Crock pot goodness and corn cake

    Winter is the time to break out that crock pot and take the night off from cooking a meal. I am not sure who invented the crock pot , but boy, do I love him! I mean nothing can be easier, you drop stuff in, cover it, walk away and then come back hours later to a hot cooked meal. The crock pot is so loved in my home that I have two and may go thrifting for another one.

 Now that we are knee deep in snow and winter chill, I find myself looking to my old to make one of my all time favorite dishes. Chili.
  Chili is a wonderful way to jam pack just about anything you got lying around the house. Recipes can go from red meat to vegetarian and anything in between. Serve it with rice, pasta or bread. You can make enchilidas, tacos, quesidillas even soup out of the leftovers. This particular chili was made with two types of beans, homemade tomato sauce, onion, peppers, taco seasoning and ground moose meat. I served it with quinoa and baked homemade cornbread. Yummy!

Here is the basic receipe:
chop onions, peppers, garlic
add some tomato sauce, usually one can
add any combo of seasonings. I like to do chili powder, pepper, garlic and lots of cumin. Prepackage chili mixes and taco mixes are good too.
add 2-3 cans of any mix of beans, washed and drained. I love to use chickpeas, white and red beans but black beans add a wonderful earthy flavor.
add meat if you want, you can brown meat first. But really you do not need to if you meat is very lean.
Cook on high 6-8 hours.
Simple, heathly and hearty. You can't go wrong.