Chili: The Family Recipe

This is a very special recipe for chili. It's actually the only chili I've ever made. My mom found this recipe years ago (not sure where) and has been making it ever since. I've been making it for quite a while as well. It's so good, and it's very healthy because of the huge quantity of vegetables that goes into it. Trust me, by the time it's done simmering, you'll know you're onto something good!

The recipe makes roughly 10 cups (a lot, in other words).

Chili (The Special Buys Soon-to-be-Ledbetter Family Recipe)

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef
cooking oil
2 onions, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can white corn, drained and rinsed
2 cans diced tomatoes, undrained (I vastly prefer the petite cut tomatoes.)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 cups chicken broth
salt & pepper to taste (I use 1 1/2 or 2 teaspoons salt, can't remember which, and no pepper.)

Prep

Brown the ground beef in a large pot. (I use my big 8-qt pot. You'll need something bigger than a 3-qt) Remove beef from pot; drain and set aside. Heat oil (1 or 2 tablespoons) in pot and add onions, pepper, carrots and celery; sautee until tender. Add beef and all remaining ingredients to the pot and simmer 30-45 minutes. If chili reduces too far, additional chicken broth may be added to achieve desired consistency.

THE END

If you're a busy working gal (or guy), you could make up a batch of this over the weekend, then take some for lunch to heat up throughout the week. Unless you're on a serious diet, you need to dress this up with some shredded cheese and saltine crackers. And if you're seriously NOT on a diet, shredded cheese and Fritos (the most calorie-dense food known to man). If I'm eating 1 cup of chili (230 calories), I use 1/4 cup of shredded cheddar (110 calories) and 6 crackers (70 calories). 410 calories. (I find it helpful to know how many calories I'm eating.)

By the time I got around to taking a picture of my chili, it was almost gone. This is the last little bit I packed up for Josh's lunch this morning.