Slow Cooker Freezer Meal: Fall Chili

Recognize that bowl?  It is the Tommee Tippee Explora bowl and easi--mat bowl that I gave away on the MBL Facebook page last week.  I hope to do some more exclusive giveaways just for my Facebook "likers" so if you are not there yet, get thyself to Facebook!


Tommee Tippee also has a cool new digital storybook feature on their site called The Day Baby Was Born, I can't wait to try out for baby number 2.


I liked these bowls for when Penelope eats soup, or in this case chili, since it keeps the bowl in place via a suction cup type thing. She still makes a mess, because she wants to do everything herself, but this eliminates the possibility of the bowl being flung across the table and chili ending up on my curtains.  

I have been making chili since college.  It was one of the very first things I learned how to make.  I did not grow up cooking, so when I got to college I had no idea how to feed myself anything other than pre-made, packaged foods.  


To remedy that, I hired Jill Welch, a personal chef (aka the Kitchen Goddess and also a home birth midwife) and she gave me a few private cooking lessons.   


I have changed her recipe over the years and it has morphed into what is below.  I usually only make it once a year on Halloween.

1 medium onion
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
3 large garlic cloves
2 lbs ground beef
4 cups of kidney beans
4 cups of pinto beans
2 cans crushed tomatoes
3 bay leaves
salt
chili powder 
cilantro


Soak beans overnight.  Chop all veggies.  Add meat, then veggies on top, into slow cooker.  Cook on low for 8 hours.  


*This makes a ton of chili.  As you can see, it fills my 6 quart slow cooker up, which is great, because that means lots of chili to put in the deep freezer!


Or on Facebook!