Mouth Watering Wednesday: No Bean Chili

Welcome to the new segment series of posts called "Mouth Watering Wednesday" ("Fresh Friday" and "Mmmm Monday" were also in the running!)  Basically I am planning on sharing a recipe that I have recently tried and liked or something that is a "staple" at the Casa de Thompson. The majority of these will be paleo (you know since we are into that and all) but they wont be "weird" or anything outlandish- just good food! So to kick us off, I am starting with the chili that I talked about in my Currently post from last week. Let the fun begin! 

Here's what you'll need: 

• 1 lb of ground beef (or whatever meat you prefer)
• 4-5 large tomatoes (diced/chunked)
• 1 green bell pepper (diced)
• 1 small yellow onion (diced)
• 4 cloves of garlic (diced)
• 1.5 tbs of chili powder
• 1 tsp of dried basil
• 1/2 tsp of garlic salt 
• 1/2 tsp of ground black pepper
• Large skillet
• Crock pot (or large stock pot)

Here's what you'll do: 

• In a large skillet combine all the veggies and let them cook over medium heat until the tomatoes are nice and squishy (about 10 minutes)

Smelling good!

• Move about 3/4 of the cooked veggie mixture to your crock/stock pot and put the temperature on Warm (if your crock pot doesn't have a Warm option you will want to cook this close to when you want to eat it.  I left mine in the crock pot all day after it was done cooking so that the flavors could really blend together.)

Spice up your life!

• Next add the ground beef and the spices to the remaining veggies in the skillet and cook until meat is completely cooked through. 

Ready to be added to the crock pot

• Once your meat is done cooking drain off any extra fat and add the meat to your crock/stock pot. I let mine sit in there on Warm for a few hours but you could eat it right away if you wanted to! 

Everett enjoyed some watermelon while I was cooking!

This recipe could be molded to fit any situation, here are some examples: 

• Rather than cooking the veggies first, throw them in the crock pot on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours (with the cooked meat) and let them cook in there all day
• If you don't have a crock pot and you don't want to dirty up a skillet you could brown the meat in a large stock pot first and then add the veggies 
• No bell pepper? Leave it out! This can be one of those things that you just throw in what you have! If you have zucchini in the fridge, throw that in too! 

So good!

So there you have it! If you make this, please come back and leave a comment- I'd love to know how it went!