BBQ Quinoa Chili

One of my favorite things about fall and winter is, of course, the food! I mean, isn't Thanksgiving about the food?? I know, I know...it's about being grateful. For food. Anyway, soups, stews, chowders, chilis, hot chocolate, ciders...all things that seem silly to eat in the summer, right?

This recipe is my favorite chili recipe. I made it this year for our church's chili cookoff and Halloween party. I've never added quinoa to it before, but while I was cooking it up I was looking through my pantry for another can of beans and my bag of quinoa like *jumped* at me. Literally. It was kinda scary but hey! It is Halloween, right? My husband, who is the unofficial official taste tester said it was a fabulous addition, so I'll be keeping it as part of the recipe from now on.

If you haven't tried quinoa before, you are missing out! I love the texture it adds to food, and it's so much healthier than rice or potatoes. Once you use it a few times, you start realizing you can add it to so many things - salads, soups, stews, sauces, etc. I actually crave it. Weird, I know.

Feel free to change things up! Omit the beef for a vegetarian option! Add more beans, less beans, different kinds of beans. Add more spice. Whatever! It's all up to your palette. I have little kids, so I have to hold back on the spice, and we use the beans we prefer, but in the end it's your chili. So do what you want!

BBQ Quinoa Chili
Girls in Aprons

1 pound hamburger
1 bell pepper (any color), chopped
1 red onion, chopped
1 15 oz can black beans, mostly drained
2 15 oz cans kidney beans, mostly drained
1 15 oz can petite diced tomatoes (I used petite diced tomatoes with garlic)
1 28 oz can tomato sauce (I actually really like Progresso Recipe Starters Fire Roasted Tomato, so if   you have that on hand you can use that)
1 T chili powder (you can omit the chili powder and cumin and use a chili seasoning packet too)
1 tsp cumin
Salt to taste
1/3 cup bbq sauce (I recommend Sweet Baby Ray's Original)
1/2 cup quinoa

Brown the hamburger in a large sauce pan. About halfway through the browning, add the pepper and onion. Cook until hamburger is done and peppers and onions are no longer crunchy, about 5 minutes. Add beans, tomatoes, and tomato sauce. Stir to combine. Add spices and BBQ sauce. Let simmer for about 30 minutes on low, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, cook 1/2 cup quinoa according to your package directions. Make sure to rinse your quinoa or it will clump together! Once it is cooked, add it to your chili. Serve chili with sour cream, green onions, avocado, shredded cheese, or chips!

Walt Disney's Chili and Beans

I've been in need of a vacation for, like, ever. Seriously. My job is pretty demanding and high stress, so the idea that a family vacation was coming up was sometimes the only thing holding me together.

 

After saving for two years, we finally took our family to Disneyland. We went the week after Thanksgiving, which in my opinion is the perfect time to go. Weather was decent, lines were short (longest wait was 20 minutes), and the park was all dressed up for Christmas. Every night we got to watch Sleeping Beauty's Castle light up for the night and then it would "snow" on Main Street. By far my best memory of the trip. The kids were speechless.

 

 

While most people, including my children and husband, bought Disneyland trinkets, Mickey Mouse ears, and other paraphernalia, I had my eyes on a Disney Parks cookbook. There were 4 to choose from and I settled for Chef Mickey, which for some reason is priced unbelievable high online. I'm thinking because it's really only available at the park? The cookbook offers recipes from restaurants at Disneyland and DisneyWorld, plus some older recipes from the mysterious "vault" that Disney always eludes to.

Being a bit enamoured by the experience, I was more than thrilled to see two of Walt Disney's personal recipes listed in the book. One for Chili and Beans and one for Browned Roast Beef Hash. I went with the chili first. I had almost all the ingredients and just had to find out how Mr. Disney himself liked his chili!

