Winter Chili :)

Winter time I go all out with with chilies, chowders and stews, they warm you up and you can make it in bulk and FREEZE them.

This is my favorite chili I make it year round actually but I have never met anyone who didn't love it!!! And yes this is RIDICULOUSLY easy again. Just as an FYI you need to do all of the prep in the morning before work or school.

What you need
>at least a 4 quart crock pot
2 lbs of hamburger meat
2 cans of red beans (they are called chili beans in some stores)
2 cans of black beans
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 small can of tomato paste
1 large green bell pepper
1 medium yellow onion
2 stalks of celery (you want the biggest ones on your bunch)
2 stalks of green onion
2 leaf stalks of cilantro
Chili powder to taste. (We like ours semi hot so we use a 1/4 cup of New Mexico chili powder)
1 tablespoon of onion powder
1 tablespoon of garlic salt
salt and pepper to personal taste.


Start to brown your hamburger meat, now on this you don't want to cook this all the way since this is going to finish cooking in crock pot plus you want the meet drippings to mix in as well

Chop your bell pepper, onion, cilantro, and celery up into fine pieces, then drop it in to your crock pot.

Combine all the canned good into the crock pot. DO NOT DRAIN any of the cans this is going to keep your chili from drying out.

Stir everything together since this has the paste in it you want to make sure this is well blended or you are going to have a giant tomato ball. It will taste gross if you encounter a mouthful.

Add your chili powder, cover your crock pot and set it to low and head off for the day. If you work a typical 8 hour day when you get home turn it to medium for one last hour.

Top it with your favorite chili toppings, we do sharp cheddar, chives, and sour cream her. Now enjoy

FYI this can easily feed five people large single servings.

Awesome Super Easy Rotini Bake

Left overs okay everyone groan now....arrrgghhh
Since changing our lifestyle from purchasing lunch everyday to pinching pennies we have gotten very creative with food and making it stretch either two dinners or dinner to lunch.

This is super simple super easy, and for two people it will last for dinner and then lunch the next day. And if I may say so for myself this warms up amazingly

Awesome Super Easy Rotini Bake

1 pound of ground turkey/beef (it doesn't matter)
16 oz package of rotini
1 small tub of ricotta
1 can/jar of pasta sauce (I find that 4 cheese any brand taste the best)
1 cup of mozzarella cheese

Since ricotta isnt a very salty cheese I like to take 2 teaspoons of salt and work it through the ricotta and then let it sit to get to room temperature while I prepare the rest of the food.

In a large skillet brown your meat as you normally would I am a salty kinda gal so I throw in salt to my meat while its cooking. Once nice and brown drain but dont rinse, you are now going to go back and in the same pan add your sauce and heat until nice and bubbly.

At the same time you should be cooking your noodles via directions on packaging, and of course drain them.

Now grab yourself a large mixing bowl and a glass baking dish (9X9 works fine) this part gets a little tedious but its worth it.

take 1/4 of the meat sauce 1/4 of the noodles 1/4 of the ricotta and combine this into a bowl and mix this well then transfer into the baking dish, repeat this 3 more times.

Once it is all transfered into the baking dish top with mozzarella.

pop into the oven at 300 for 20 mins!

ENJOY!