Man Chili

Conversation over breakfast this morning
Big sassy "Mom, how old is our house?"
"umm its 134 years old honey"
big sas " so that's really old right?"
"right"
"when is it going to die then?"(said in super sad pathetic voice)
wth? "umm well houses don't die honey, they you know, fall into disrepair, burn down and other things."
"oh so our house will live to be 1,000 then." and then happily went back to eating her eggs.
Strange sassy.

Big sassy begged to watch you tube Sophia grace this morning. This kid cracks me up I forgot how funny she is to have around all day.

Last night was man chili for dinner, and since I completely had nothing in the house to pack Mr.Sassy for his lunch. I hand delivered a serving of man chili and a pan of the most decedent brownies ever. He claims he shared, I'm not so sure.

Man Chili is basically bean less chili (therefore making it primal) with as much meat as you like/want thrown in for flavor. Since yesterday was shopping day and it literally took the whole frigging day, I had to throw this all together in the midst of insanity. The meat went in frozen to begin with so just note that if you carefully cooked it up/browned it first then it would be a thousand times better.

Man Chili

(easily doubles)

adaption for crockpot included

2 Carrots

1 smallish onion

1 zucchini

1lb ground sausage

2lbs steak cut into chunks or stew beef

(plus any try any other type of meat, chorizo, hot sausage, Italian sausage, lamb, bison)

2 large cans of tomatoes (use already chopped if doing a quick less then 4 hour cook or whole if cooking for a long time)

1/2 small can of pumpkin

2cups of stock, beef, chicken or vegetable, pick your favorite (we use beef bone broth)

1/4 cup  BBQ sauce (we use DINOSAUR BBQ)

Chili Powder

2 Bay Leaves

1 tablespoon Worcester sauce

2-3 cloves Fresh Garlic

1 teaspoon marjoram

1 teaspoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

salt and pepper to taste

optional can of beans (drained and rinsed)

optional can of green chilies (for spicy sassiness!)

 Leave out the zucchini, carrot and pumpkin if you are lowering all carbs. You will need to add an extra small can of tomatoes or an extra cup of stock.

Brown sausage(and any other ground meat) in the pot you want to cook the chili in (unless you want to use the crock pot, then just use a large frying pan) remove, then brown steak/beef plus any other type of meat you will be using in this same pan. You want the ground meats to be cooked through and the other types of meat to be be at minimum browned. This will be cooking for hours so it will all cook through have no fear.

You can cook it all together, you will not get the same flavor as with following the directions but sometimes a girls got to do what a girls got to do!

While Browning the meat, peel the carrots and cut the ends off the zucchini and carrots. Grate them all.

Chop the onions and press or chop the garlic as well.

Add the onions, zucchini and carrots to the pan along with all the meat, cook until the onions begin to turn translucent. At this point if you want you can add this all to a crock pot. Add the tomatoes, pumpkin, stock, BBQ sauce and if you are using them, the can of beans. Stir well, then begin adding spices. I purposefully did not give an amount of chili powder, please add roughly 1 teaspoons. About 30 min before serving, taste, if a stronger "chili" taste is desired add more. Also please smell all your spices/herbs before cooking with them. Its neat to smell something and realize later on how that taste and smell plays into your food.

If your counters/stove/pots all look as messy as mine, it is a success so far. Bring the chili to a boil,and stir, lower the temperature until you have mild bubbles (simmer). This means you have frequent small bubbles that seem to just happily be there. If they are large, popping strongly or seem at all angry, turn the temperature down. You WILL burn your chili to the bottom if its too hot. If you put into a crock pot don't worry. Stick it on high for 5 hours or low for 7-9.

This can be cooked at a higher temperature on your stove top if you watch it carefully, this will take about 3 hours. On a nice mild bubbling temperature it can go 6 hours. Or longer

Chili is done when the steak/beef shreds easily and the chili has good flavor. *(this means shove a spoon in your food and taste it. Just do it.) You may add in more BBQ sauce, chili powder, garlic or anything that else looks good.

The Sassies love this chili and thankfully they have no clue that its full of pumpkin, zucchini and carrots. These can easily be left out without affecting the chili at all, this will lower the carb content. We eat primal  but don't worry about the carbs in vegetables especially for the sassies. If you remove those vegetables you will need to add an extra small can of tomatoes to replace the liquid you lose.

I top with shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream. The girls have to have Frito's corn chips or the refuse to eat it! You can easily do it without any of the above, or add on top onions, peppers, whatever floats your boat or gets your sassy kids to eat it!

What do you top your chili with?