Chili With Beans (dried beans, rehydrated)

Comfy cozy Dinner. Let’s face it people, it’s cold outside. Well, it is here in Germany. Winter is making it’s presence known this year, very early.

My favorite meal when it’s cold is Chili with Cheese accompanied with Corn Bread, drizzled with honey. Makes a girl happy.  See Next post for cornbread recipe.

So remember to start soaking your beans the night before. I’m still iffy if my chili is going to be ready for dinner. (crossing fingers, I have been soaking them since yesterday afternoon).  They aren’t tender yet.

You can use canned beans the day of.  I am trying to limit my waste a bit more and save a buck.  Yes, I did use canned tomato sauce and tomatoes, but I am going for practical here.

I normally make my own chili spice, but seeing as I just recently came home, I still need to do a pantry/spice cabinet inventory. (You can also use the pre-made packages)

There are no rules on how you put this together, I usually start throwing things into the crock pot. Beans, Meat and Onion.

Adding spices, tomato stuff, and then water.

See my giant transformer (the silver box) it powers my mixer and sometimes my slow cooker. Hulking thing.

See, what a girls gotta do when you live in Germany and have American Appliances:

Cook on High til those beans are tender, fork tender.  I will update this post with a photo once it does finish. Don’t forget my following post for corn bread that goes with the chili. If you have honey set that on the table. Don’t forget the cheese and cracker for the chili. What do you top on your chili?

Take the leftover chili, put into freezable container, allowing the chili cool time before actually putting it in the freezer. This recipe makes more than enough for two people. So I take the extra and freeze it, for another day when I don’t want to cook. It’s all about being thrifty and practical.