EAT THIS

I made the most awesome chili in the history of chili. And it's super easy so you should make it, too! Here is my recipe!
Ingredients:

• Carroll Shelby's Chili Kit (It's in a little brown box in the grocery store and it makes chili super easy, so you should get it because it'll save you tons of time and money instead of measuring out your own spices)
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 green bell pepper
• 2 onions (1 for the chili, one for you to chop up to put on top of each bowl!)
• 2 10oz. cans RO*TEL diced tomatoes and green chilies (it all comes together in 1 can, kids)
• 1 4oz. can green chilies (mild)
• 3 15oz. cans of beans (this is where you get to have fun: pick your faves! My fam varies on our beans of choice for chili, but my favorites are dark red kidney beans, white kidney beans [aka Cannellini], and either pinto or chili beans. I get 1 can of each)
• a smidge of shredded cheddar cheese to put on top of each bowl of chili!
• 1 glass of wine, to be enjoyed while cooking
• 1 beer, to be enjoyed while eating your final product :)

Directions:

• In a skillet, brown the ground beef until just done. (If you're going to be doing this in a crock pot for an extended period of time (more than a couple hours) brown it until still pretty rare, it'll cook more when it's chili!)
• While the hamburger is cooking, chop the bell pepper and onion. How small you chop it will depend on your preferences and how long you plan on cooking it. If it's going to cook in a crock pot all day, they cook down to smaller pieces, so cut bigger chunks so they have room to shrink.
• Drain the grease from the ground beef into your handy dandy grease jar (mine lives in the freezer b/c grease is gross and I am less grossed out by it if it's frozen into a solid form)
• Toss the ground beef, bell pepper, and onion into your big pot. Add the beans (don't drain them! add the liquid too!), tomatoes and green chilies (again, don't drain!), green chilies (don't even think about draining this can), and large spice bag.
• If you're Daneish or cooking for Daneish, add the entire cayene packet. If you're a wimp, don't add this packet. 
• If you're going to be letting this cook for a while, I recommend adding the masa packet because it gets thin when it cooks for hours. It's super easy, just mix with masa packet with 1/3 cup water and toss it in the pot!
• Now just stir it all together (make sure you stir well, the spices have a tendency to clump) and let it cook on a low heat for as long as you can wait until you simply must devour it!!

Clearly, I make my chili in my crock pot (shout out to Dane's stepmom, Tracy for the crock pot house warming gift!! Thanks for making my life easier!!) and let it cook all day. I love it because I can throw it all together in the morning before work and when I get home at night, dinner is ready! This is how I would recommend making your chili, simply because it's so easy, but you can do it on the stove in a couple hours, too! Of course, you don't actually NEED a couple hours to make it on the stove, it just tastes better when it has time to soak up the yummy spices. And you'll definitely need to let it simmer for a while if you add the masa to thicken it, it'll taste grainy if the masa doesn't cook enough. And that's it! I add chopped onions and shredded cheese to mine when I eat it and it's SO GOOD!! I'm very happy with how my latest batch turned out today! It was plenty hot for Daneish's tastes and just generally yummy! However, I apparently need to teach Daneish the crock pot rule. If he'd been raised in my family (let's all be glad he wasn't though, because that'd be weird when we go to apply for a marriage license) he would know that if there is something cooking in a crock pot, every time you go into the kitchen, you stir it, scraping all the sides so it doesn't stick. I definitely had chili stuck to the sides of my crock pot tonight because SOMEBODY didn't stir the chili while he was home today. But he's had a long day today, so I'm willing to give him a break and teach him the crock pot rule. But if this happens again, he'd better watch his back!

Well, you already know tonight's menu, so I'll fill you in on last night's menu (salmon, wild rice, and green beans) and tomorrow's menu (either leftover chili or chipotle, it's up to Daneish)

Best part of the week so far: meeting a big wig of my region at work. However, he put quite a conundrum in my noggin. I had always planned on stopping working as soon as we can afford for me to so that I can be at home to raise our future children. But after hearing him speak today, I'm really inspired and kind of excited by the idea of being able to have a big career of my own. But this really adds a lot more things for me to think about, like if the guilt of being a working mom would be too much for me to handle, if we'll even be able to find a daycare that we trust enough to watch our genetically superior children (obviously our kids will be genetically superior, have you SEEN the two of us?), and if Dane and I could keep any semblance of a real relationship if we're both working our butts off at the same time to get to where we want to be in our respective careers. So this is definitely weighing on my mind right now and I'm trying to figure out how I really feel about it. I know Dane will support me either way, but he'd probably actually prefer that I keep working as long as possible because it'll put us in a better financial position as well as keep me occupied :) The good part is that we don't need to make any kind of a decision for many years! There won't be any little kiddies for at least 5 years and even though we won't be able to afford to live on Dane's residency income, so I'll still be working for a while after kiddies anyway! So that's where my mind is right now, but I probably won't come to any resolution until we have the time to sit down and really look at all our options. And I'm sure our decision will change every time a new opportunity at work comes along, so we'll just have to wait and see! It would be pretty cool to be a big wig at work though... :)

What I'm most looking forward to: getting our apartment cleaned up this weekend! I've been busy with training all week, so things have kind of piled up. I can't wait to get it all cleaned and organized again!

Best blessing in disguise this week: my car battery dying yesterday! Not only did 2 ridiculously good looking firemen jump my car, but I got some down time by myself (very rare!!) while Sears was replacing it to wander around Target and finish our registry. The scanny gun thing was super fun and I got our registry all rounded out! We still need to add bedding and towels, etc. but we'll have to do that together! And everything else is done, so feel free to buy us stuff!! Everyone knows I'm really only marrying Dane so I can get new knives and pots and pans!

Ok that's all for tonight, it's time to paint my nails in preparation for my first day at my real job tomorrow! Feel free to make requests for any blog post topics you'd like to hear my opinion on! As you all know, I have many opinions! Happy upcoming weekend, everyone!