Food Friday

I'm in a food rut lately. I'm not a huge eater at the best of times, and I'm a really picky eater. Lately, though, I've had a really hard time thinking of ANYTHING that sounds good to eat. I'm bored with my usual rotation, but not feeling adventurous enough to try new recipes. Plus, Chris is traveling almost nonstop for work for the next couple of months and it's pretty hard to get motivated to cook proper meals just for me. The kids are both in pretty limited eating phases (which I totally get, but some days I would rather stick my head in the oven than microwave one. more. chicken. nugget) so it's really a matter of cooking just for me.

I haven't figured out the cure for this yet, but I have decided to start doing some sort of food post on Fridays. Maybe just thinking about food will help me get past this funk.

Somewhat ironically, I am going to post my recipe for chili which, containing lots of meat and spiciness, I don't actually eat. It's one of my favorite things to make though, and it's the time of year when people are looking for new chili recipes to make for football-filled Sunday evenings.

Chili for Carnivores, by a Vegetarian


I started making chili for Chris not long after we started living together (properly) in 2002. I can't remember why, but I decided that I wanted to make a dish that would wow my father-in-law (who, as I mentioned before, didn't understand my decision not to eat meat AT ALL). Anyway, this recipe has sort of evolved over time. My favorite time to make it is Sunday afternoons, and Chris will often use it as the sauce for our traditional Sunday night homemade pizza (I can't share that recipe - we all need a few secrets).

A little side story about using chili on a pizza: Last year, on the Friday after Thanksgiving, my friend Sharda and her husband came over for homemade pizza. I made one using chili as the sauce and Chris offered a slice to Sharda, who was about 39 weeks pregnant. He warned her about the spice level in the chili, recalling the heartburn I suffered even smelling spice during my pregnancies. We all had a good laugh about her water breaking and she helped herself to a slice. Fast forward to her drive home and - you guessed it - her water broke!! The pizza was thenceforth known as the Water Breaker. Make at your own risk.

Ingredients
2 large cans crushed tomatoes (28 oz each I think)
2-3 medium onions
1 lb lean ground turkey
1/2 lb leanest ground beef you can find
Fresh or pickled chilis of your choice, finely chopped (I use two pickled habaneros)
2 cans chili beans, with sauce
2 -3 cans of other beans of your choice, drained and rinsed (cuts down on sodium)
1 T sugar
1 T oregano
1 tsp beef boullion (or 1 cube)
Cayenne pepper to taste (for a seriously spicy chili I use about 1 T)
2 T chili powder
1 12 oz can/bottle of beer

Directions
Pour tomatoes into a large stock pot and turn on to simmer. Add sugar, oregano, boullion, chili powder and cayenne. In a large frying pan, saute onions until soft. Add to pot. Brown the turkey and beef one at a time, adding the chopped chilies to one of them. Add to pot. Add beans and beer. Stir together and cook over a low heat for 2-3 hours (the longer the better). Let cool completely and then package into freezer Ziplocs. This recipe usually makes a good 8 or so large portions.