Snow Day Chili

Today was a snow day! The husband and I both stayed home and enjoyed a bonus day at home, we cleaned, played games, relaxed, and I made chili! I love stews and chilis on snow days, they warm the soul. I've also been on a spicy food kick. 

Here are a few pictures of our snow day: 

Snow Day Chili - in one dis

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Ingredients:

1lb ground beef

2 cans diced tomato

1 small can tomato paste + 1/2 that same can of water

2 cans kidney beans (or 1 can kidney, 1 can

 pinto, your call, I just hate pinto beans)

1 tsp trader joe's chili sauce

1 tsp crushed red pepper

1 tbsp chili powder

Black pepper to taste

Garlic, cumin, corriander to taste

Directions:

1. Brown the ground beef in the same pot you will cook the chili in, and I highly recommend a dutch oven, specifically the enamel covered one from Calphalon. The heavy cast iron allows for very even heating over long periods of time. Plus, since it is enamel coated, you can clean it with soap unlike regular cast iron.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients, if its too think, use some of the juice from the kidney beans to thin it out. 
3. Simmer for as long as you can, at least an hour. 
4. Serve with toppings of your choice, like cheese, sour cream, chives, chopped onion... 

Baked Chicken with Garlic and Shallots and Random Chili

I appologize for my absence, I was kinda... GETTING MARRIED! 

See:

Ok, so now that I'm married and back from an amazing 2 week honeymoon, I am dying to cook. Last night I made "Hey look, kidney beans" Chili. No pics unfortunately, the camera was still packed (and tired). But here's the basic idea:

Random Chili

Ingredients: 

• 1lb ground beef
• 1 16oz can petite diced tomato
• 1 8oz can tomato sauce
• Appx. 6oz beer
• 2 cans kidney beans
• 1 tbsp dried minced onion
• Chili powder to taste - I used about 3 tbsp
• Red pepper to taste - I used about 2 tsp
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• Black pepper to taste
• Cooking spray

Directions:

1. Spray dutch oven with cooking spray, brown ground beef with 1/3 of each of the spices (peppers) and all of the garlic and onion. 
2. Once browned, add the diced tomatos and tomato paste, along with the beer.  Drain and add kidney beans.
3. Add the rest of the spices. Heat mixture until heated through, then drop heat to low and simmer for at least 1 hour.
4. Serve over rice with sour cream and cheese (if desired)

Ok, and now for tonights dish. We got shallots today at the grocery store, they looked so good and they inspired my chicken dish. I also wanted some Thanksgiving-y food since I missed the holiday due to my honeymoon.

Baked Chicken with Garlic and Shallots

Ingredients: 

• 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 6 shallots, remove outer skins and cut in half
• 3 tbsp butter
• 2 tsp thyme
• 2 tsp rosemary
• Coarse salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp minced garlic (or 8 pealed garlic cloves, I was just kinda lazy)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425, and while oven is preheating, put the butter into the caserole dish you'll use to bake the chicken in the oven, remove when the butter is melted.
2. In the caserole dish with the melted butter, add the thyme, rosemary, garlic, shallots, salt and pepper, and make sure all onions are coated in the butter. 
3. Dredge the chicken through the buttery spice mixture then line the chicken breasts in the caserole dish. 
4. Bake for 50-60 min or until chicken is baked completely.  Serve and YUMM!

Side suggestions:

- Mashed potatos

- Stuffing 

- Scalloped corn caserole