OWTK Recipe Box - Kid Friendly Chili

As mentioned here on OWTK, Tuesday was Take Back Your Time Day. The other movement promoted in conjunction with that one day initiative was Reclaim Family Dinnertime and to celebrate this effort, OWTK sat down as a family (as we normally do) and enjoyed Mrs. OWTK's homemade Chili. She cannot be in the same room as anything spicy, so you can be assured that this Chili dish is kid-friendly (no four-alarm mouth fires here!), tasty and relatively easy to prepare. I may turn the OWTK Recipe Box into a regular feature, having already provided a super easy and incredibly yummy fish recipe while up in Maine in August. We have a fair amount of homemade, family meal recipes created from scratch that we rely on regularly, including numerous baby food and soup recipes.

For now, here is the OWTK Kid-Tastic Chili Recipe:

The hearty ingredients
3 lbs. Ground Meat (85% lean)
3 Yellow Onion (small/medium size)
2 Bell Peppers (any color, any size - your choice!)
4 Cloves of Garlic
2 - 16oz. cans of Diced and/or Chopped Tomatoes
1 or 2 16oz. cans of Kidney Beans (can be omitted if you and your family are not fans. feel free to also use an alternate type o' bean, white bean is also tasty in this dish)
Olive Oil

The herbs & spices
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
2 tsp Cumin
2 tsp Oregano
2 tsp Chili Powder
1 tsp Paprika
Salt and Pepper to Taste

Putting it all together
Prepare:
Rough Chop/Dice Onion, Bell Pepper and Garlic. You want all pieces to be around the same size, say 1/4 inch for the Onions and Peppers, so they cook evenly. Finely chop up the Garlic. Cook:
Over medium heat and in a large stock pot, pour in 2-3 tbsp of Olive Oil (enough to coat the bottom of the pot - but not to create a swimming pool for the onions and peppers, ya know?) and toss in the1st three ingredients. Cook until the onions are translucent. At this point, add the ground beef and cook until brown throughout, still over medium heat. Next, add the tomatoes, herbs and spices. With lid on, simmer on low/medium heat for 90 minutes, stirring occassionaly. Add the beans and continue to simmer for another 30 minutes. Voila, Chili!

Naturally, with the cooking time over 2 hours, this dish is best made on a non-work/non-school night and eaten as a leftover, where the flavors really come out to play!

To serve, simply heat in microwave and then shred some cheddar cheese over top. Eat with your favorite bakery item - crusty italian bread, corn bread, etc.

Enjoy!

Jeff
OWTK
http://www.owtk.com