Freaky Fresh Chunky Chili

That's right! Time to unveil it. 

Ingredients:
-2 Tomatoes, diced
-1/2 pound ground beef
-Big o' handful of noodles (I have mine in baggies, handfuls are easier)
-2 TB Durkees Texas Red Chili Spice (I used 2.5, but this was a little hot for me, you can choose)
-1 C water
-Optional 1/4  c corn (I pretty much add it in everything closely resembling soup)

This makes about 3 bowls of chili, perfect for the solo student that I am!  Anyway, put the beef in your chili pot and get it to browning.  Cut up the tomatoes and add them in after breaking apart the beef if you haven't already.  I tossed in a most minute amount of onion to cook in with this (probably not but several tablespoons of onion pieces I had frozen).

I added a little salt and pepper.  I am thinking I should have just stuck with salt.

Anyway let all that cook for a few minutes and add the seasoning.  Give it a good stir, let it go a minute or two, and add the water.  Let it come to a boil then add the noodles, reduce the heat a bit, and cover it.  Let it sit there and think about what it has done for 15-20 minutes.

Haha, the chili is GROUNDED.

OK so let's say you are like me and you get it too spicy, or you like really spicy chili but your kids don't.  What is the solution?  Ketchup.  I added a squirt to my bowl of it earlier today and the concentrated tomato flavor and sugars really helped tone down the heat level.  I like heat, don't get me wrong, but I had slightly overdone it with pepper and seasoning...

Just a tad.

Anyway kids love ketchup so it is absolutely a viable option to add to their bowls especially if you are having trouble with anyone a little more susceptible to the heat. In fact, I would really argue for adding in a little ketchup regardless and then just increasing the heat after if you need.  A little squirt can go a long way.

Chili is only chili, in my opinion, if there is cheese in it and a PB samich on the side.  Homemade crackers (yesterday's blog) were a seriously amazing added bonus.  I highly recommend that recipe.

So, if you are wondering why I didn't have anything in this like tomato juice, it is really simple.  I was going to buy some, but I noticed how much sodium is in them...and I was over it really quickly! The way I saw it, I was buying fresh tomatoes anyway and I would just make it work. Pretty much all of these ingredients are ones I am guaranteed to have in my fridge, so for me this just makes more sense.

No juice needs to invade this apartment....

Happy crafting!