Chili Con Carne

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Happy Saturday, everyone, and happy Spring!  This Chili Con Carne recipe, from the Weight-Watching chapter of the GH cookbook, is super easy.  It is a one-pot meal and a good "base" recipe to expand your chili making dreams.  Make it as is, taste it, and see what you would like to add to it to customize it as your own.  Nice and mild, this chili is sure to please most anyone.

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(recipe and instructions are written as found in cookbook)

(270 calories per serving)

1 tablesp. salad oil
1 clove garlic, thinly minced
1 cup chopped onion
2 cups of sliced celery
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1 lb. beef round, ground
1 1-lb. can kidney beans, drained
2 1-lb. cans tomatoes
1/2 tesp. salt or hickory-smoked salt
Chili powder

Prepare the day before, if desired:  In a 4-qt. kettle, in salad oil, saute garlic, onion, celery, and green pepper until onion is light brown; add beef, then cook until it is brown.  Stir in kidney beans, tomatoes, salt, and 1 1/2 teasp. chili; simmer all, uncovered, at least 45 min. to blend flavors.  If prepared in advance, cool, then refrigerate until 20 min. before serving time.  To serve, heat slowly.  A few min. before serving, stir in enough chili powder to give desired "hotness".  Makes 7 servings.

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Notes:

• Since this is a weight-watching recipe the serving sizes are small.  This would feed 2-3 hungry people.
• This is a very quick and easy recipe.  Prep everything in advance and the hardest thing about this recipe is waiting the 45 minutes to taste it.
• If you do not want to use ground beef round please feel free to use ground chuck, turkey, chicken, soy, etc.
• Since the recipe called for 2 cans of tomatoes, and did not specify, I used 2 cans of whole tomatoes and chopped them up a bit with my hands before adding them.  If you like smaller pieces of tomatoes feel free to dice them up smaller.  I'm not 100% sure a cans of diced tomatoes would work because I'm not sure they would have enough liquid.  If you use cans of diced tomatoes just make sure throughout the cooking time that you have enough liquid in the pot.
• I put in an extra teaspoon of chili powder at the end and for my tastes I could have used more - and some cumin and black pepper.  Perhaps oregano.  Please make this recipe your own and add whatever spices you like!  
• I was afraid that not adding any extra liquid to this recipe would make it too dry, yet the cans of tomatoes broke down enough that it didn't need any extra liquid - for my tastes.  If you like a looser chili please feel free to add extra liquid (water, tomato juice, etc.)
• If you are picky about beans, either omit them all together or add the type of beans that you enjoy.
• I used olive oil as my salad oil.  Please use whatever oil you like.