 

Chili and Beans
Walt Disney's personal recipe

2 lbs dried pinto beans
2 medium onions, sliced
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 lbs lean ground beef
1 cup chopped celery
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp dried thyme
1 (28-oz) can chopped tomatoes, undrained
Salt and pepper, to taste

Wash and sort beans and soak overnight in cold water.

Drain beans and place in a 2-quart saucepan. Add fresh water to cover by 2 inches. Add sliced onions and simmer, covered, for 2 hours, until tender.

Heat oil in a large pan and saute garlic. Add beef and celery and cook until lightly browned. Add chili powder, paprika, and thyme. Mix in chopped tomatoes. Cover and simmer for one hour.

When beans are tender, combine with the meat, stirring gently. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Girls in Aprons note: I added about 3/4 -1 cup of drained water from the pinto beans into the beans and meat mixture to give it a little bit of a sauce to go with the dish.

Cook's note (aka Walt's personal notes!!!) - For a spicier chili, add 1/8 tsp each of coriander, turmeric, chili seeds, fellen, cloves, cinnamon, and ground ginger. You can also add dried hot pepper to taste.

Cashew Chili

I'll be honest. I'm pretty competitive. I like to win and don't usually mesh well with other competitive people. Especially if they are winning instead of me. But luckily I married a guy who isn't competitive, and he's brought me down a few notches.

Until...somebody said our church was having a chili cook-off. I have to win! I started digging around for good chili recipes that I could take bits and pieces from and make my own recipe. In fact, the first recipe I ever created on my own was a chili recipe (which I'll post at a later date). But back to the cook-off. So I mentioned to my sister and fellow Girl in Apron Carissa that I needed a good chili recipe and she told me about this crazy thing called Cashew Chili. A friend of ours (hey Susan!!) had made this chili recipe for a church function and Carissa said it was amazingly good. Susan says she makes it every year on Halloween as tradition. I made it once a week as tradition because it's so good!

Yes, it's weird, to think of cashews in your chili.How did someone ever come up with this recipe? Did they like accidentally knock a container of cashews in their chili and realize they'd stumbled upon something brilliant? But really they go so well with the recipe. The different textures of the cashews with the hamburger and the beans (especially the garbanzo beans!) make this a unique and tasty chili. And it's not spicy but rather sweet (hmmm....sounds like me) although you could for sure add any spice you want to add some heat. So give this recipe a try! It's pretty healthy, easy to make, and so yummy.

Cook one pound hamburger with green pepper and onions. Season meat with salt and pepper. Drain any fat!

Add one can each of black beans, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, and baked beans. I drain all of the beans except the baked beans. I like my chili thicker. You can adjust your chili the way you like it. Add one can diced tomatoes.

Add chili powder. I just estimate in my hand because it's not an exact science. And I like to pretend sometimes that I'm Rachael Ray ("Just eyeball it!") 

Add brown sugar - sometimes I add a little more than the recipe calls for because I'm a rebel like that.

Seriously, I could just dip into this with a bag of chips!

Right before serving add the cashews.

Top with sour cream and cheese.

Cashew Chili
Submitted by Celeste, adapted from Susan Gehring

1 pound hamburger
1 sweet onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced (optional - I used it for this post, but I think next time I'll omit it)

1 24 oz. can baked beans (I used the country-style)

1 14 oz. can black beans, drained
1 14 oz. can kidney beans, drained
1 14 oz can garbanzo beans, drained
1 14 oz can petite diced tomatoes
1 to 2 tsp chili powder
2 to 3 T brown sugar
1 cup cashews

Cook hamburger, onions, and pepper until cooked through and onions are tender. Season meat with salt and pepper. Add beans and tomatoes. Add spices and sugar. Simmer for 30 mins and then add cashews.  Top with sour cream and cheese.

**Variations - you can omit the meat and make this a vegetarian dish. You can also switch up the beans to you whatever you like or have on hand. I highly recommend using the garbanzo beans! I like the combination in the recipe, but to each his own! And you can make this in the crock pot. Just cook up the meat, onion, and pepper and throw everything in the crock pot on low for 6 hours or so.

