfamiliar with fresh vs. dried, it does make a difference). As for the cooking, I turned it on high for about 2 hours (maybe a bit longer...I lost track of time) and then turned it to low for the final 5 hours. It turned out fantastically! I was really pleased with it (Jon said he'll eat it if I make it again, too!).

I'm certain that this is not a unique recipe but this is what I made up as I was concocting my newest dinner recipe. I hope you all enjoy it as much as we did tonight!