The Accidental Cook

Why did the Invisible Man flunk out of school? Because the teacher kept marking him absent! This was the best joke that I heard this year….and honestly, it wasn’t that great. I heard all of the “oldies but goodies” but there still wasn’t anything that made me laugh uncontrollably. Well, there was that 2-year-old that said, “whole bunch” and held up his pumpkin after I gave him 2 pieces of candy. Apparently he wanted more. It was cute, and it worked, but his parents were mortified. Hey, at least he knows how to ask for what he wants.

What’s Halloween without chili? It’s like Thanksgiving without turkey, Christmas without snow, St. Patrick’s day without beer, Mardi Gras without….um, well, I’ll skip that one. Each year I make chili for Halloween. I take that back, the hubby usually makes beef chili and I make my chicken chili. This year we decided to find a recipe for chili and make a big pot of only 1 kind of chili. I searched through Allrecipes and came across one of their highest rated recipes. Of course I had to adapt it to make it my own, including making it a slow cooker recipe. If I can put something in the crockpot to cook all day, I will do it!

The hardest part of this recipe is chopping up all of the fresh veggies. You could probably put it all in a food processor or buy pre-chopped to save time. Either way, this recipe is pretty simple and very forgiving. If you don’t have the beans that the recipe calls for, use what you do have…within reason. I’m pretty sure that you wouldn’t want to use baked beans or garbanzo beans, but hopefully you already knew that.

I adapted my version to be gluten free by using this bouillon. But you can use regular bouillon if you don’t have an issue with gluten.

This recipe makes a TON of chili, so be prepared to feed a crowd or have tons of leftovers. I guess I need to start researching recipes that will help me use up my leftover chili. We’ve already done chili dogs, so maybe some chili mac??? Anyone want to come over for some chili?!

This recipe has been shared at:
A Southern Fairytale
11th Heaven’s Homemaking Haven


Cheri’s Slow Cooker Chili
Adapted from: Allrecipes.com
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
2 pounds ground beef
1 1/2 pounds bulk Italian sausage
3/4 cup water
4 cubes beef bouillon
1/4 cup chili powder
2 (15 ounce) cans chili beans, drained
2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, drained
2 (28 ounce) cans petite diced tomatoes with juice
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 large yellow onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 orange bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 (4 ounce) can diced green chiles
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons white sugar

Directions:
In large skillet, brown ground beef and sausage. Drain and add to large crockpot. Dissolve bouillon in water to form a concentrated broth and pour into crockpot. Add the reminder of the ingredients to the crockpot, stir to combine and cook on low for up to 8 hours. *I prepared this the night before and just stored in the fridge and put it in the crockpot the following morning.