Winter Chili

For anyone who thought that New Mexico was warm year-round {I'll admit, I was one of those}...well, it's currently 29 degrees here, there are still piles of snow on the ground from last week's snowstorm, and even inside our little apartment we are bundled up and wishing we lived in the Bahamas. It is COLD here! And whenever I'm cold, all I want is soup. And hot cocoa. And soup. And chili, especially if it's amazingly, wonderfully, unimaginatively good, like this one.

I usually make my own chili with ground beef some canned tomatoes and beans, and some vegetables. I rarely write down a recipe and just taste as I go - one of the perks of cooking dinner. You will thank me, then,  because this time I made a killer chili and actually remembered how I made it.

My secret ingredient(s)? Cannellini beans and butternut squash. Both are so buttery and smooth and give the chili a bit of a creamy texture. Use frozen squash, it cooks up in no time.

Bonus - it's really easy. A one-pot dish that is ready in less than half hour.

After browning the hamburger with the onion, throw in all the remaining ingredients and simmer. See? Easy!

I served our chili with fried polenta. You could use cornbread or biscuits, or nothing at all. Polenta is Italy's version of mashed potatoes, but you can fry them up, too. The recipe can be found here.

Winter Chili



submitted by Kelli

1 lb. ground beef

1/2 cup onion, chopped (1 small onion)

1 (15-19 oz) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 1/2 cups water

1 (10-12 oz) package frozen butternut squash, thawed

1 cup chunky salsa

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp salt

In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, brown the hamburger and onion until hamburger is cooked through and onion is soft and translucent. Drain, discarding drippings. Add remaining ingredients. Bright to a boil, then lower the heat to medium-low and let simmer 10 minutes, stirring often.

Top with shredded cheese, sour cream, or other desired chili toppings. Serve hot.

White Chicken Chili- a 30 minute meal!

I love summer. I love that the kids aren't in school so we can sleep in and have lazy days. I love that we can just do what we want without the chaos of alarm clocks and school functions. I love that I can go out without towing everyone's huge jackets with me, and when it's dark out I still don't need to do that. I don't necessarily love the heat, but in the Pacific Northwest it's pretty mild and I'm completely okay with that.

One thing I don't love about summer- the taboo on soups and chilis. If I make anything of the sort during the warmer months, my family looks at me like I'm crazy. So during the summer we stick to barbecuing, hamburgers, salads, etc. So finally it got a little cooler here (more like freezing). We were having the sister missionaries over for dinner and it was T-minus one hour to dinner time. This chili is super simple and I literally threw it together with about half an hour to go. The cornbread I made took longer to bake than this took to cook!

Mmm... White Chicken Chili. It was so delicious and easy to make!

Your line-up. Most of this I had on hand too!

The finished product. Yeah, I didn't take any during photos... it is really a "dump in the pot" kind of meal but it is super yummy. My kids ate it up so fast! One note, you want to make sure you rinse your beans!

White Chicken Chili

by Carissa Poyfair 

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 cans Great Northern beans or cannellini beans, rinsed

2-3 cups chicken, cooked and shredded

14 oz. can diced green chilies

32 oz. chicken broth, divided

1 cup frozen corn

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 1/2 tsp cumin

salt and pepper, to taste

In a large pot, heat the oil on medium heat and saute the onion until tender, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook one minute. Add the beans, chicken and chilies and stir until combined. Add 3 cups of chicken broth and let come to a boil. Add the corn, cayenne pepper, cumin and salt and pepper. Let it come to a boil, then lower the heat and let it simmer about 10 minutes. If it is too thick, add more chicken broth to your liking. Test your seasoning and adjust as necessary. Garnish with sour cream and freshly chopped cilantro, if desired.

**If you prefer your chili thicker, you can add less broth, or try this trick I learned. Smash some of the white beans against the side of the pot. This releases their starch and helps thicken the liquid a bit.