Snow Day!

The rest of the country is heartily sick of snow, but here in Texas snow is so rare that we get very excited when it happens. The school district that I work for cancelled school, so I got an unexpected day off. We've played in the snow, I've done some much-needed laundry and cleaning, and I have chili in the crock pot. I know it was on the meal plan for tomorrow, but who can resist making chili when there's a whole 1/2" of (melting) snow on the ground?

My chili recipe has a secret ingredient: cocoa powder. Yes, I know, it seems like it wouldn't be good. Just trust me on this one and try it. You'll be happy you did.

Easy Crockpot Chili


1 lb lean ground beef, browned and drained
1 can beans (I used pintos today, but I actually prefer kidney beans in my chili)
2 cans Rotel or other brand of tomatoes and chilies
2 cans tomato sauce
1/2 bottle beer
1/2 cup water or broth
1 whole onion, diced
3-4 tbs minced garlic
Chili powder to taste (the more you use, the spicier it will be.. I like a lot, so I use between 4-6 tbs)
Cumin to taste
Paprika to taste
1-2 tbs sugar
1 heaping tbs unsweetened cocoa powder

In a skillet, brown your ground beef. Drain it and throw it into the crock pot. Sautee your onions and garlic with a bit of water (to keep it from burning) in the skillet. Add them to the crock pot once the onions are translucent. Add your Rotel, tomato sauce, beer, water, sugar and spices. Stir it up well and let it cook on low heat all day. If it looks too thin, take the lid off of the crock pot for a while to let some of the water evaporate. Be sure to taste it as it cooks throughout the day so that you can tweak the amount of spice you want it to have.  Serve with some shredded cheddar cheese and/or sour cream on top.

For the love of God, never buy canned chili again. Eat this instead!

You can always substitute fresh ingredients for canned if you have them on hand. I use canned beans because soaking them takes more time than I want to spend, but if you have the time fresh ones would probably make it even better. I would use either poblano or jalapeno peppers to go with freshly diced tomatoes if you don't want to use Rotel. If you want to leave out the beer, you can substitute an equal amount of water or broth and it will still come out pretty well.

I'm going to try my hand at beer bread tonight to serve with the chili (notice a theme in my cooking today?). I found this recipe this afternoon and it looks simple enough to throw together, so I'll give it a shot and see how it turns out. *Added after cooking and eating said beer bread: This recipe is a winner, although with the amount of butter it calls for I can't call it health food by any stretch of the imagination. Next time I'll cut the butter down.

One of my better ideas this week was to try this out. You'll never use a mix again if you try it too.

I've managed to stick to my meal plan on all but two days of this week. I did re-arrange which days I made what, but I feel like I'm doing okay. I'm still not to my goal of cooking every single night, but I'm doing far better than I was. We're eating less processed crap and more good food. The sad thing is, I know how to cook, but because we live a typically American busy lifestyle, it is just all too easy to reach for the frozen dinner instead of spending the extra 20 minutes to whip up something homemade.

If you think about it, the harried lifestyle most of us have is the number one culprit in our nationwide obesity epidemic. When Mom and Dad both work 40 hours or more every week, plus take care of kids and a house, finding time to eat right and exercise becomes much more difficult. Who wants to hit the gym when you've just put in a 50 hour work week, done 10 loads of laundry, changed umpteen million dirty diapers, and scrubbed the floors? Who wants to take the time to cook when you can have hot food in front of you in 5 minutes?

Crappy food choices and a lack of exercise will make anybody fat, but it's hard to fight the temptation when you're just plain exhausted all the time. If we could somehow slow life down a little without also losing our proverbial shirts, I think we'd be a healthier nation overall. Since the likelihood of that little pipe dream happening is pretty slim, I'll do my best to force myself to eat better. A Planet Fitness opened up not too far from my house, so I think I'm going to go sign up this weekend since they only charge $10/month and they're open 24 hours. I owe it to my kid to be healthy so I can be around to spoil his kids rotten.

Now if I can just hold on to my resolve at the end of an exhausting workday, I'll be good.