My best chili yet!

Ahh, I am getting so backed up on posts! I have several that I need to write and download pics for so that I can post them. Hopefully I can get them all up this week!

My last post was about all of the meals I'd planned to make after very carefully planning my grocery shopping list and what I'd be eating during the week. One of the best meals I made was a delicious batch of chili.

Prior to making the chili, I'd used about 1/3 of the 1-pound package of ground turkey to make burritos. I didn't want my chili to be less filling because I wasn't using the full pound of meat, so I was sure lots of "extras" were added. As it turned out, this was way better!

Here's what I used to make my chili:

• tomato paste
• petite diced tomatoes
• tomato sauce
• ~2/3 pound ground turkey
• onions
• garlic
• carrots
  
• frozen corn
• bell peppers
• dark red kidney beans
• black beans
• paprika and chili powder
• served with brown rice and topped with shredded cheddar cheese

I think the extra beans and the corn really made the chili this time. I also added the bell pepper and carrots to the crock pot without any prior cooking, so they still kept a little of their crunchiness (I love that!). There were so many really good flavors that blended together and it was so, so good. To give the meat a little extra flavor, I browned it in the same pan I sauteed the onions and garlic in. One of my favorite things about making chili is that it never turns out the same! That being said, for basic cooking instructions, see my earlier post about cooking chili on the stove instead of in a crock pot.

After the chili cooled, I packaged two small containers to put in the freezer (Score! I almost forgot they were there!) and put the rest in the fridge to be taken to work for lunches. All I'll have to do when I thaw the small containers is make brown rice to go with them.

About the rice: I tried a new trick a friend of mine shared about cooking rice, and it worked great! I measured one cup of brown rice and poured it into the pot and let it heat for about 5 minutes, stirring so it didn't burn. After the rice grains were toasted a bit, I added the 2 cups of water, boiled about 5 minutes, put the lid on, and let it cook on a low temperature. The rice was fluffy and cooked to perfection!