Raven’s RV
The ongoing education and adventures of two rank newbie RVers

One way in which we save money is to create large batches of simple food and freeze them in freezer bags. This recipe for chilli can be whipped up in under an hour and feeds two between four and five times. If you’re a vegetarian, you’ll want to skip this post as it contains pictures of meat.

You’ll probably figure out quite fast that I’m not so much into recipes as the “summer” form of cooking: summer this, summer that. ;) I don’t like salt, so I seldom add it unless the recipe is really tasting bland. I’m pretty much showing you what I do, and then you can tweak the recipe to suit your tolerance for, say, salt, garlic and onion.

I buy the “value packs” of ground beef from Food 4 Less. I’m sure this would work just as well with ground turkey. Either way, I take an eighth of the pack, usually about a pound, and work with that. (The rest of the ground beef goes into the freezer or other recipes.)

Chop up some onions to taste. I usually do one large or two small onions.

Then prepare some garlic cloves and press them through your garlic press. I used six cloves. If you don’t like garlic that much, you can either leave it out or use less.

Brown the ground beef, then drain out most (but not all!) of the fat. Toss in the garlic and onion and cook until it starts to go golden.

While that’s all happening, prepare the following spices:

2 tablespoons chili powder (I use mild)
1 tablespoon crushed chilis
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 beef bouillon cubes

and dump them into the mix once the onions and garlic are looking done.

Add a 28oz can (the big one) of tomato sauce. Fill the can half full with water, and dump that in too.

Let it reduce for a while, covered. About 15-20 minutes is usually good. Taste it and add salt if you think it’s necessary, bearing in mind that most canned goods come with salt and you’re not done with the canned goods yet. Keep stirring. You can add some more water if it is looking like it will dry up.

When it’s starting to reduce, dump in two entire 14-16oz can of kidney beans, including the liquid. (If these come in the 28oz size, I haven’t seen them.)

Cook for another 15 minutes or so until you have a moderately thick chilli. One ladle per person is sufficient, so spoon into freezer bags and refrigerate until cold, then freeze. (RV fridges aren’t as efficient as regular ones, especially when running off propane, so the interim stage is helpful.) Serve with rice, tortillas, or whatever else seems appropriate. (I like tagliatelli, myself.)

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