Chili, Cornbread & Roasted Okra

The weather dipped into a bit cooler temperatures, so what do Texans do? They make chili of course! This was just a quick throw together chili that only took 30 minutes or so to throw together, but that was because I had my beans pre-prepared. I'm limiting canned foods, so I made a huge batch of brown beans a couple of weeks ago and put them in freezer bags to pull out when needed. As for my side, that's ROASTED okra! Mostly the only ways I like okra are either fried or in gumbo. Then the thought occurred to me to try roasting it. Sure enough, tossed in a bit of olive oil with salt and pepper and these were delicious! Not slimey at all.
-Amanda

Easy Chili

1 small onion finely diced
2 tsp olive oil

1 lb hamburger meat
2 cups of brown beans, previously cooked and thawed or canned
1 can of tomato sauce, or about 1.5-2 cups home prepared tomato sauce

2 tsp oregano
3 tbsp of chili powder
1-2 chilies (jalapenos, for example)
3-4 cloves garlic


Dice onion and saute them in olive oil in a large pot. Add minced garlic and diced chilies. Add ground beef, and break it up with the edge of a spoon. Before the beef is cooked all the way add seasonings of oregano, salt, and chili powder. Add beans and tomato sauce. Stir and adjust seasonings as needed. Let simmer for 10-15 minutes. Serve with cornbread.


I've made cornbread before on this blog, and yet, I'm always looking for a better recipe. Last nights cornbread came out great! Too bad I didn't measure... here are the approximates..

Cornbread

2 cups of cornmeal
1/2 cup white-wheat flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tbsp baking powder
3-4 tbsp honey
2 eggs
1.5 cups milk

1.5 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp coconut oil


Preheat oven to 400. In a large mixing bowl, mix the cornmeal, white-wheat flour and whole wheat flour. Add the baking powder and salt and whisk to incorporate. In a small bowl, beat eggs, milk and honey. Add to dry ingredients and mix well. Place a cast iron skillet on the stove and pre-heat it, medium-high heat. Add the butter and coconut oil. When it is melted swirl it around to grease the sides of the skillet and the pour it into the batter. Turn off the stove. Mix the melted butter/coconut oil into the batter and immediately pour it back into the hot skillet. Put the skillet in the middle rack and bake at 400 for about 20minutes or until golden brown on top.